Backwards compatibility is a great feature. It ensures continuity of libraries and purchases (which is ever more important in the digital age), and it also ensures that customers feel engaged and invested in your ecosystem. It’s a customer friendly move and idea, and it also has some commercial merits to it- as the sales spikes for Red Dead Redemption and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, when they became playable on Xbox One via backward compatibility, demonstrate.
However, it looks like Sony’s Jim Ryan doesn’t believe that at all. Speaking to Time, Ryan said, “When we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much. That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”
This is a highly arrogant statement, that not only throws older games and legacy titles and developers under the bus, but presumes to speak for all customers. Plus, Sony hasn’t exactly had trouble with backward compatibility when they’ve been able to monetize it via PS Now and PS2 Classics on PS4.
This is just poor form all around.