E3 is almost upon us and ahead of the event, Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe’s head of marketing and sales was interviewed by Time Magazine, where a nice sum of PlayStation related questions were asked ranging from the PlayStation 4 Pro, PS VR, PS Vita and more.
Some interesting remarks which caught our eye were regarding the Backwards Compatibility and the future of esports on the console. We know that Xbox One’s backwards compatibility has been an undoubted success, Ryan insisted that it is a feature that not a lot of people want, and not a lot really use as well.
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.
In terms of esports on the PlayStation platform, he said that the company is focusing on the rising trend when going forward.
It’s a subject that is occupying us quite a lot these days, and something we’re looking at very carefully. We’re trying to find precisely what the role of the platform holder is in that value chain. Seeing how we can actually make the whole eSports thing bigger, better, different and bespoke to PlayStation is something you’re going to be hearing quite a lot about in the next year or two.
We know that Sony is quite active when it comes to esports as compared to Microsoft and Xbox, with tournaments Spain, Portugal, and Italy which have been going on for a while, the company wants to expand their palette and want to go to countries like the UK and USA.
For more updates, stay tuned.