Rumour: PS4 backwards compatibility via game streaming?

Will this be the last rumour we post regarding the PlayStation 4? Man, I really hope so! Bring on Wednesday’s Sony press conference already.

Today’s rumour covers things like backwards compatibility and Sony’s 2012 acquisition of Gaikai streaming service. Basically, the two go hand-in-hand if The Wall Street Journal is to be believed – and most of the time they are.

Here’s the gist of it: because the PlayStation 4 is allegedly running off AMD x86 chips, the new hardware architecture will be incompatible with earlier PlayStation models. That pretty much rules out Sony’s entire back catalogue of games being made available on the PS4. In order to get around that, PlayStation 3 titles (and original PlayStation and PS2 titles) will supposedly be made available through game streaming service Gaikai.

Sony purchased Gaikai in June last year possibly in anticipation of this workaround. Previously, backwards compatibility was handled through software emulation and, in some models of PS3, entire PS2 guts built-in. Once Sony removed the PS2 backwards compatibility feature in later models of the PlayStation 3 (which was done to cut production costs), they began releasing those “HD Re-Mastered” versions of PS2 titles. Those were practically a license for Sony to print money, but it looks like that’s not going to be an option this time around.

Source: The Verge