European PS3 To Play Fewer PS2 Games 150
Mondrian_was_a_square writes "When Sony launches the PS3 in Europe, consumers there won't be getting the same thing that US and Japanese buyers picked up at launch—they'll be getting less. Sony has just announced that the new revision of the PS3 will be less backwards compatible with PS2 games. 'Sony is looking to decrease the production cost of the Playstation 3, and they have opted to replace dedicated hardware with software that will replace its functionality. The hardware had been providing full backwards compatibility of PS2 games, but Sony makes it clear that the new configuration will not offer the same level of support. Certain PlayStation 2 format software titles may not perform properly on this system, the statement reads.'"
A Shame (Score:3, Insightful)
Cool, does that make it cheaper then? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, wait, it's £425. That's $835, sure that includes 17.5% VAT, but it's still ridiculous.
Fuck you Sony. Fuck you for ripping us off, and doubly fuck you for selling us substandard hardware compared to other countries. Fuck you for being Sony to boot.
Re:Not a good move (Score:2, Insightful)
Now all this needs is ANOTHER press statement about how Europe is used to getting more expensive, inferior goods much later than everyone else and Operation Sell No PS3 In Europe is a full success.
It looks like.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Right now, their biggest danger is developers changing their focus to the fast growing installed user base of Wii (and 360 though not growing as fast as the Wii). That sales potential is the main performance figure developers sweat about.
Actually, I remember once when Sony made great products and had savvy marketing. Of late, watching their tactics has been like watching a drunk fall down a long staircase.
Until we see the actually specifics... (Score:5, Insightful)
Buy a US PS3 perhaps? (Score:3, Insightful)
What's to prevent you from purchasing a US version? Yes, you will most likely be restricted to purchasing games and movies from the US thanks to bullsh*t region coding, but from what I understand most TVs in the UK will support NTSC as well as PAL. Hardware like controllers or cables should work regardless of the version of the PS3, or so I would think. And when it comes to software, when I buy CDs or DVDs from around the world they generally arrive in less than a week using standard air mail. One of my friends in London buys DVDs from the US regularly.
Obviously, getting everything native to the UK would be infinitely more convenient for you, but if backwards compatibility is that important, would not a US PS3 be an acceptable inconvenience? Plus the exchange rate is definitely in England's favor!
Again, just curious.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The written above doesn'r mention... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, the current PS3 with hardware support for PS2 games plus all the extra power of the Cell isn't enough to allow you to play old games at 720p, but removing the hardware assistance will magically enable this?
Maybe it didn't mention this because the journalists aren't fucking deluded?
It doesn't mention that Sony want's to bring the backward compatbility to an level almost
as high as the hardware emulation in the US/Japan PS3 is too.
Sony would probably also like their customers to submit to anal rape whilst wearing an "I Love DRM" T-Shirt, but I can't see that happening either.
Software emulation of XBox games on the 360 is a fucking mess from what I hear. I challenge you to explain how Sony will succeed where MS failed without saying anything retarded.
Re:That's Sony for you. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The written above doesn'r mention... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not an electrical engineer, but I'm guessing you can't use the existing PS2 chips AND do scaling to 720p+ unless you're scaling after the 3D rendering, which would basically be useless as the TV is doing that anyway. There probably just isn't a way to use the PS3 hardware to help out without going fully into software emulation.
However, I'm doubtful Sony even cares about making PS2 games look nicer on the PS3. One big possibility is they have been working very hard on software emulation because they want to allow downloading of playstation and playstation 2 games from their online store to the ps3.
It's anyone's guess as to what's up right now. The fact that they haven't stated even an estimate as to how many titles will be compatible with the software solution is probably an indication that it's going to work like shit.
Numbers? (Score:4, Insightful)
I read this story this morning too on a number of sites but the one thing I could not find were numbers.
All I've read is that the Euro PS3 will play fewer PS2. Exactly what does that mean?
1 less than the US version is fewer. But so is 2, 3 or even 10.
Does anyone know what the severity of the "issue" is and what games are likely to be affected? If it means God of War 2, FF12 and Manhunter 2 won't work now then that's pretty bad. But if it means that Red Faction or Fantavision now won't work then who honestly gives a shit?
Re:WTF is wrong with sony (Score:3, Insightful)
I have argued (several times) that Sony was successful with the Playstation mainly because Sega and Nintendo made some massive mistakes; Sega had released several (unnecessary) upgrades (Sega-CD, 32x) and released the Saturn with no games, Nintendo offended third parties, used cartridges and gave Sony an 18 month head start. You can argue that (in a lot of ways) the PS2 was also successful because of similar mistakes made by Sega, Nintendo and Microsoft.
Honesty? Where? Look at the comp list, (Score:5, Insightful)
When exactly is Sony going to tell the europeans what exactly the capabilities are of this new system? Right now, still a month away from launch? No.
3 weeks before launch? No.
Two weeks? One week? 5 days? 2 days? 1 day? No.
They say they will (no actuall guarantee) announce it on launch day. So that gives customers how much time to cancel their pre-order incase they don't find the list to satisfaction?
That is right. NO TIME.
Honesty? No, sorry, not this time.
Oh but they said it now right? Well yeah, their lawyer told them too, if people had found out AFTER launch date they would have gotten their ass sued off.
Lets not forget that this is the EU, NOT the US or japan were big money rules. Holland is the EU country that forced Sony to exchange EVERY PSP with ANY defective pixels. (A rule that by the way goes for ALL LCD's, under dutch, and EU law, a product has to be fully functional and defective (sub)pixels are not part of it)
So they announce it now, in a queit way, hope people forget and then claim, well we had a list up on launch day to cover themselves out of deceptive sales lawsuits.
Sony and honesty? Yeah right.
What you assume we won't check your story? (Score:3, Insightful)
But if you meant the PS2, as in the Playstation 2, then U are the only Ass around here.
Linky to press release: http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.as
Selected relevent quotes:
"The European PS3 will feature the Cell Broadband Engine(TM), 60 GB hard disc drive, Blu-ray Disc player, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, SIXAXIS(TM) wireless controller. It also embodies a new combination of hardware and software emulation which will enable PS3 to be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation® (PS) titles and a limited range of PlayStation®2 (PS2) titles."
"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games..."
"Certain PlayStation 2 format software titles may not perform properly on this system."
And other references in the press release about future software patches to support more PS2 games, and a special list of compatible PS2 games for the EU version of the console (that isn't live yet).
Oh, and before you pull some blatant fanboi linguistic bullshit and say that Sony never literally said "reduced", then realize what everyone else does: They don't call the US/Japan PS3's support for the PS2 "limited", ergo being "limited" is a reduction. If it was the same level of support as the US/Japan version, they would have said words to that effect and let it drop. Instead they said words to the effect that the new PS3 is not designed with backward compatability as a major feature, new games are better, only a limited selection of old games will work. You'd have to be mental to not understand that this means a reduction. Maybe you are mental. We're not.
Re:Assume- Ass of U and Me (Score:1, Insightful)
How did MS get the free pass on the XBOX and XBOX360? They're doing the same evil stuff there. Pushing DirectX into the throats of developers, the usual marketing fluff, deceiving people with crap like XNA and so on.
I don't get this attitude of