The character appearance is a pretty simple set of possible markers. It's probably simple to parse out, and simple to import because the encoding is simple. It's also a good bet that the character creation process hasn't changed much between versions. Because it doesn't affect gameplay, there is no reason it needed to be revamped. Gear, on the other hand, is tightly integrated into gameplay. If they have significantly changed the gameplay engine, weapons and armor might not be compatible, so they can't be pulled over one to one. Think about the way out weapons work. There are a bunch of weapons in each class, broken down into weapon classes, subdivided into archetypes, each with slightly different base stats. Then each time you aquire one, it comes with a roll for a bunch of perks. They are all different levels, all require different upgrade materials, different light levels, and as you unlock them they have different amounts of experience tied to them. They come in common, uncommon, rare, legendary, or exotic. There are just a lot more moving pieces that had to be encoded, for each piece of gear. We don't know how different the gameplay is going to be. Which perks will persist, will gear perks exist at all the way they do now, or will future gear just have a set of intrinsic qualities? Will gear have a level separate from its light level? Will light level exist in the same way? Will they retain all the base stats the have currently have (stability, recoil direction, etc)? Will there be new weapon stats we haven't even conceived of? We don't have any idea if our old gear will bear anything more than a passing resemblance to the the new gear. The mechanics behind the scenes might be radically different. Our old gear might not have a functional equivalent in the new version of the game, even if it's superficially equivalent. It's like asking why you can't just put a carburetor in your fuel injected engine. The technologies just aren't compatible. There might be a way to macguver the whole thing together, but the result will be less than desirable. The bottom line is, [i][b]if[/b][/i] bungie is bringing every piece of gear forward, they could ostensible create some sort of conversation metric, parse apart all the old gear, for each guardian, and rebuild an equivalent in the new system. Signing new attributes where needed, stripping out old ones that don't apply anymore, etc. This would likely be a herculean task and it might tether us to the limitations of previous gen consoles, which all the gear was built to be compatible with. It might not be worth it. P.S. rereading your comment, if all you want are the skins, then yes they could bring those forward. They would have to tether then to an object, or provide a way to access them through a kiosk, but that could be done. If you want functional gear, that's a whole other ball of wax.