Sony PlayStation 3 Backwards Compatibility: Is it coming back?
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3 | By: Alan Ng
Posted on: March 9, 2009 | 31 Comments
There is a great article over at PS3Extreme which debates the ongoing issue surrounding backwards compatibility on the PS3. At the moment, Sony have removed B/C from consoles, which means old PS1 and PS2 classics are only available to those who own an older PS3 SKU.
The article, which can be read in full here explains the possibilities of B/C returning to the PS3 in some time in the future. At the moment, the Playstation 2 is continuing to sell well around the world, so Sony believe that it would not be a great business move to bring B/C back, thus reducing sales of the PS2.
On the other hand, B/C could be a gamer’s prime factor in their decision to pick up a PS3 for the current price. For gamers who picked up a 60GB model on launch, this story is irrelevant to you, but for those of you with a newer model, is backwards compatibility still a feature you would like to have?
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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.
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.
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.
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!