With the recently announced PS3 price drop answering thousands of industry questions, some out there are reaching into their memory banks to ask the next best question on their mind, “Where is the PS3 backwards compatibility?” If you are one of the gamers out there that already have a PS3, let alone adopted the technology in the early days of the consoles lifecycle when it was $600 dollars, you just might have gotten your hands on a 20GB or 40GB backwards compatible PS3. These are extremely hard to find now days, and doing so will have you paying in upwards of $350 on Ebay.
Sony has since applied for a patent (Document Number: 20080040093) to use the Cell Processor to emulate the Emotion Engine found in all PS2’s. The Cell Processor is a powerful thing, and what it boils down to is this means that the Cell Processor can be used to emulate all PS2 games. We first thought that this type of feature would come along in a future firmware update, but SCEA director of hardware marketing John Koller is saying that PlayStation 2 compatibility is not coming back.
“It’s not coming back, so let me put that on the table. It’s not as big as a purchase intent driver as you may be hearing. We’ve got such a substantial lineup of titles on the PS3; most people are buying the PS3 for PS3 games. They’re buying it for PS3 games and Blu-ray movies.”
I’m very sad to hear this, but I also have to look at it from another side. In the end, we are talking about a small demographic of gamers that have been around since the PS1 and PS2 era, essentially raising their arms in anger at Sony to bring this feature back. The majority of gamers today probably don’t care too much about the past games on the PS2. Hell, even I have trouble going back and playing my copies of Resistance 1 and 2 on the PS3! With the PS2 library being one of the most extensive game libraries to date, it’s not hard to get lost in the mix of great games and never make it back to the current generation consoles.
As much money as Sony has been losing on simply making the PS3, and put on top of that all of the lackluster breakout first party AAA titles, it only seems fair that Sony is looking to make money any way it can. I see this patent and Koller’s statement as leading to a slow rollout of games over the PSN network in a few hitting maybe each month (similar to what the Virtual Console or WiiWare titles do on the Wii every week.) Look at Final Fantasy VII? Or even Destruction Derby? Why would Sony want you to break out that old PS2 game disc you already paid for, when they can squeeze out $10 or $15 more dollars out of your pocket for that PSN download? As a gamer, this sucks, as Sony, its more money.
With a possible 250GB PS3 Slim rumored to be on the way, we might be looking at a LOT of PS2 titles being offered for gamers to download for a “nominal fee”.
The original PS3’s were 20 and 60 gigs not 20 and 40 lol. But good write up!
smaller, faster more powerfull, aren’t electronics fun. the only problem is when do you buy?
ken
It must be one agonizing process to make the ps3 backwards compatible since its not coming for the slim =/ sadly I am part of that demographic of gamers who want backwards compatibility on the ps3 although its not a big problem since my ps2 is still running.
just fucking tape a ps2 to a ps3 for fuck sake
it just seems fishy to me, what with the patent and people begging for it.
two of sony’s latest-and-greatest products (psp go! and PS3 slim+price cut) were leaked, with photos, waaaaaaay before announcement. maybe sony is trying to get it off the rumor mill so they can release it to some fanfare in a firmware update.
plus a PS2 is like $40 on ebay (if you look hard enough)
Very true guys. My PS2 is still kickin’ it in my second bedroom. Too bad I don’t have too many games for it (besides Katamari Damacy and the Guitar Hero games).
I really would like to see backwards compatibility come back to the PS3, and here’s hoping they do a 180 and surprise us with a firmware update.
Same here, I played games like God of War and Shadow of the Collusus, but I haven’t really touched a ps2 game in quite awhile. I’ve been pretty happy with the games that are out there for the ps3 now.
Meant to post this under Matt Banks post, sorry lol.
There really aren’t many PS2 games I go back and play at this point. I have my launch 60GB PS3, so I can play those games, but within the past year, I haven’t played any PS2 games. Prior to that, there were still PS2 games I wanted to play, but not that much anymore.
Well this sucks. I have no less than 70 PS2 games that would instantly become useless if I decide to upgrade, so as much as I’m itching to get a PS3 with larger HDD space, I’ll stick with my 60GB one for now.
Instead of replacing the entire PS3, you could just swap out the drive with a 250GB/500GB/whatever GB Notebook drive. It’s a pretty painless process, and backing up your current data is as easy as plugging in a Flash drive/External drive.
Good article, but i disagree with the comment that it’s “only a small demographic of gamers” ie) an older crowd, who wants backwards compatibility. I think EVERYONE, Gamers and Sony can benifit from this simple firmware update. And I think it’s even MORE important to perhaps yonger/ new consumers who missed out on some great ps2 classics. What’s good for consumers is what’s good for Sony. No BC is BS!
I highly disagree with the comment that it’s “only a small demographic of gamers” ie) an older crowd, who wants backwards compatibility. I think EVERYONE, Gamers and Sony can benifit from this simple firmware update. And I think it’s even MORE important to perhaps yonger/ new consumers who missed out on some great ps2 classics. What’s good for consumers is what’s good for Sony. No BC is BS!