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Coda · Posted 06-16-2015, 10:39 PM

It's not just a matter of making the coding work on both consoles. They're completely different systems on the inside, only related by the fact that they both have the word "Playstation" in the name.

The PS3 is a PowerPC CPU. The PS4 is an x86_64 CPU. This is like saying that the PS3 speaks English and the PS4 speaks Chinese -- if you wanted to perform, say, Hamlet on PS4, you'd have to rewrite the whole thing. And then if you wanted to perform Macbeth, you'd have to rewrite that whole thing, too. And so on, for every single title you want to support.

"But wait, Coda," I hear you ask, "the PS3 could run PS2 games, and they're completely different too!"

The first hardware revision of the PS3 actually included a tiny PS2 inside the case. When you wanted to play a PS2 game, the PS2 hardware took over. The second hardware revision of the PS3 actually ran a PS2 EMULATOR. The third hardware revision of the PS3 took that out entirely and couldn't play PS2 games at all.

"Then why didn't Sony do that with the PS4?"

Well, putting PS3 hardware inside every PS4 would have made it bigger, heavier, and more expensive, when almost all people interested in playing PS3 games already own a PS3 and would therefore get very little benefit out of it. And emulating the PS3 on the PS4 would have bad results; it would have a high chance of introducing bugs that weren't there before and it would possibly run slow.

Microsoft pulled the same thing with the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One -- the 360 started off trying to emulate Xbox games but discovered it didn't work well at all, so the XB1 doesn't even try. However, the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One are substantially closer in design, so even though the XB1 can't run 360 code directly, it's possible to use the source code from a 360 game to produce an equivalent XB1 title, so Microsoft set up a service where you put a 360 disc in the drive and it automatically goes online and downloads an XB1 version of the same game. (Unfortunately it's a fairly small list of games that it works with.)

		#10	Coda Developer
It's not just a matter of making the coding work on both consoles. They're completely different systems on the inside, only related by the fact that they both have the word "Playstation" in the name. The PS3 is a PowerPC CPU. The PS4 is an x86_64 CPU. This is like saying that the PS3 speaks English and the PS4 speaks Chinese -- if you wanted to perform, say, Hamlet on PS4, you'd have to rewrite the whole thing. And then if you wanted to perform Macbeth, you'd have to rewrite that whole thing, too. And so on, for every single title you want to support. "But wait, Coda," I hear you ask, "the PS3 could run PS2 games, and they're completely different too!" The first hardware revision of the PS3 actually included a tiny PS2 inside the case. When you wanted to play a PS2 game, the PS2 hardware took over. The second hardware revision of the PS3 actually ran a PS2 EMULATOR. The third hardware revision of the PS3 took that out entirely and couldn't play PS2 games at all. "Then why didn't Sony do that with the PS4?" Well, putting PS3 hardware inside every PS4 would have made it bigger, heavier, and more expensive, when almost all people interested in playing PS3 games already own a PS3 and would therefore get very little benefit out of it. And emulating the PS3 on the PS4 would have bad results; it would have a high chance of introducing bugs that weren't there before and it would possibly run slow. Microsoft pulled the same thing with the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One -- the 360 started off trying to emulate Xbox games but discovered it didn't work well at all, so the XB1 doesn't even try. However, the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One are substantially closer in design, so even though the XB1 can't run 360 code directly, it's possible to use the source code from a 360 game to produce an equivalent XB1 title, so Microsoft set up a service where you put a 360 disc in the drive and it automatically goes online and downloads an XB1 version of the same game. (Unfortunately it's a fairly small list of games that it works with.) Games by Coda (updated 4/8/2025 - New game: Marianas Miner) Art by Coda (updated 8/25/2022 - beatBitten and All-Nighter Simulator) Mega Man: The Light of Will (Mega Man / Green Lantern crossover: In the lead-up to the events of Mega Man 2, Dr. Wily has discovered emotional light technology. How will his creations change how humankind thinks about artificial intelligence? Sadly abandoned. Sufficient Velocity x-post)
	Posted 06-16-2015, 10:39 PM