What Jim Ryan said is bad, indefensible and deserves to be called out, for all the reasons that can be cited. Value of historical games, disregard of a niche audience, ignorance of successful BC-initiatives, value-adding, etc.
But when you step back from the terrible thing that Jim said and look at the broader company as a whole, you may end up forgetting that this exec who shat all over BC is also an exec for the same company that:
- has historically supported digital BC in the past via PS1/2 Classics
- has Gaikai/PSNow, a service that is about enabling legacy games via streaming
- has a dedicated team that works on PS2-on-PS4 games
- said team is also remastering old PS1 games like LocoRoco
- first-party is regularly remastering old PS3 games
Now, I cite all of the above, but it's clear that they're lacking vs competitors like Xbox in terms of coverage, speed, scope and extensiveness of their BC initiative. But at the same time, everything I list above stands in stark constrast with the things Jim said.
So where's the middle ground?
When you look at all the points above, IMO it's pretty obvious what the underlying message behind what Jim Ryan said is that "Sony wants to resell older games on the PS4 instead of making it fully BC; with some exception."
It's a business decision they made to an extent, and Jim is just defending an anti-consumer business deal. Which is similar to what he did with EA Access and his SPIN of why it's not on PS4.
I'm not all that excited or interested to discuss the Jim Ryan matter because until we hear what press or other outlets will follow up on his statement, then there'll be more interesting things to say. As it is, meh.
The only reason I think what Jim said is a bit over the top is just because of how certain
gamers get butthurt and worked up over another human being, kind of just speaking his mind. Personally, I agree with Jim to an extent. I can easily see myself getting interviewed, and straight up saying something like that, simply because that's my opinion on the subject, but Jim should know better 'cause he should understand that was awful wording for what he was trying to say.
In terms of the points you just said...
- Is it not apparent that these things actually
backup his statement?
Besides the PS1/2 Classics (which, barley counts because these games are
CLASSICS, which to me means timeless games; they aren't porting everything)
- PS Now was more than just for BC, being able to use it on TVs/Vita's/PC
- PS2 on PS4 games' resolutions are upped, and also brought to 60 fps. They look and play a bit better
- Remasters are...REMASTERED
- PS3 games aren't old, and the only PS3 Remasters are for the top of the line PS3 games
YES, you have to rebuy these things.....but Sony has already said that the PS4 hardware is not easily optimized to make BC, as it would cost a lot of money on their end.
And from this same interview, it shows that Sony has checked to see how viable/successful BC is; and out of ~1 million X1 users, 1.5% actully regularly use it. I can't imagine that if it was super popular, they might be inclined to act upon it..(but maybe not since PS Now IS a thing.)
Regardless, his comments definitely were expressed in the wrong way, but it shouldn't warrant too much stress lol. Yes they're being anti-consumer with this route, but you can't please everyone in the world, you need to look out for yourself at some point. At least they do listen to us with things like Crash Remaster, etc. and while many are mad at having to rebuy these games...I personally never owned half of them being remastered, so I'm happy I get to play them in a more modern state.