EU PS3 = Software PS2 Emulation

Nah, we'll probably all get the same firmware updates. It guess it just means that we'll be looking at some improvements in rendering for some games and/or witnessing the first steps towards Sony being able to leave the PS2 chips out of the PS3.

IF the article is 100% factually correct though, that should mean that we are getting revised hardware already. I'd be surprised by that, but who knows?
 
I doubt it's a Europe only thing..it's probably the case in all the new units now, but you'll probably see the first of those show up at the Europe launch.
 
"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,"
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Sony Computer Entertainment said in a statement.
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Way to spin off their inadequacies...

Wasn't BC one of the things they were touting as an important added feature for the PS3???

Now they're telling people it's not important.

it's cool that they're moving to emulation though,

that should help aleviate any additional cost on their end.
 
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UK got a 4 month delay, higher price and now worse BC. what is wrong with SCEI??? why do they always leave world's second largest market out all the time???
 
I doubt that the existing US and Japanese PS3 models are going to lose games, that are playable now because of firmware upgrades. I'm not sure of this of course but seems unlikely to me. What is happening here is we Europeans are getting a lesser machine later with higher pricetag, though naturally this new revision will be the only one manufactured soon.

After years of promising nearly 100% backwards compatility and even using it as a marketing point, this to me seems like a unpleasant thing. Gladly I personally don't care about backwards compatility at all. My PS2 games are NTSC and I'm going to get PAL PS3 so this doesn't really affect me. I just think the way this whole thing panned out leaves a lot to be desired, assuming this is true and that the "far less titles" actually is far less.
 
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Simon82 said:
Always good news from Sony............
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You mean it's never good enough? Like when we got hardware emulation people complained that there weren't any enhancements possible, like rendering at HD and so on, and now it's 'oh my god we might lose some compatibility, we're screwed'. Sony can never win, can they? ;) Ok, if they do both and have failback until they can solidly emulate all of them ... but they are probably thinking that they are doing enough on this level compared to their direct competitor.
 
I'm very pissed about this. Getting a launch PS3 would have been reason enough for me, if it ment getting the version with the easiest backwards-compatibility (important to me). After considering the emulation thing (which I'm sure will improve things over the years), getting a PS3 at launch at the high price just isn't an attractive proposition anymore.

PlayStation 3 sold: -1

That doesn't mean I'll be jumping ship, but it does mean that I won't be a PS3 customer for at least another year until the price drops.

:devilish:
 
I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach. There are too many questions. They indicated, first of all, that the newer hardware revisions (think 65nano Cell) weren't going to make it for launch. I'd be very surprised if the first batch isn't mostly the same hardware as the PS3s are in the other regions, and I doubt that we'll see a significant difference in terms of firmware across the regions. And the older PS3s with hardware compatibility are going to get newer firmwares that are dealing with the newer revisions as well. Will they get options to use the hardware compatibility if present? And what will the benefits of software emulation be? How many games will be better (if any) versus how many will be left out? What will be the emulation settings available? Etc.

As I said, too many questions. We'll see.
 
Sony *heart* Europe!

Pay more, wait longer, get less.

The only reason I didn't buy a cheaper Japanese or American model was the PAL BC with my existing PS2 games. If this turns out to be no longer working, they can walk right off. Although what's really needed is a list with titles so I can check my collection. But I doubt that the it will be high-profile titles that use the hardware well (and thus potentially harder to emulate) that make the cut...
 
Considering we had a couple really long threads about the poor Xbox emulation on the 360 and how this was an important feature on the PS3 for quite a few gamers here this must come as a big dissappointment. I understand the price issues, but you would think that the launch consoles would at least have the EE+GS setup to reward early adopters (especially with the software availability situation) and either workout the software emulation down the road and then remove the EE+GS or have a "some work, some don't" software emulation approach and bank on the fact that in Year 2 and beyond software quality and quantity has improved and fewer consumers see BC as a selling point. Kind of a confusing strategy IMO.
 
It doesn't look good for the software emulation. The press release makes it sound like the emulator doesn't run all that many PS2 games, and worse, Sony isn't going to bother putting significant resources into updating it further in the future.

From the official press release.
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 and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”
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Yeah it seems like they are cutting the costs quite aggressively, here's hoping that it will manifest a pricecut. I can understand the shift in focus and all, I just think we were led to believe that the software emulation would be more than "limited"

this is bit off topic, but what is the up to date situation on region coding on PS3?, games namely is my concern.
 
Dr Evil said:
this is bit off topic, but what is the up to date situation on region coding on PS3?, games namely is my concern.
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AFAIK, we're still looking at region free for most games.

I'd still like to know what Sony means when they say 'limited'. Their standards in this respect have been somewhat higher than others, and I remember some comments from IBM representatives on Sony's approach to software BC which seemed to be pretty comprehensive. So I'll be interested to see what we'll get ...
 
Some additional PS2 titles will become compatible on the PS3 system through regular downloadable firmware updates, which will be made available through the PLAYSTATION®Network, from http://www.playstation.com or via PS3 game discs, with the first update planned for the launch date of the 23rd March 2007.
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At least they will update BC with firmwares... But at least now is theoreticley possible to play God of War 2 on 720p :)
 
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