UPDATE: For full details on Playstation 2 compatibility, and which consoles support PS2 games, please see this PS3 model guide for details.
We’ve hinted at it in the past, that removing the Emotion Engine chip from the 80GB (and future) Playstation 3 consoles would ruin backwards compatibility with many Playstation 2 games. Without it, the console runs these games via a software emulator. You may not even care about this feature if you no longer play PS2 games, or kept your old console plugged in along with your new one. But one of the writers at Curmudgeon Gamer put his 90 game PS2 library to the test, playing each game on a 60GB and 80GB Playstation 3. The results weren’t pretty:
On the 60GB PS3, 84 of the 90 games worked perfectly fine, without any problems at all. 4 more had minor problems; 1 required a special controller that did not work with the PS3, and 1 suffered a show-stopping crash.
On the 80GB version, only 50 of the games worked perfectly (just 56.67% of his library). 12 of them crashed completely, 1 doesn’t work online, and there’s the one that required the special controller.
So if you care at all about playing your PS2 games and were planning on buying a PS3, you better run to the store now to pick up a 60GB version (as all remaining units are in stores now, and no more are being made). This is probably your last chance to buy a full-featured Playstation 3.
I thought sony took out the backwards compatability from the PS3’s for two reasons. One being that it was a really expensive component for the system, and two being that the PS2 was still selling really really well. So I guess in their own way they were being crafty. Making you either have to keep your old PS2 or buy a new PS2 with your PS3 just to pay your old games?
Either way, it makes more money for them. No console is meant to last forever, even the most well taken care of.
When it all comes down to it, people are still purchasing the PS2 so see no reason to add the software to the PS3.
While this is a major inconvenience, I don’t see them ever making another PS3 console with backwards compatability. So it looks like I won’t be buying one til theres a major price drop in consoles, as people on auctions sites have jacked up the prices on earlier backwards compatible models.
Maybe, just maybe, if the PS2 sales and PS3 sales suddenly durastically drop, there will be a chance sony will have to add this aoftware again, but I highly doubt this will happen. I for one wouldn’t mind paying extra for the backwards compatability feature. If people want it so much, and are willing to pay for seperate consoles with it, why not have two versions of a console? One for serious gamers of all generations of consoles, and one for recreational.
Although I see where sony went with this, I feel they let their followers down with this decision.
Lets home they realease a new console!