Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
I'm pretty aware that there are license hurdles to overcome and that , that, compared to the tech side, it's the hard part. But that has always been the case, it's not new and never stopped any company to attempting BC.
What's changed is the bias towards digital distribution as the main delivery mechanism and mode of consumption. Don't mistake MS' requirement for an online connection to be incidental, its absolutely central to why they've invested so heavily in BC.
They are revisiting these games in order to sell them digitally, both as individual purchases and as value-adds for their service offerings. This isn't a knock on what they are doing -in exactly the same way my comment that its actually not preservation but recycling is not meant as a criticism- just to point out its strategic function in their business plan.
Sony's traditional approach to BC was to physically incorporate the previous gen's hardware allowing the user to simply pop their old discs into the drive and play. This is no longer desirable for them or IP owners of the re-published works, because both need to also be able to offer them digitally in today's marketplace.
Think about it, the only business beneficiary of physical media being supported via BC are after-market vendors. In an environment where digital sales make up the majority of units sold, and even hardware that has no optical drive, its a hard investment to justify without the potential for new sales.