With the onslaught of websites like this (no offense, me!), people have grown more and more impatient with things like release dates, prices, promise fulfillment, hype, flaming, along with numerous other things. The other day, we posted about the European PS3's getting a hardware "downgrade", meaning that there's simply less hardware and more software-involved computing. If you scroll down the comments, it's kind of funny how it starts out at "less backwards compatibility for a short while? Oh no!" and near the end people are saying "why did PS3 scrap backwards compatibility completely? We're screwed!" This is not the case.1UP took the time to get in touch with some of Sony's henchmen and do a bit of the complaining for the web-surfing crowd. Why the lack of certain bits of hardware? Simple: "This move is a part of our cost saving measures, similar to the wide variety of cost saving measures we have applied with both the original PlayStation and with PS2. In time this leads to a reduction in the cost of manufacture and over time allows us to reduce the cost of the PS3 to consumers." Sony is doing all they can to stop selling at a loss so they can instigate a price drop. Already. Because the internet spreads pricing complaints faster than a wildfire in a rainforest.
What isn't talked about much is that the backwards compatibility issue is very temporary. Most of your PS-One titles are going to work. Recent PS2 titles will work. Older PS2 titles will be added through software updates in a matter of months. It's temporary, guys. Very temporary and not a big deal. Unless, of course, you'd rather not see a price drop for over a year...













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-24-2007 @ 10:30PM
Stef Geiger said...
..Has anyone realized that emulation through software gives Sony the ability to do fun stuff like up-sample games to HD resolutions? In the case of the PS3, software emulation is a GOOD thing.
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2-24-2007 @ 10:39PM
blk n blu said...
I remember all you 360 haters talking about how "Lame" and "Gimped" xbox backward compatibility was!!!! Now look at you.....saying its a good thing!!! WOW...you are wishy washy, easily swayed, influenced, manipulated, controlled ps3 lemmings!!!
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2-24-2007 @ 10:42PM
Snipo said...
if backward compatibility is being done by software, doesnt that also mean they can upscale them? its just some code here and there. ps3 does that now with 480i games to 480p games correct? maybe we can get more god of war 2 like games (native 720p etc) either way the problem will be fixed by firmware updates, just like they fixed other problems.
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2-24-2007 @ 11:17PM
Caramella Bongo ... how are you today? said...
Just an fyi: PS1 games are done entirely by emulation on the EE chipset.. its being done by emulation today on the PS3 via the EE chipset. The difference now is that the PS1 emulation code will now run off the cell.
What is the PS1 compatibility rate? 98%? All by emulation. What was the compatibility rate when PS2 first launched. Probably not 98%.
So, morons who think that the PS2 emulation will somehow be lacking, take a breather and get back to your playing your generic FPSs on your 360.
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2-24-2007 @ 11:37PM
Jeremy said...
This topic (price drops) is near and dear to my heart as I am in the large crowd of those waiting for the first cut before I splurge. Here's what I think is going on behind the doors at Sony. It seems like the industry standard for the time between release and the first price drop for a new console is about 1.5 years. There is probably a large group at Sony that believes that they can stick with this. Within the corporation they are probably attributing the middling sales to the current poor selection of current games. I'll bet they are counting on March to be the month that turns things around with the release of several big titles along with the European launch. Therefore, Sony will not even consider a price drop until they have a chance to evaluate the success of these two events. This will happen by mid-summer at the earliest. Of course the pessimist would say that M$ will try to counter the March events with their 1.5 year price drop. If sales are still lagging at the end of the summer, Sony will probably consider a price drop for the holidays. I'm sure Sony would love to hold off till next spring, but if the 360 has a price cut soon Sony will probably be forced to drop as well sometime between Sept and Dec. The bottom line is that the May-June-July sales figures will tell us when the price cut happens.
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2-24-2007 @ 11:43PM
sam-evans said...
The Difference between software emulation on the 360 and the PlayStation 3 is that Sony actually care about their last gen games, not like micro$oft who only support Halo so they can force Halo fans to buy a 360 for the 360 Exclusive Map Pack
Sony wont do a half ass job like micro$oft and before long there will be a firmware update which makes the EE+GS almost redundant because the cell will be able to do a much better job
Don't complain that it wont get updated, because it will, Sony are frequently updating the firmware and with software there might be 3rd party updates with mods and stuff
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2-25-2007 @ 12:43AM
Killer said...
First, Let's get this straight on both sides:
Micro$oft and $ony, Both want money and think of money.
Second, The point of releasing a new console is this.
1.gives developers more tools
2.gives the companies more things they can do with it that they couldn't do with the last gen.
3.have people buy it.
Why is B/C so important, even better why is last gen support important? If I bought the new console why do I care about lame last gen. I have the old console do I ever play it? no, becuase I have the next-gen. If I want to play the old games, I play it on the old console. Also why do I want Last-gen support? I want them to pour as much as they can into the next-gen. It's the future, stop dwelling in the past.
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2-25-2007 @ 2:15AM
Next-Gen-Gamer said...
I have to go with Killer on this one. I've been asking people that for years. Why does backwards compatability matter? I suppose in the PS3's current situation, it has to matter. However, I recall hearing the same thing about the PS2.
"It's so great. It plays PS2 AND PS1 games."
One year later...
"Check out all these PS2 games I own! Oh, and I'm picking up a few more soon."
The current success of the 360 should be a HUGE sign that backwards compatability doesn't mean squat. I know everyone jumped Moore's shit for saying it, but fast-forward to the present. Microsoft has barely done anything to make backwards compatability better, and no one says anything. Where's the "I can't believe they STILL haven't added more Xbox games" remarks? They don't exist, because no one cares.
Backwards compatability should either be there or not. It shouldn't be a selling point for a console. If it is a selling point, then that console isn't doing so hot. Then again, I've never seen so many next-gen owners get so excited for a game they have to use BC to play (GoW II). And people wonder why PS3 game sales are so horrible. The PlayStation brand is currently it's own worst enemy. If the PS3 can't get out of the PS2's shadow, it'll never have a shot at catching the competition.
As for a PS3 price drop, did everyone just suddenly forget what was said less than a month ago (not to mention briefly brought up in this very blog entry)? They're trying their best to cut costs on production. That way they can actually ***make money***. If they cut costs on production AND lowered the price, wouldn't that defeat the purpose? No price drop until 2009 at the earliest.
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2-25-2007 @ 2:17AM
bbharrimanhmt said...
6. The Difference between software emulation on the 360 and the PlayStation 3 is that Sony actually care about their last gen games, not like micro$oft who only support Halo so they can force Halo fans to buy a 360 for the 360 Exclusive Map Pack
What map pack are you talking about?!?
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2-25-2007 @ 3:27AM
alienclay said...
ahhh,.. the soothing balm of rational thought. it's nice to see some in this post and the subsequent remarks.
part of the reason people didn't complain too much about 360 BC a year later was 1. fewer people owned an original xbox
2. a lot of 360 owners are new converts who never had an xbox 1 or a library of xbox 1 games
3. the 30 is the first second console for MS, although they are dealing with expectations placed on them by a sony console, they are free to build their own set of consumer expectations based on their actions. and why would MS care about XB1 anyway, they never made a dime on the first console. if anything, the 360 IS the first xbox.
ok that aside, people want more, not less, sony set the standard in BC because before the ps2 it never existed. (lets not talk about atari 2600/5200 stuff ^_^) and when they did deliver, they were able to do it right because they had perfected manufacturing a cheap ps1 cpu. yes, after a year BC may not be all that big of an issue, but remember sony makes consoles for 10 year life spans. i think sony stopped making ps1 consoles in what 2005? During the first year or two while ps2 was picking up steam it allowed the ps1 to take on a fun portable budget console with an awesome library of games. BC helped keep the ps1 alove and helped make sure sony was getting your money. (which is what all companies want) it means i don't have to have two consoles crowed next to each other taking up valuable tv inputs, or buying an ugly source selector. it means my current game libary is still fun and not instantly out of date. iv'e lost/sold/destroyed my old ps1 and 2 ps2s but i still have all my games and i still pop in wipeout3 or tony hawk2 from time to time. it's not a selling point in and of it's self, it's a "value point." BC didn't hurt the ps2, and it won’t hurt the ps3.
finally, the ps3 has a large number of new technologies in it with a lot of room for cost reduction with economies of scale. the dvd drive in 360 only cost MS about $20 while the BD in the ps3 probably costs between 150-250 to make, kinda like dvd when dvd drives were first put out. the quick ramp up of blue diodes alone seen from launch shows that great strides can be made in manufacturing. the shift from air shipping to less costly sea based shipping, 95nm -> 65nm -> 45nm -> cpus, cooler operation, less heat management hardware like fans and heavy heat sinks, and a billion and one things i can't think of because i'm not an engineer at the biggest consumer electronics company on earth. MS knows software, and while they are not making all the manufacturing errors of XB1 they can't match sony in what they know and do in thousands of products every day, building consumer electronics. this is why i think you keep hearing about the red ring of death but almost nothing about ps3, MS has to outsource and they don't have the controls over price like sony does who makes most of their own parts.
((we will never, ever, ever, (aside from physical hardware issues like steering wheels and guitars) have to worry about perfect backwards compatibility on sony game consoles in the future. why? because the cell processor was designed from the ground up to be perfectly compatible with every other cell, as long as the number of spus and clock seed is the same or greater. read the patent. if sony can perfect emulation software, you can expect BC with ps1/2/3 and every other one. At least until they stop making game consoles with disc drives. ^_^))
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2-25-2007 @ 4:10AM
Welshbloke said...
The problem is two fold and I why it gets brushed away I cannot really fathom.
1. The European market will get the revised version but no price drop.
2. They will have a reduced BC list. Sony can say what they like but delivering on promises has not been a Sony strongpoint.
But you may have advantages the question is why Sony did not talk this up when announcing something which obviously was going to be taken as another kick in the teeth.
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2-25-2007 @ 7:17AM
Burnt Meatloaf said...
@Caramella Bongo: Wrong. The PS2 had an original Playstation built into its I/O processor. It was not software.
We'll need an offiical compatibility list to know if this is good or bad. Until then, I'm skeptical.
Hopefully, of course, existing PS3 owners will get the emulator as a download. Having the best of both worlds is definately a good thing.
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2-25-2007 @ 8:04AM
Gianni Gotti said...
"Recent PS2 titles will work. Older PS2 titles will be added through software updates in a matter of months."
The press release mentioned noting about "Recent" and "Older" what is the source for this?
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2-25-2007 @ 8:42AM
Franky said...
I don't think you guys get it. I thought the PS3 sounded great with its sizeable hard drive, multimedia functionality (watching networked video on my PC on my TV) and even Linux. I do not own a PS2. Good games are still coming out for the PS2 (God of War 2) and I haven't even had the chance to play Metal Gear Solid 3. Maybe Sony will annnounce 90% compatability for the console, which would rock, but I'll still be pissed off that my American counterparts, that pay a HELL of a lot less for their console, get near 100% compatability and I don't.
As it stands, Sony will not be seeing my money.
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2-25-2007 @ 9:27AM
aka Bitter said...
To those of you optimistic about PS2 back compat, I refer you to the full press release
http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=291
and this quote:
“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system,” said David Reeves, President of SCEE. “Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”
Some additional PS2 titles will become compatible on the PS3 system through regular downloadable firmware updates, which will be made available through the PLAYSTATION®Network, from www.playstation.com or via PS3 game discs, with the first update planned for the launch date of the 23rd March 2007.
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2-25-2007 @ 9:48AM
ConteZero said...
Basically they are selling a PS3 at €599 (either if €1 approach $1,3), and they are selling a version without some component, talking about "we're going to emulation anyway", right ?
Well, since NTSC PS3's can switch to emulation too I find that pricing "PAL" PS3 €599 is a very bad choice, I think that they'll flop the launch (for this and for the five months delay) and I think that they'll cut the price down to €399 before regaining the market they are throwing away with this "policy".
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2-25-2007 @ 10:21AM
ConteZero said...
They could eventually ship these "limited functionality" PS3 as PS3LE with a slight price cut (€30-50) and charge something more for "full functionality" ones, this could be accepted by anyone.
The fact is, instead, that we've no choice than buying a console that "could" run our older games, and *hope* that the emulator will be updated (trusting Sony ?).
The question is, why are, we, the european market, by far the largest Sony base in the world, so hated ?
Not only we had to resist for five months, not only we're asked to buy only the expensive model, not only the price is higher than the USA counterpart (not to mension the JP counterpart), we have the "honor" to keep the "with a still work-in-progress emulator" version, with no choice to say "I'll pay, give me the better one".
No, thanks.
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2-25-2007 @ 11:36AM
The1 said...
6. The Difference between software emulation on the 360 and the PlayStation 3 is that Sony actually care about their last gen games, not like micro$oft who only support Halo so they can force Halo fans to buy a 360 for the 360 Exclusive Map Pack
Sony wont do a half ass job like micro$oft and before long there will be a firmware update which makes the EE+GS almost redundant because the cell will be able to do a much better job
Don't complain that it wont get updated, because it will, Sony are frequently updating the firmware and with software there might be 3rd party updates with mods and stuff
------------------------------------------------------------
You are totally WRONG.................
I own an X360 and PS3 and I could care less about backwards compatibility. However, for SONY to dis Microsoft for what they did and turn around to do the same is CRAZY. At least Microsoft came out from jump street and let fans know there would be issues. Sony should have done the same in the beginng.
This why people ate on SONY's case, because they are full of LIE's and Lesbian tales.
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2-25-2007 @ 1:42PM
ANTIFANBOY said...
NO MS has the worste BC in history, i have to connect to live,then put in the xb1 disc in,then download one emulator for 1 freaking game,as far as we know sony's is not going to work like that,Also MS said they where going to be backwords compatible, but never said by how much until near launch, SONY even said from the begining they where foing to do commentsthis, http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/05/ps3s-rumored-backcompat-solution-a-ps2-inside/#
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2-25-2007 @ 3:56PM
Next-Gen-Gamer said...
"SOON I WILL BUY A PS3, BUT IMAGINE I BUY IT TOMORROW AND IN 1 MONTH IT REDUCES IT PRICE FOR 100 DOLARS"
It's nice to see that no one pays attention. If you're worried about a price drop coming after you buy a PS3, then you aren't buying one "soon". Manufacturing costs come first, which means they can finally make money. Then, once they've reached a point where a price drop isn't going to put them in the hole again...you'll see a price drop. However, Sony has already stated that the earliest you'd ever see a price drop is 2009.
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