My understanding of this (subject to change because Sony's messaging has been abysmal) is:
- Cerny wasn't talking about boost mode when he talked about compatibility. He talked about boost mode, then talked about compatibility, but failed to draw a clear line between those two things
- Lots of people are getting hung up on the "top 100" games - that should (pending clarification) be viewed as a representative sample of what compatibility should be like, rather than a figure for compatibility at launch. The default interpretation from people appears to be "we'll have 100 PS4 games playable at launch" but an equally valid interpretation of what Cerny said would be "we'll have almost all PS4 games playable at launch, based on the sample of games we've tested"
- the Blog are paraphrasing Cerny. So what they've written doesn't change (or add to) my understanding of this
I don't see why or how Sony could produce a near-exact number of backwards compatible games for PS5's launch when they have many months of testing yet to do. That's why I think it's best not to place any weight on that number at the moment.
A clear statement from Sony would be nice though. This is a mess right now.
The bolded was my interpretation.
I'm sure they'll ultimately hit 100% sometime after launch (but based on these comments, not before it). They're really cautious with this, for some reason. Like they were really hesitant to open up boost mode on PS4 Pro before they had extensively tested it.
I'm also confident that, for whatever they end up charging for this thing, it'll be a really well thought out and compelling piece of hardware. That's Cerny's strength imho. Not making the most powerful box ever necessarily, but targeting a build cost and focusing the money in all the right places. They got lucky with PS4 because MS weren't aiming for most powerful gaming doo dad.
It doesn't stop the PS4 (and imho, though people with loud units can fairly disagree) and PS4 Pro being good value for their respective price tags.
I don't believe the Series X is 'unbalanced' or what have you, mind. Looks like a great piece of hardware. But I don't doubt that the PS5 is going to give you a great final on screen (and I guess, out of your audio speaker) final result. I'll be shocked if it isn't cheaper than the SX. And I'd bet on Sony to make the more powerful system if build costs were equal.
But they won't be, and the SX looks to be the system for people that want the best multiplat experience. As it should be. Sony are still going to make some fantastic looking exclusives that most everyone is going to want to play on this hardware, just as they always have. PS2 and PS4 Pro didn't need to be the most powerful systems around to deliver on that. If I'm a Sony only buyer, I honestly don't see anything here to be particularly upset about. Even when it comes to thermals and fan noise, sounds like they have prioritized that to a high degree, so I doubt we see loud units out there like with the PS4 Pro.
