Whilst this is true of PS3, it's not of either PS1 or PS2 (where they've made the conscious choice to simply resell the games to you regardless).
Why do people always act like BC would only apply to PS3 here? They sold me tons of PS1 and PS2 games digitally.
That's true. The sad part is that there are no obvious technical limitations preventing this from happening.
PS4 already has the ability to play emulated PS2 games, but only if you purchase them from the PS Store for PS4 (as you pointed out in the first quote above).
If you want to play an old PS2 disc on PS4...no can do.
If you want to play a previously purchased PS2 classic from PS3 on your PS4...no can do. Instead, you have to hope that Sony has decided to make the game available on PS4, and if so, purchase it again on your PS4.
If Sony had enabled either PS2 discs to work on PS4, or allow cross-buy for downloadable PS2 classics between PS3 and PS4, then it would have looked really good on their part. It would prove that Sony is a forward-thinking, consumer friendly company. Instead, this makes Sony look
exceedingly greedy. especially when Microsoft allows Xbox 360 games to carry over to Xbox One without asking their customers to pay for them a second time.
I still have my 360 setup so I don't use this right now, but it doesn't change the fact that it's an amazing technical achievement and super pro consumer move on their part.
Fantastic way to keep Xbox gamers in their ecosystem. Comforting to know that (almost) my entire library of Xbox games is going to follow me around from console to console (theoretically) forever. If they could get OG Xbox BC going, it would be a coup for their marketing.
This is true. This is the reason why Sony needs to take steps to ensure that all of their old classics (PS1, PS2, PSP, etc.) can live on for the PS4 and future consoles. It would be a "consumer friendly" move, no doubt about that.
I know some people will say, "Sony sells well enough, they don't
need to do this". Yeah, they don't
need to, but they
should, because when the next batch of new systems roll around, people are going to look long and hard at what these companies have been doing to ensure the longevity of their game libraries.
It doesn't matter if Sony was the king of backward compatibility in years past, and Microsoft at that time downplayed it. The reality is that both companies' stances have change dramatically in the last two or three years, and
that is going to serve as the indicator for new system purchases.