Euro PS3 Scraps Hardware Backwards Compatibility

[dmiller68]

Sony needs to start finding ways to save money on manufacturing PlayStation 3s, but most assumed that would come from cheaper chips became and more affordable Blu-ray production. Not so for Europe, however, as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced today they're actually removing the chips that allow for hardware-based backwards compatibility. They're going the Xbox 360 route and attempting software emulation for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game libraries.

We've contacted both SCEE and SCEA for comment on the issue. What's to stop Sony from instituting the same policy on future revisions of American hardware?

SCEE's rationale is a bit reaching. The company claims the change means to generate a focus on PlayStation 3 software, rather than the old 'n broken machines. Does someone want to remind Sony that PS2 actually outsold PS3 in America last month? Clearly, the best response would be to start ignoring that hardware base. SCEE president David Reeves explains:

"Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. 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."
The press release says the European PS3 will be compatible with a "broad range" of original PlayStation games (they're easier to emulate) but a "limited range" of PS2 releases. They'll be launching a website on March 23rd with a searchable list of what will work and promise downloadable patches for more games. Based on experience with Microsoft's updates, however, this announcement says backwards compatibility will be forgotten a year from now.

What happened to Sony's old mantra of complete "legacy" backwards compatibility? Let's help Ken Kutaragi rewind to last fall:

"...the PS3 will feature backwards compatibility with PS and PS2 games from day one. I'm emphasizing this because, from what I hear, there are some platforms that haven't been able to completely do this. It's costly in terms of hardware, but we'd rather [invest] firmly on compatibility from the beginning, rather than to have issues later on."
From what we hear, that's not true anymore.

Source

[GoatMother]

I remember they said they'd go with software emulation eventually, just didn't expect it to be this soon.