Desperate Sony strips PS2 compatibility from PAL PS3
By John Pospisil
Not content with delaying the launch of the PAL version of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) by three months and charging a premium for it, Sony executives have decided to make the PAL PS3 inferior to the version of the PS3 launched in the US and Japan.
The PAL PS3 is scheduled to launch in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia on 23 March 2007 (PAL is simply the broadcast system used in these countries; NTSC is used in Japan and the US).
Sony will be cost-reducing the PAL version of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) by removing PS2 chips from the PS3 hardware. Instead backwards compatibility with PS2 games on the PAL PS3 will be handled through software emulation. And as we all know, software emulation is slower and less reliable than hardware.
This will mean that while the PAL PS3 will be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation (PS), it will only be compatible with a limited range of PlayStation2 titles.
Trying to put a put a positive spin on the situation, Sony said in a statement:
“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system. 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.”
In the statement Sony acknowledged the compatibility problems with PS2 games in a footnote, saying: “Certain PlayStation 2 format software titles may not perform properly on this system”. A web site at http://www.playstation.com will provide advice about which PS2 games will work with the PS3.
Sony looses money on each PS3 sold in the US and Japan due to high production costs, and is no doubt removing the PS2 chipset from PAL PS3s chipset to reduce the component cost.
However, given that the PAL PS3 is late, more expensive than the PS3 in Japan and Europe, and more importantly more expensive than its competitors, Nintendo’s Wii console and Microsoft’s Xbox, 360 you do have to wonder whether Sony is cost reducing the PS3 out of desperation.
If Sony really didn’t think PS2 compatibility was worth the trouble, why did the company include it in the Japanese and US versions of the PS3? And much can the company be saving by stripping the eight-year-old PS2 chip set from the PS3? It all smacks of desperation.
You do have to wonder whether cost reducing the PS3 to save a few dollars will outweigh the further negative publicity. This could well be the straw that breaks the camel’s backs, and relegates the PS3 to a niche position in the games marketplace in this round of the console wars.
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Stumble It!
February 23rd, 2007
Everyone with a PS3 is going to have a PS2; besides who wants to play old shit games anyway. Makes no difference I say.
February 23rd, 2007
No way - I don’t want to have to hook up both my PS2 and PS3 to my system…
February 23rd, 2007
No it doesnt really make any difference i think. But what i dont like about sony is that thay are treating europeans like rubbish recently and they had a go at the xbox 360 for having software emulation……..
February 23rd, 2007
Also the Middle East, Africa and Australasia of course.
February 23rd, 2007
Sony have repeated on many occassions in the past that this was what they were going to do and now, due to sensationalist press, Sony are derided as ‘desperate’. The news around the web presents this old information as important just to grab a few cheap hits. Whatever happened to journalistic integrity, this piece is also littered with bias and emotional language. I don’t know if I like the PS3 or not but I do know I dislike this sloppy news reporting.
February 23rd, 2007
Phil, you are correct… I also remember that Sony would use software emulation.
February 23rd, 2007
So Sony is increasingly losing money on the PS3 consoles & think that they can save some small amount of money buy ripping of the European, African, Australian consumers. This just gives me more incentive to purchase the Xbox 360 now - it has a larger number of quality games available & the console is also priced so much better than the PS3.
I will not be treated as a second class citizen by Sony. The console wasnt all that special to begin with - no good games for it on release & now this, no hardware PS2 compatability.
Hopefully this news spreads arround the web, so everyone is rightlly informed.
Xbox 3600 here i come.
February 25th, 2007
This is SO TYPICAL Sony. They have a history of promising more than they can deliver. Remember when Ken Kutaragi promised we could jack into the Matrix with the realistic graphics and power of the PS2?
Sony took great delight in taking XBOX 360 to task for not having backwards compatibility. They promised that they were all about gaming and that backwards compability was something that made the Playstation brand great. Now look at them turn tail.
The conclusion? Sony will lie through their teeth to get their hands on your money. Once they have it, all promises past and present go out the window. They are liars; they are arrogant SOBs. And it becomes more and more clear with each passing day that they care nothing for the consumer or their customers.
February 25th, 2007
Joe Scribble, i suggest you get your facts straight.
The PS3 will play PS2 games. Like most emulation there may be the odd quirk with most emulation, however with all software emulation it can be updated with a newer revision of the software. Did you also not think there are benefits to using software emulation over hardware? With software emulation proper oversampling can take place allowing the games to be viewed in a higher quality than they were originally produced for; higher resolution, higher framerates, antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
There seems to be a lot of criticism being placed on Sony for compatability issues when at the moment it is all here-say. The XBOX360 has emulation issues for XBOX games, and this is somehow seen as more ammunition against Sony?! Perhaps there are allegiances undisclosed in many of these articles. Is Microsoft playing the ‘bloggers’ game again like they did with Vista and the free laptop?
In regards to Sony being liars; if you read back through the initial tech discussions you’ll find that replacing the hardware emulation was the intention from the outset. Sony had hoped to be able to use software emulation from the outset however due to development constraints were forced to use hardware.
March 7th, 2007
So to sum up everything:
- delayed launch date (half a year later than ntsc models)
- inferior ps2 support
- far more expensive in europe than in the us or japan
to hell with sony, i’m just gonna get me an xbox 360