Sony PlayStation 3 Backwards Compatibility: Is it coming back?

Just as an FYI, please fact check before you go to print.
All models of the PS3 are PS1 B/C. The original 20g, 60g and Motorstorm 80g and Metal Gear 80g are PS1 & PS2 B/C. It’s only the new ones that don’t play PS2 games. They will ALL still play PS1 games.

Sony removed the possibility of reinstating BC in PS3 with the 65 nm RSX revision which removed GS(PS2 GPU required for BC as RSX is not powerful enough to emulate it due to its greater bandwidth and multipass rendering performance) interface.

Anyone who speak of PS2 BC are totally clueless.

wow, pwned by Jon. Still, PSXExtreme got it right.

Jon has his head up his butt and doesn\’t know what he\’s talking about. The 60 and 20GB versions of the PS3 are the ONLY versions of the PS3 that are FULLY backwards compatible with few to no issues when playing PS1 and PS2 games. The 80GB versions had LIMITED backwards compatibility and could NOT play all PS2 games. And the games that it could play ran higher chances of having issues. Many games that play fine on the 20 and 60 GB PS3\’s, had problems on the 80GB PS3\’s. Look it up on Sony\’s site for proof.

Basically, the 20 and 60 GB versions are the only ones you would want for full backwards compatibility with fewer problems.

Well Jon has a point. No need to bash. The writter of the article did not include any of that information. Maybe it was to have people go to PS3Xtreme’s site.

But to answer the question. The people that want Backwards compability are the nastalgic group and cheap people.

I got a PS3 because I wanted to play Next Gen games. There is nothing next gen about the PS2. So Sony should not focus on bringing back BWC. No Need.

PS2 BC was one of the deciding factors of getting a 60 GB PS3 and selling my PS2… if it ever messes up, I’ll be mad… cause I won’t have anything to play my PS2 games on any more… BRING BC BACK!

Backwards compatibility would be lovely but I own the 40GB edition so PS2 games are a no-no. Shame but there we go. I’ve kept my slimline PS2 for the PS2 games I never got around to finishing. God of War I, MGS3 plus a few others. Will I ever get around to them? I really couldn’t tell you but having BC as an option is a lovely incentive for any new/potential customers of the PS3.

well “Booger” your head seems to be pretty far up your ass too by that logic.

The 20 and 60 were not FULLY BC, they had about a 98% sucess rate

and jon did not say Fully BC, all he was doing was pointing out the Platforms that had BC. dont be so quick to judge

I gave my ps1 and ps2 to the neighbor kids that did not have game consoles before I bought my ps3. What a crock of SH$# to find out I cant go back and play some of my favorites.

you are both idiots stop being so technical not everyone knows the exact specs of everything, all they want is to know what the damn thing does nothing els,and 98% to you is not fully BC .well man then man you just too technical i bet the ps3 only plays 99% of the ps3 games that are made for it

Well, as the regular man-on-the-street with a tight budget (and to answer the original question), yes I would buy if BC came back.

I sold my PS2 sometime ago, thinking that I would buy a PS3 when the price dropped (I believe it was $599 at the time) and be able to play the not inconsiderable number of new, quality titles that, until recently, were still coming out for PS2.

I foolishly thought that BC was here to stay and missed my window. Much like my other plan to wait a year after launch to buy a 360 so they’d have plenty of time work the bugs out.

I’d be happy with the current price-point and buy right *now* if I could have 100% (I’ll settle 98% haha) backwards compatibility.

One of the big issues that always comes up is the smaller library compared to the 360. Having access to the PS2′s many fine, cheap games would make PS3 the ideal bargain gaming/multimedia machine, IMO. Just what gamers need now.

Failing that, I’d accept a $100 price drop. (Oh yes, I’m holding my breath.)

If I had the money I would have bought a PS3 at release and only be griping about BC if they removed it from the console after the fact. I heard a rumor they removed BC just to get people to buy more PS3 games. That strategy only works when there is a decent base of good games for the console. Like XBOX360′s lineup… all of the PS3′s titles are short and very few of them are even good games. The problem is exclusivity. I already own a 360, thus games that are released on both platforms I can get on my 360 and have access to updates and bonus content more readily than through PSN. The less than a handful of PS3 games I would actually consider buying the PS3 for are not enough of an incentive for buying the console. MGS4, Resistance, GOW3, and I think one or two others that look interesting but can’t remember the names of are all that’s out now. After the PS3 drops to more sane price points and I can get the system and all 4 or 5 games I want for it for less than what the system costs now… I’ll take the plunge, but if I have a choice between 360 and PS3 on a title… I’m sorry sony…

I got rid of my ps2 thinking that my ps3 could play ps2 games. I thought it was logical because ps2 games had backwards capability. Once I tried to play one of my favorite ps2 games Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsitance or Snake Eater it didn’t do it! The guy at the store said it would to. Stupid Wal-Mart working liar!!!!

I would buy PS3 if they brought back backwards compatibility.

Look at their competition for example,

the Wii can emulate practically any console not owned by sony, and even so, it can also emulate sony consoles as well with Homebrew channel *illegal* but easy as hell to mod into your console.

Not only that, the XBOX 360 can play most the original XBOX titles. Both the Wii and the XBOX started out with rumble controller capabilities, did the PS3? No.

The PS3 is the biggest waste of money out there. Just watch and see, enough consumer complaints about the backwards compatibility gone, and they will make some models that support it. Just as they did with consumer complaints about rumble features having been taken out. They ended up bringing it back.

Now look, how many models of the ps3 have been released vs. models of xbox 360 or wii. The wii, as it was far from perfect, has received free updates over the years that fixed most the problems it had upon release, such as data storage and sdhd capabilities. The 360 had different issues but they still have not released so many models. Here we have people buying new ps3 models left and right because sony can’t settle down and finish the product. I honestly don’t think they are done releasing models of the PS3.

Shit, by the time they perfect the PS3 it will be time for the PS4. They are doing exactly what Sega did.

I think everyone would enjoy seeing Sony back on the top again. I mean, I loved PS1 and PS2, guess how many models there were of the PS1 *not counting regional shit*

There was only one model for the ps1, and at the time sony wasn’t trying to rob your wallets either. What? They didn’t even release any required extra hardware for their games except the Pocketstation…and even that wasn’t required.

I think it’s just a ploy to suck up everyone’s money.

That’s all sony wants anymore, they want your money. Buy a model and wait a two years to a year and a half and they will release another model that does the same thing.

What happened to the good old days of sony…

Why can’t the consumers have the new gen gaming experience AND the old gen gaming experience…

Things I expect from Sony before I buy a PS3:

1) Backwards compatibility for PS2 & PS1 OR downloadable PS2 & PS1 games from sony’s online shop on the ps3 that were made to work with only the ps3.

2) A final model. I don’t want to go buy a PS3 model and find out that one is going to be released next year. They need to come out and make a press release regarding sony’s future plans for the ps3 console; in general.

… I guess I only expect those two things from Sony. I just wish I could skip through all the bullshit and see what they have to give us. So far their competitors have given us much more…

As a side note, I wish sony would release the stupid region lock policies on their models so I could buy japanese games and play them on my american consoles. *Honestly knows this will NEVER happen… cause its wishful thinking and such*

And that is exactly why I haven’t bought one yet. Every time the price drops and I consider it, I wait… and lo and behold one with a bigger hard drive, or whatever cheezy upgrade they decide on comes out. I upgraded my original 360 to a 120gb HDD and soon will buy an elite when they release a 200+ gb HDD version… which will probably be thier last before they release a new console altogether. Microsoft never said they would have 100% BC, just as much as they could get to work stabily on… which isn’t alot, but we didn;t expect even what we got. Sony HAD nearly 100% BC and yoinked it to boost PS3 game sales… I got back into gaming after years without to the PS2… and now Sony’s gonna have to plant thier lips on my you-know-what to get me to buy a PS3 anytime soon.

They need to bring the B/C back and they need to have it for all the systems not just a select few and if they do that and place 4 USB slots on all the systems then i can promise sales will go up for the PS3.

I could care less about the USB slots… that’s what hubs are for and they can make a 20 dollar slimline one that will add 8 if they really have a problem… the issue is a single chip (The Emotion Engine chip) that if you cracked open your PS3 you’d probably still see a slot for on the board of all of them. Hell you could probably yoink the Emotion chip out of an OLD PS3 yourself and drop it on the PS3′s board to add the BC yourself. it’s ONE CHIP.

Not putting in backwards compatibility in the newer consoles is really a bad business strategy. If the systems are backwards compatibile, people can sell their old systems, so they won’t have to pay as much for the new ones, making it so that more people can buy it without actually reducing the costs or taking any losses, whereas if the systems aren’t backwards compatible, people still need their old systems if they want to play their old games.

Isn’t that funny, cheap or nastalgic. LOL.

Is it cheap or nastalgic to play a cd you bought 10 years ago on a new ps3? Is it considererd cheap or nastalgic to play Monopoly on a board? Fun games are just that fun.

I still think Tetris is wonderful. I think Super Mario 3 is still great. And Barbers Adagio still plays great. And I still want to play Final Fantasy XII on my new PS3.

You did not really think this all the way through.

I just want the backward compat so that I can get rid of my old PS2 and still play the large library I have on occasion. I’m fine with software compatibility — they did an awesome job with it, with far more coverage than the 360′s backward compat. But Sony has been sowing confusion over their many nearly-identical-looking SKUs, some of which have HW compat, some with software compat, and others still that judging by the “WARNING: NOT COMPATIBLE” stickers, I can only presume have even the software compat deliberately disabled. It’s far worse confusion than even the 360 SKUs.

yes, yes it is.

i think this whole thing is 50% novice and 50% ignorant leading to a 100% fact that all of you have issues with a subject debated LAST YEAR! stop debating over stuff from 08 were almost in the year 2010. get some more current news to debate on.

“The 20 and 60 were not FULLY BC, they had about a 98% success rate” how can you say his head is up his arse, by that logic? your logic in that sentience is the problem. eg not fully compatible they had 98% success rate. if you had a 98$ success rate with woman would you say you were not fully compatible with woman? if you got 98% in an exam would you say you knew your stuff and performed the task excellent or not compatible with that subject?

I have to agree, we traded our ps2 for a ps3 thinking it was BC, turns out it wasn’t, so now we have a stack of games we can no longer play, and the lack of titles for the ps3, being a girl even more of a lack, I don’t often get to use it at all! Kingdom Hearts was the one game I enjoyed and now its just collecting dust.

I don’t understand why some are so angry that many folks want BC. If you don’t, good for you, must mean that you never like playing your old favorites again. However, for those of us that DO, BC is a big issue. In fact, I only bought my PS2 because it had that feature. I almost bought a PS3 but regrettably I had to decide that without BC it isn’t worth my money or my time. What happens when my PS2 breaks and I’m stuck with my favorite older games that I”M DYING to play but can’t. Very rotten of Sony to go this way and it’s clearly due to profits. They probably feel that we would buy fewer PS3 games if we have BC. TERRIBLE decision for me and all those like me.

sony should bring back bwc, because when you think about it, there are a large amount of college students that love playstation, and they most likely dont have a lot of money, because its being spent on more important things like tuition and books, so when they need to make the decision to upgrade or not, they’re most likely not going to because they cant afford to be buying all new games for $50 ea.

i agree, not having BC is what is keeping me from buying a PS3

Is backwards compatibilty a feature I want back?
YES, YES, and YES!

I like every other potential PS3 slim consumer, wants backwards compatibility for ps2 games. For gods sake, I demand this feature. It would make Sony more money and boost Sales of Ps3 slims and Sony could gain the trust back from their Loyal customers who bought all their Ps1 and ps2 products before! Support your own consumers Sony No BC is BS!

I think PS3 Backwards Compatibilty is coming back because…

1. Sony patented emulation for the PS3 cell processors.
2. Leaked SEGA document says Sony plans on selling ps2 and Sega games on Psn, which requires emulation.
3. Can already create PS1 and PS2 Save Files on PS3.
4. There is a large demand by most consumers for BC.
5. PS2 console nearing end of long lifecycle.

Common Sony No BC is BS!
PS3 new slogan “it doesn’t play everything”

Enjoy that thing,while it lasts.I had a 60GB model,and loved it.I have only 7 PS3 games and can’t afford to go out buying new ones everyother day.When my original PS3 kicked the bucket,I had to dedicate a paycheck to get a new 120 GB slim,as I also use it for it’s web browser.Now,I’m sitting on 30+ PS2 games I can’t do anything with.I’d kill to play Armored Core 3,Ace Combat 5 or Devil May Cry 3:SE.

I was going to buy a ps3 slim but then i found out that there was no bc and i was shocked to find out there hadnt been any bc for a while (i juts thought it was automatic and hadnt bothered looking it up).

Last week, I bought some of the ol’ ps2 greats. Sly Cooper, ratchet and clank and jak 3. I would want to be able to play them on a ps3…

Oh well. sony has lost one potential buyer. for now.
(BRING BACK BC!!)

SONY tends to be a bit greedy. They think that it will be to their disadvantage to allow backwards compatibily from PS3 to PS2 because they are still selling PS2′s. This is a mistake. First they already came out with PS3′s that do so now they’re alienating people who would simply be offended by it (Remember SEGA). Now in my case I do not own or currently have a PS2 or PS1 but it would be an inducement for me to by the PS3 if it did because I saw many PS2 games I would like to have. Now I’m not gonna go out and buy two sysyems and I’m not gonna buy a PS3 now since they will more than likely put it as a feature back in later on. C’mon SONY get with it. Your products have always been on the superior side so why compromise now and piss people off – we are in a recession here. Oh and I don’t like the styling of the new machine either… looks likes it got cheaper not only in price but look and quality as well.

Kinda heated about my new 250gb ps3. Great system but wtf?!?!? I spent 350 dollars on it and i cant play my ps2 games!! I am a faithful sony playstation owner. Have every console they have made. So i go ahead and buy the newest greatest one to hit the market and for what? I want the b/c feature on my ps3!!! Any info would help! Love the product, not so many of the features though.

Bryant,
Your options are severely limited. The PS3 Wikipedia entry has a handy chart on all the models, including b/c. You’ll notice that only the first and second gen models have it, to any degree. And both of those are out of production. Now you may be able to find one, but chances are you’ll pay dearly for it. It sucks mightily, but getting a PS3 AND a PS2 is probably the most economic option now if you want to enjoy both game libraries.

Yes, this is a feature I would like, and for those of us who had a 60 gb backward compatible model that YLOD’ed, what are we supposed to do? I don’t want to buy a used 60 gb bc ps3 and have YLOD on in me in a few months, and I don’t want to buy a slim that doesn’t have bc. Between a rock and a hard place here…

YOU HAVE TO BREATHE!

there is no region lock on ps3 or psp lol only on xbox and im 100% sure cause i got gh3 and haze from america for my europe console

Talking about wasting money look all the gadgets for the Nintendo Wii every time you turn around have to by more gadgets to play the games. Like having the extension to play wii resort now they are having a board to draw on your TV. The Wii fit game having a controller that you stand on LOL..