Europe can't be happy. And with good reason. Less than a month before the release of the PlayStation 3 across the Atlantic, Sony has announced that Europeans will be getting a watered-down version of the PS3.
The PS3-Euro (that's not the official name, by the way) will be missing the Emotion Engine, the chip behind the PlayStation 2. Experts anticipate that this move will help Sony cut prices in the long term. Of course, this means that backward compatibility will be suckier on these machines than on the PS3s sold in the US and Japan because it will have to be done through software emulation.
According to Sony, more than 1,000 PS2 titles will be playable at launch, and the company will be releasing regular PS3 firmware updates that will consistently add to that number. Unfortunately, there's no mention of what those 1,000 titles will be, and the site that will be listing those games doesn't go live till March 23. Which, of course, is the day the console will be releasing.
First of all I don't think that they are getting the shaft! Second, can you guys(media) please report on the system without this"OH MY GOD SONY HAS MESSED UP" attitude. The only reason Sony is getting the shaft from everyone is because they didn't come out first. They have always had a crappy launch since the PSone, and everyone seems to forget. At least they are getting some kind of backwards compatability. Microsoft is not even 10%compatible with XBOX games, and no one is getting on them about it. C'mon give Sony at least a year before you dump on it, MEDIA GUYS!!!!!!!
Eh, never been a Sony fan, only games I've played on it where the FF games. All it really has is redundant sports games.
The reason Sony gets blasted by the media is because of their poor attitude and poor decision making. Sony's problems don't just stem from the PS3, but have been building for a long time. Their CD label fiasco from last year shows just how Sony feels about their consumers. If I lived in Europe and had a PS3 on pre-order, then heard about the limited BC on top of the outrageous price difference, I would have gone straight out and canceled and bought a 360 instead.
Over the past year, it is difficult to find anything that Sony has done right. They have inflated sales figures, installed software without the user's consent on their computers, and have now given the European PS3 market the finger, not just with BC, but with the price that is nearly twice as much as the price in Japan. All this in addition to dropping the ball on a number of PS3 exclusives that will now be on the 360 due to their lack of action. Sony will be very lucky if they can recover from these huge mistakes.
What kind of journalist uses a phrase like "will be suckier?" I will openly admit that I think SONY is not only ripping off its customers, but that anyone that sides with SONY after it's repeated blunder after blunder is nothing more than an uneducated fanboy/fangirl. With that said, this article is nothing more than dribble that avoids any sense of credibility and is passed off as nothing more than the opinion of an uneducated, cranky consumer (who doesn't live in the region they are griping about!)
...and, might I add, the Xbox 360 is currently backwards compatible with a mere 40% of the Xbox catalog. Currently, the (US) PS3 is BC with 97% of all PS1 AND PS2 games, and you are complaining that the European version is BC with over 50%? Sounds like much ado about nothing...
Becherist: You might visit some of the various forums where this news is being discussed and find out the fact that the people effected by Sony's decision are completely and rightly outraged.
If the shoe were on the other foot and this was happening to U.S. consumers I doubt you would be saying the same thing.
Paying more and getting less than Japan and the U.S. for the ersatz same product is an insult.
Oh, and your post was suckier than most I've read. :)
Actual;y beckerist, the Euro PS3 is not 50% backwards compatible, it is 10% backwards compatible with PS2 games, since the PS2 catalog is around 10,000 games now. With PS1 games I think it's closer to 90% BC, but not too many people are worried about the PS1 BC as they are the PS2. You should probably get your facts straight before you post.