Sony Drops The Ball

[Benji]

With the PS3's European launch finally approaching (but still a month away), our friends in Europe and Australia are finally close to Sony's next generation. But this eager anticipation may take a downward spin with the latest news from Sony.

Striving to cut costs, Sony has announced that the European PS3's backward compatibility will be far more limited than the North American and Japanese versions. Only a "limited range" of PlayStation 2 titles will play on the European PS3, while a "broad range" of original PlayStation titles will function. A short list of compatible games will be available at launch, and the list will be expanded as Sony gets around to it. Specifically, the PS3 will not ship with the Emotion Engine chip, which was essentially the CPU for the PS2.

Sony intends to focus on software emulation as a cheaper solution to providing backwards compatibility to European gamers.

Source: GameSpot

So, they up the price tag for europe, they delay the release date here (multiple times) and then remove extra features. I worry why any european would bother picking this up, I won't even be getting it for Tekken or Final Fantasy until a significant price drop occurs.

[Liam]

I feel sorry for those who want to get it when it comes out, but since I won't even be looking to getting one until at least early 2008, it doesn't really affect me.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Well, the PS3 was already way, way behind the Wii60 in terms of what I was interesting, and just pushes it back further. Sony's not getting my money, there's no reason.

[Benji]

I feel sorry for those who want to get it when it comes out, but since I won't even be looking to getting one until at least early 2008, it doesn't really affect me.

Know what's most amusing? Is that you know they'll 'update' it a few months after release to include the missing components, thus screwing over the original buyers again, just like they did with the PS2.

[Liam]

Its usually the way though. The first consoles are nowhere near as good as the ones they release months afterwards. Unless you are someone who NEEDS to have it straight away, I'd never see the point of buying it straight away. Especially because by then you have a decent amount of games to choose from.

Sony will still get my money, probably, as nothing else has tickled my fancy, but I'm still sold on my PS2 at the moment, so it will be a will.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

This news has already come to light in the PS3 shortage thread Benji. Come on man, keep up

[Gongsun Zan]

I don't see how PS3 can drop the ball when they've lost it months ago.

[apsham]

I don't see what the big deal is over the backwards issue anyways.

"Oh my God, now I can't play my old PS2 games anymo.... oh wait. I have a PS2."

[Jack Krauser III]

I don't see what the big deal is over the backwards issue anyways.

"Oh my God, now I can't play my old PS2 games anymo.... oh wait. I have a PS2."

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I don't see what the big deal is over the backwards issue anyways.

"Oh my God, now I can't play my old PS2 games anymo.... oh wait. I have a PS2."

I agree. Like I said, I don't even play any of my old PS1 games.

My PS2 isn't worth ANYTHING towards a trade-in anyway. I've had to open it up a few times (removing sticker, voiding everything) to self-fix is and clear out the clogged up fan, and I've had it since 2000. No-one wants it, it's worth nothing except to me.

[Iain76er]

Bearing in mind that Sony loses money on the actual PS3 console, and they make their money through the games, they are going to charge £39.99 for games. £10 cheaper than the 360. How do Sony work these things out? How do they tie their proverbial shoes in the morning?

[apsham]

I don't see what the big deal is over the backwards issue anyways.

"Oh my God, now I can't play my old PS2 games anymo.... oh wait. I have a PS2."

Well, I'm thinking that to afford the PS3 a lot of people will have to trade in their PS2s. How much did they up the price in the UK again?

As CSAMH said, I don't think many PS2s today would be worth trading in, especially if a lot of people do it.

[The LBTN Express]

Bearing in mind that Sony loses money on the actual PS3 console, and they make their money through the games, they are going to charge £39.99 for games. £10 cheaper than the 360. How do Sony work these things out? How do they tie their proverbial shoes in the morning?

[Cactus Drags]

The bit about emulation bugs me most. It sounds like they're going to remove the functionality from the console at launch and then come up with some peripheal adaptor or something that will play older system's games. And it'll cost like £100 or something ridiculous.

I love my PS2, and I loved the PS1, and preferred both to Nintendo's and Microsoft's efforts (and we had many an argument in 6th form over whcih was better, and I always fought in Sony's corner, depsite the company being shite). However, there is absolutely no way I'll even consider a PS3 until I have a 360 and a Wii, and the price drops to something reasonable. And there's some decent games out for it that aren't ports, sequels or EA yearly updates.

[YI]

I'd like to point out something random and unconnected here. I have one of the first batches of Playstation 2's, and it still works...or at least it would work if I hadn't sold it to my brother, who then sold on all the games, kept the PS2 in a box and accidentally spilled shower gel on it.

But if I cleaned it up, and bought some games, it'd work.

[-A-]

The bit about emulation bugs me most. It sounds like they're going to remove the functionality from the console at launch and then come up with some peripheal adaptor or something that will play older system's games. And it'll cost like £100 or something ridiculous.

I love my PS2, and I loved the PS1, and preferred both to Nintendo's and Microsoft's efforts (and we had many an argument in 6th form over whcih was better, and I always fought in Sony's corner, depsite the company being shite). However, there is absolutely no way I'll even consider a PS3 until I have a 360 and a Wii, and the price drops to something reasonable. And there's some decent games out for it that aren't ports, sequels or EA yearly updates.

[zero]

I don't see what the big deal is over the backwards issue anyways.

"Oh my God, now I can't play my old PS2 games anymo.... oh wait. I have a PS2."

It's a convenience issue. I don't have a room for an Xbox, Xbox 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Genesis, SNES, NES, Wii, TurboGrafx16, etc. It's nice to be able to get rid of some old systems (either via trade in or giving it to someone) thanks to backwards compatibility. It saves space. Plus, there's really no excuse considering backwards compatibility was introduced as a standard for consoles by the PS2 - seven years ago.

Edited March 3, 2007 by Zero

[apsham]

Surely... you could.. put the... Playstation 2 away? I'm sure there's a reason it isn't being included. They don't do these things for spite.

[zero]

Surely... you could.. put the... Playstation 2 away? I'm sure there's a reason it isn't being included. They don't do these things for spite.

Yeah, but if I want to play God of War, I could either unpack the PS2 and find room to hook it up and all that shit, or just put it in the PS3. It's not a make or break decision on whether or not I'm going to buy it, but it's still pretty inexcusable in this stage of where video games are at. Especially to only be doing it to a certain region? Reeks of laziness to me.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'd like to point out something random and unconnected here. I have one of the first batches of Playstation 2's, and it still works...or at least it would work if I hadn't sold it to my brother, who then sold on all the games, kept the PS2 in a box and accidentally spilled shower gel on it.

But if I cleaned it up, and bought some games, it'd work.

Yep, mine is one of the first with a big chunk of metal inside and it still works fine...