Kolzig

Sony's latest accomplishment for Europe - PS2 game support to be "limited"

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Oh good grief.

So those stores offering part exchanges of PS2s for PS3s are fucking over their customers and their own future PS2 games sales.

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In tomorrow's news "Sony will kill a puppy for every PS3 sold"....:shifty:

Sigh... I don't know what's sadder, that we all seem happy to bash Sony or that Sony is actually deserving the bashing...

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I think it's very odd Sony is reconfiguring the PS3 so dramatically for the European market. Has that any precedent? One would be easily lead to assume this is sheer nervosity and a sign of Sony's own discontent with the console and how it turned out.

But scrapping backwards compatability? What an utterly weird and preposterous thing to do. Pointless.

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Theory from work today: Sony is treating this as a hardware launch that intersects with a lot of entertainment markets, and as a result keeps upsetting lots of gamers.

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A couple of points that should be made:

  • Sony always planned to do this and it was revealed last year that only the first batch of consoles would be backwards compatible from a hardware standpoint (i.e. with the "emotion" chip), before later re-moving the chip and moving onto software emulation for BC. This was in part to make the transfer from generation to generation initially smooth and avoid production issues during the initial launch phase. Also, the later move to software emulation for BC would drive manufacturing costs down. This was all reported last June and it was pretty clear that the hardware solution was a temporary one. (Links:http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/711/711242p1.html, http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9602, and http://www.justplaystation3.com/early-ps3s-to-include-ps2-hardware/06/15/2006/)
  • While this will apply to PAL consoles on launch, it will also presuambly apply to US and Japanese consoles from that period onwards as well (which I believe has been stated somewhere but I can't find the link right now).

I'm no Sony fanboy, but I thought those points should be aired before this turns into a typical Sony bashing thread as I've read on other forums, which are frankly getting tedious. We all know Sony have made some dumb choices in the run-up to this gen, but taking news like this, blowing it out of proportion without all considered details and using it as a stick to beat sony with is pretty sad (...unless you write for UK:R, in which case it's fair game).

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Fair enough. If the initial article had made these things clearer, objections to it would have never been made.

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Hahaha so no backwards compatability and a "new (cheap) chassis" and they'll probably charge more for it too.

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This was also in Gameindustry.biz, I'd hate to be a Greek gamer wanting to buy a PS3.

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22975

Every Scandinavian country is paying more than that. Sucks though.

I guess I anticipated getting shafted by Sony sooner or later, with my decision to get the PS3, but they could at least have let me get my hands on the thing first. I was fully aware of them planning to remove the chips later on, but I really don't think it's too much to ask that they at least treat the early adopters with some sort of respect. The emulation better fucking improve the resolution at least, with the few titles supposedly being supported. Oh and how about telling us what titles will and won't work?

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"SONY PS3 TO SHIP WITH AIDS IN EUROPE

Sony announced today that all European PS3 units will ship with AIDS, in what is seen as a bold move by the Japanese gaming giant by industry circles.

Phil Harrison, head of development at Sony Europe commented, "By shipping AIDS with our console, we expect to provide a massive boost to the anti-viral pharmaceutical industry as well as becoming the leading cause of Kaposi's sarcoma worldwide".

Major gaming networks backed up the audacious move by Sony, "It's win-win for the consumer", exclaimed a breathless Margaret Robertson, "not only do European gamers get the opportunity to sample the latest HIV medications the pharmaceutical industry has to offer, they get to do so on an ongoing basis!".

It remains to be seen if Sony plan to supply their latest HIV-infected consoles to the USA and Japan, in an effort to boost their "third place" sales."

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Awesome.

Aids.

bonus advice: Don't watch 3 hours of a Hitler based drama just before bed and expect to have sane dreams.

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Yeah those Hitler based dramas are crazy ¬¬.

Anywho so are Sony. Well I'll be keeping my PS2 and waiting for a while for the PS3 to drop in price.

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Well, as right as any other company in Europe at any rate. Until it's competitive with North American pricing, I'm hesitant to call any of the prices mentioned in that article "right."

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on the UK high street (GAME etc) there's no way the 3 or 4 launch titles that people will actually buy (motorstorm etc) will be priced at anything less than £44.99. Perhaps online prices will be a bit more sensible

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That's what import is for. Other than the machine (and perhaps some very cheap used games when available) there's no way I'm forking over money for something that can be had for almost half the price from overseas. Thank god for Sony at least having the sense not to implement region protection for games. Knowing them though, they'll probably patch that in with a firmware update a week after launch.

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I was having a really shit day a couple of days ago, then this news popped into my Inbox...

Made me grin from ear to ear. Sony have decided bugger up the other launch.

Oh and Ben, Sony may have made it clear that they intended to remove the chip, but they also seem to have made it clear that they couldn't give a rat's arse about a 'smooth integration' in Europe.

I'm sorry, I also seem to remember a Sony exec bashing the 360 for not being backwards compatible. He should have kept his mouth shut surely if he'd known that the intention of his company was to do exactly the same thing.

Virtua Fighter looks lovely though... Shame that isn't a first party game.

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Phil Harrison says their policy is to focus on popular titles and at times like these you have to have some faith. No doubt I'll be fucked over one way or the other, but I still hope for the best.

When the 360 launched, Microsoft also promised to focus on popular titles but their original BC lineup was still terrible. Then, it's still pretty bad now and 1000 titles (which translates to 40% compatibility for Europe) is a lot. There's at least potential for my currently meager library to work.

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My all important question: WILL IT RUN MY COPY OF REZ???

If not, fuck it. No system is worth losing Rez, not even if Sony managed to pull its head out of its ass and start doing things right.

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Oh and Ben, Sony may have made it clear that they intended to remove the chip, but they also seem to have made it clear that they couldn't give a rat's arse about a 'smooth integration' in Europe. .

I never suggested they did give a rat's arse. I was simply pointing out facts that no one else was (or seemed to be) aware of.

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When the 360 launched, Microsoft also promised to focus on popular titles but their original BC lineup was still terrible. Then, it's still pretty bad now and 1000 titles (which translates to 40% compatibility for Europe) is a lot. There's at least potential for my currently meager library to work.

Yeah, backwards compatibility is a bit of a joke. 3 of the 21 games I own work on mine (one of them being Fuzion Frenzy).

I also don't recommend insert The Suffering: The ties that bind into a 360... I did out of curiosity, and my 360 had a fit, then the game denied that it was inserted, then the system crashed and refused to be rebooted for 2 hrs. Ouch.

Ben, I'm feeling a little analogy heavy today. If someone told you in advance that they were going to kick you in the balls, it still wouldn't stop it really hurting when they got around to doing it.

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