The PS4 has sales in excess of 73.6 million[1]. Its closest competitor, Microsoft, refuses to reveal[2] how well (or poorly[3]) the Xbox One is doing, and the Nintendo Switch being barely a year old is closing in on 10 million units sold[4]. It’s safe to say that Sony’s fourth home console is the most popular one this generation. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect - far from it. At the height of Sony's dominance, it's worth looking at the Playstation 4 with a critical eye and noting what could have been done better.
1. No PS4 backwards compatibility
If you own a PS4, chances are you’ve been exposed to Sony’s prior consoles such as the PS1, PS2, and PS3 or even the PSP or PS Vita. Each of them have a roster of fantastic games such as Tekken 3 (PS1), Shadow Hearts (PS2), and Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3). However, Sony isn’t interested[5] in letting you play them on the PS4. Sure, it has more than enough power to run every game from the catalogue of all of Sony’s hardware, but the company prefers that you pay for the privilege of doing so as we’ve seen with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[6], which was re-released for the PS4 as a digital download.
In some cases it’s warranted, such as the spectacular Ratchet and Clank[7] remake that was a remaster of the PS2 classic. But outside of a few PS2 and PS1 titles, the remaining roster is left behind forever, with Sony claiming its “it's not so greatly used”[8].
Meanwhile Microsoft has ensured that most Xbox 360 titles (and more than...