With all the news about the next generation of consoles, I was wondering if any if you guys know the reasoning against backwards compatibility. Personally, the feature's absence makes it that much harder to invest in games and consoles especially with the current price of games and all of the dlc being pushed on gamers today.

When I first bought a PS3 (one of the fat 60GB ones) I held on to it as long as I could because I could still enjoy my PS2 library. When that finally broke down, I went ahead and got one of the newer 120GB ones because it was cheaper than the repair would be. When I found out I couldn't play my favorite titles any longer I was crushed. I just feel that there's no reason I should have to buy a digital copy of a game I already own every time a system gets an upgrade. I get that sometimes the hardware is incompatible, like the jump from Super Nintendo to N64, but if a system can still play DVDs on the same format discs as older games, it makes it seem like they're shafting their customers to make a quick buck. When you hear that the biggest releases of this year aren't going to be playable on the consoles coming out this holiday season, it makes me really hesitant to drop $60 on a new title. I know it sounds like butthurt but that's just the way it seems to me.

I guess the whole reason for my rant is to get a discussion going about it and, hopefully, if anyone out there on the interwebs knows, some explanation behind the trend. (Sorry if this has already been discussed recently, I couldn't find any other posts about.)

TL,DR: How can gaming companies expect us to buy games if we won't be able to play them on newer consoles?