21. @7: Obviously consoles that have the PS2 chip built in wil ll be just as capable of carrying out software emulation as the newer version of the system. Once the firmware update that enables software emulation is released, the PS2 and PS1 hardware inside the PS3 just stops being used.
@20: I'm afraid I'm not RICH enough to afford a PS3, a decent TV and an HD receiver that can upscale for me. The only reason why I have an HDTV at all is because I knew someone selling a 1999 Toshiba CRT for dirt cheap, and the only reason why I have a PS3 is because I saved up for a year. I've yet to see an upscaler that's supposed to be remotely decent for less than $500 US, and even those units probably have such latency issues that gaming would be impossible.

Posted at 3:58PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Stef Geiger

22. "Removal of Emotion Engine chips will come stateside and to Japan in April. Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i."

Yay...get rid of those gross PS2 parts. Upscaling would be nice. God of War 2 better be on that list.

I can't recall if PS3 MK2 supported online play. If it does, then I'm going to be playing PS3...finally. MK3 is freakin' impossible to play on the 360 d-pad (without modification anyway).

I want to check out Lair, and see if it's tolerable for being based on medival times. The rest of the news is essentially meaningless to me.

Posted at 4:09PM on Mar 5th 2007 by SuicideNinja

23. WTF... why isnt there any news that you can play music and games at the same time.

Posted at 5:04PM on Mar 5th 2007 by GOS

24. That's all? That's pretty lame. Downloading mp3s would be cool, if you can put them on a flash card in the slot and transfer them. Who knows.

Custom wallpapers from photos is cool.

The rest is pretty weak sauce. Most of it is already standard on the 360.

What happened to PlayStation HOME????????????? Yeah, that was a rumor. That would have been cool. And from the reaction it got from Sony, you'd think it would be their big announcement. Not some lame firmware update.

What about downloading stuff in the background while using the PS3 for other things, like playing games? Guess that's not a priority for them, since there aren't that many games out anyway?

I hope to see a new Killzone trailer. Actual gameplay, not pre-rendered "target" CG.

Posted at 5:15PM on Mar 5th 2007 by boodah

25. "7. 'Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i.'

Also curious about this and whether it will apply to the PS3's manufactured prior to April. I'm assuming (and hoping) it would."

This is my guess: If Emotion Engine present, use hardware EE; if EE chip not present, then evaluate PS2 game for compatibility with software-emulated EE, emulate in software if we can with this title; then evaulate resulting video signal and see if we can realiably upscale it and generate a good-looking output, and if we can, then upscale it to the configured resolution of the PS3 if that resolution is higher than 480p, unless that resolution is 1080p, then upscale to highest supported resolution of display device. In other words, I think the executing of PS2 games via hardware EE or software-emulated EE will be a separate component from the upscaling of "some" PS1 and PS2 games -- remember, PS1 games don't require the EE at all, but they still plan on upscaling "some" of them.

Posted at 6:23PM on Mar 5th 2007 by san

26. Okay. Id hate to burst all your bubbles about this news, but some of it has changed. Waehawk is not a game anymore, it will just be a downloadable game. I guess, but i dont see background downloading anywhere in that list, and youd think that would/should be important. Also, PlayStation Card enabling won't happen until the cards are released, which will be sometime this month I think?. So yea, not that much, i think the most is the Warhawk is not a game anymore and its just a stupid download game. I really wanted the full game, but w/e, Incognito sounded like a company who cant afford that kind of money to put out for a full game for the PS3.

Posted at 6:33PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Jason

27. Like it's been said before, what about the older ps3, will they better better off or worst?

Posted at 7:20PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Colin S

28. Sweet. Nice to see some updates, new content and demos coming. The wallpaper ability is great as I like to personalize my stuff.

Things are beginning to get interesting again.

As for whatever they do to the PS1/PS2 game emulation, I really don't care. I don't play PS2 games on my PS3.

Posted at 7:58PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Raycer

29. Could be badass. Some of this stuff I kinda hoped for out of the box and was pretty disappointed about (customizeable backgrounds should be a gimme. I could care less about an MP3 store but how about importing custom soundtracks into games? I mean I should be able to rock out to whatever while I'm mashing you guys in Motorstorm. Dan that was a great suggestion, so is the upscaling of DVDs. I don't see what the big deal is, I mean the XBOX was running faux high def for a while and it was great. We'll see I guess...

Posted at 8:37PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Jason

30. OMGZ! Killzone 2 Trailer....and a Demo...Wooohoo? Now for the test. Does it look exactly (or better) like the Trailer we saw before it got taken off the map? It better. I don't like to be lied to. If it is all give props to sony. If it isn't I will lose whatever common truth credit I give them. All is fair. Just deliver.

Posted at 9:25PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Killer

31. "Removal of Emotion Engine chips will come stateside and to Japan in April. Upscales certain PS-One and PS2 games to 720p/1080i."------So does this mean ill have to buy a new ps3 to have my ps2 games upscaled to 720p and 1080i?

Posted at 9:39PM on Mar 5th 2007 by vickers

32. To everyone who's asking whether or not people with the older PS3s will be worse off, it's simple. Even before the launch, Sony said that they would shift all the units over to software when they got it ready. There's no way that they're going have users split, some using hardware and some using software. That's ridiculous. It's a lot cheaper for Sony to support ONE way of playing old games, not having to support and patch two methods.

And I'm pretty sure no one's actually officially said that Warhawk is going to be a PSN title. Multiplayer only, yes.

And I know at one point some official was promising us a Motorstorm demo based on the final build...

Posted at 9:39PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Stef Geiger

33. "There's no way that they're going have users split, some using hardware and some using software. That's ridiculous. It's a lot cheaper for Sony to support ONE way of playing old games, not having to support and patch two methods."

If the emulation or hardware determination is handled by the OS it won't matter. It'll just pass to EE hardware if it's there or EE software-emulation, if it's not. None of that should affect upscaling, which is a different software routine altogether. But that's a good point: they may, for whatever reasons of expediency, just use a firmware update in April to shut down the hardware EE in *all* existing PS3s and do software emulation only. That way they don't have to create different patch firmware code for PS3s that use hardware EE and ones that use software emulation.

I have a handful of PS2 games that I may care to play again on my PS3. Maybe. And I still have an almost unused PSTwo I bought when my original PlayStation 2 finally cashed in. So I'm not worried. But I do doubt early adopters with hardware EEs would end up with a poorer experience than later buyers with software emulation.

Posted at 11:45PM on Mar 5th 2007 by san

34. Oh, and MS almost did the same thing with 360, putting the hardware equivalent of an original Xbox in the 360 to do backwards compatibility, but they decided to wait it out for software emulation, and their emulation requires "enablers" for each original Xbox game you want to play. They had very limited backwards support at launch, because not all that many enables had been released.

Posted at 11:46PM on Mar 5th 2007 by san

35. @ #16

"Sony hasn’t tried to overextend itself feature-wise on the PS3, saying that it will take a while for consumers to understand that they’re getting an expensive Blu-ray player “for free” with a PS3."

Posted at 6:51AM on Mar 6th 2007 by RonWald

36. No word on the DTS: MA update?

Posted at 10:07AM on Mar 6th 2007 by venk