One of the most common questions about the PS4, is it backwards compatible? can play PS3, PS2 and PlayStation games as well as those made specifically for the PS4?The simple answer is that NO. The two systems are very different, which means you cannot simply put a PS3 game in your PS4 and play it. The two systems use a different system architecture. However is a system is more powerful than its predecessor emulators could be run, but as general rule of thumb the new systems has to be 10 times the speed for the emulation to work. Beside no emulators have been written yet, it would cost a lot of development time. Although it may come.
Game Streaming could be a solution
Sony plans to launch a game streaming service in 2014, this will enable you to place Ps3 games on your PS4. Its works in a similar manner to OnLive. All the processing will be done ‘in the cloud’ by Sony’s servers, with just the video transmitted to your actual console. The one potential issue is lag, and the amount of data to be transfered.
Reports on the technology behind the feature have been very positive. PS3 streaming will use Gaikai tech. Gaikai is a company Sony bought in July 2012.
It could be part of the PlayStation Plus incentive package. You could be allowed to freely stream any PS3 game put in the PS4’s disc drive. It may be a completely separate pay-monthly subscription service or – worst of the lot – we could be forced to re-buy any games digitally within a new store. This is how it works with the PSOne games currently available on PSN. Hopefully Sony will come up with a more interesting solution.
Playstation backward compatibility in the past
If you put a PS1 disc into a PS3, it'll play it just fine through a software emulator. Playstation 2 games are a little more complicated, the original PS3 launch units had some PS2 hardware inside (CPU+GPU, then later just GPU) and those units also played Playstation 2 games straight off the disc.
The PS1 and PS2 classics that appeared on PSN came in the form of software emulators with disc images, with Sony constantly developing the PS2 emulator throughout the PS3's lifespan. It's not outside the realms of possibility that those emulators could be ported to the Playstation 4, Sony haven't mentioned it yet, but the complete lack of PS1 and PS2 classics on the PlayStation store for the PS4 at launch (they would go a long way to adding some software to play on the PS4 early on) could be indicative of the emulators just not being ready yet.
Still there are many games available for the PS4, and 180 in the process of being made.
