Reduced backwards compatibility for European PS3

[Piotrsama]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02...compatibility/

Sony Corp has said today that the European version of PlayStation 3 will play fewer PlayStation 2 games when it launches on March 23 compared with models launched earlier in Japan and America. "The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models," a Sony spokesman said.

Instead of later but better.... later and worse?

[BlackX]

LOL stupid SONY

[Revv23]

lol trying to cut costs by taking out the quality? Sony just sucks in every way shape and form latley. They can't do anything right for the consumer.

Now the PS3 import business is going to start back up in Europe.

[w0mbat]

It sucks to be european. It suck to be me in this case

[oublie]

I have a feeling that apart from the inital panic sales in Europe the PS3 is really going to take a huge nose dive. So far its all been negatives and very few positives. Initially i was looking forward to it's release over here. This changed from excitement to mild interest when prices and functionality was shown and now after the latest farce i will not be buying one. Frankly it just sounds now that it's too little to late and i'll just stick with the 360 and pc for my games. The only reason left for me to really purchase one is Bluray and atm that isn't anywhere near the top of my todo list.

Sony have really screwed up ,this could have been an enormous success christ you can't mention games consoles without PS2 being in the conversation somewhere and i have a feeling 10years from now the same thing won't be said of the ps3.

There's a saying that "You can't polish a turd" i.e. make something that is garbage to start with any better but in the case of the ps3 they seem to be taking a turd and covering it with more crap!

[Origin_Unknown]

i keep trying to tell my bro to not bother with it but hes hell bend on getting one :/

[mr_knowitall15]

L..O...L!!!! Sony has now shot itself in the foot for like the 87th time for this product launch alone! WTF kind of rad drugs do they have???

[lookmomnobrains]

sony hates europ... nothing new...

[DTU_XaVier]

Now I know why Sony has such a huge price on the PS3... All those bullets have to be payed for

[Cedde]

The thing I don't get, is that Sony stocks have been going up ever since October.

Certainly this can't be the PS3's fault, but apparently Sony isn't doing as bad as everybody wants them to.

[Rava6e]

To start with i really wanted one. Then it launched and you heard all sorts of stuff about bugs ect. Then they make it official that we have to wait +3-4 months compared to the rest of the world. And now this? that pos machine anyway, ill buy some uber hardware for my PC instead. I was a hardcore PS fan, was.

[Kingcarcas]

I think this is because they're going with an emulator and taking out the CPU/GPU of the PS2 that was in the PS3 to cut costs or something........pretty dumb move this early though....

[onewingedangel]

whilst I don't think this was a good move, it may not be all that bad. If the ps3 hardware can effectively run software emulation of the ps2 hardware and the compatability is high, this may not be much of a problem - it may even be able to offer additional features such as decent Anti Aliasing - which would improve the graphics of a huge number of ps2 games- but having the actual ps2 hardware built in was a better choice.

Also consider this, recently here in the uk the pstwo was on offer at ASDA supermarkets (now part of the WALMART group) for £50.These sold out accross the UK within the day. Partnered with the huge back catalogue of ps2 games the pstwo at such a price level is effectively the competition for the nintendo Wii, providing a low cost 'fun' console that doesn't concern itself with high end graphics and HD video. And its also a dvd player, so even people who want 'just' a dvd player may be persuaded to get a pstwo for only a little more.

Sony could continue producing pstwo's throughout the life of the ps3 until the psthree is released. If they were to do this they would still have the facilities up and running making ps2 chipsets - as such other than the cost per die there isn't a huge saving to be made. However, with pstwo sales ever reducing, it becomes less and less economical to continue making the chipsets when the fabs could be better put to use producing other products. As such a potentially good revenue stream is cut out. Sony could be selling all their DVD players with pstwo's integrated without making a loss on hardware. If people bought even one game, the licence fees would more than cover the increased cost of the hardware over a regular dvd decoding chipset, and if people bought more games sony could continue making money off past investments.

Once the psthree is released the ps2 hardware's transistor count will be so miniscule it would make integrating it onto a combined cell/rsx die virtually costless, or they could move to a wholly software based approach where through brute force(possibly achieved through higher clockspeeds from 45nm chips) compatability issues could be worked through.

It seems sony is just being shortsighted, trying to save a few dollars per console by cost cutting a feature most people would be willing to pay the extra cost for should incompatabilities arrise.

[JAWS]

It seems sony is just being shortsighted, trying to save a few dollars per console by cost cutting a feature most people would be willing to pay the extra cost for should incompatabilities arrise.

that's right, it all boils down to money:

Sony has admitted that this will mean a poorer performance for those wanting to play their older games on the new console. "The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models," a Sony spokesman told Reuters.

David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spins the story in another direction. "PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system," he said.

http://www.boomtown.net/en_uk/articl...w.php?id=13495

[Metroid]

If 1 day I change my mind about PS3. I will surely be buying the American version as I did also with my PS2. This is getting on my head, I can not understand what Sony is doing. They charge much more in European countries and take off the compatibility. What a hell they are thinking about, selling PS3 for 430£ or 800$ sounds very crazy for me, also as some of you had seen last week was a record about pre-ordering a PS3 here in UK on many shops around my area London central. the most of the people surely are fan boys and I don't think there are many to pre-order though. I was expecting a protest or something like this about this stupid PS3 price and also the compatibility issue to reduce costs for what? as they charge 200$ than USA version.

I wonder what they are trying to do with this chaos. Well yeah maybe make European people to hate them more.

[uOpt]

Good.

Another step for them towards death.

[Starscream]

The thing I don't get, is that Sony stocks have been going up ever since October.

Certainly this can't be the PS3's fault, but apparently Sony isn't doing as bad as everybody wants them to.

that is cause alot of people think that the PS3 can kill SOny.

the PS3 is important to Sony but if it flops big time it wont kill them. it will simply mean the termination of the jobs of a few VPs and a few other higher ups and them losing a lot of money.

[Super strokey]

I honestly dont see why they just didnt do this from the start on all the regions and just add games through software updates to save money costs make the system cheaper which would really help them in sales which is something really really need right now.

[p8ntslinger676]

I played a ps3 @ best buy and I was disappointed in the graphics from it, I'm glad I bought a 360

[Super strokey]

The ps3 is a great piece of hardware, no one can argue against that. They can argue about the mistakes sony has made though lol. Im waiting till i move into a house and out of my condo to see whether i will get a ps3 or a 360 to sit beside my wii, i figure by then ps3 will have gained some steam or will have died.

[Kanten]

On the PS3: Find me some games worth playing.

[Jamesrt2004]

On the PS3: Find me some games worth playing.

Gran Turismo: HD
Final Fantasy series
and thats about it for me lol

[Revv23]

Gran Turismo: HD
Final Fantasy series
and thats about it for me lol

ummm are either of those out?

[benny08]

So I presume that Australia is getting this version as well. Wonderful. A late release and a cut-down version of it just to rub the salt in more...

[Kanten]

Gran Turismo: HD

Wasn't that cancelled?

Love Final Fantasy, but one or two games doesn't justify me paying $600 for the console.