PS3's rumored backcompat solution: a PS2 inside

I dont see why people are bashing this. If I am forking over 500 or 600 for PS3, they better put in as much as humanly possible. I bought a PS2 and put them where they are now so they better make BC a priority since I could play through MGS even today. If they could get some upscaling and AA...things would be pretty nice.

Although it's certainly nice to have BC, I'm not one to purchase a system because of it. After I picked up my PS2, I never played any of my PS1 games again. They're all collecting dust on my shelf. I've pretty much played all my old games to death anyway.

Sony, however, likes BC because they can boast about the total number of games for a system, nevermind that most aren't available anymore.

Well when I worked in GS... the main reason people chose a PS2 over GC or Xbox was because of BC. People like knowing their previous investments aren't wasted and if you're like me.. i dont have TONS of space on my shelves for an Xbox, a 360, a PS2, Gamecube, PS3 and Wii. SO i like to condense my systems when ever possible so i like BC. hell i'm starting to wish my 360 supported more games myself.

But seriously...what is there to complain over? its not like their charing more. They're taking the hit for this, not us. So whats there to complain about? Other than rabid fanboyishness that never gets anyone anywhere?

Anyone know how the PS3 will handle the rumble feature in PS2 games? I was just playing a Medal of Honor game the other day, and I have to say that it's really a great feature feeling the controller shake when you're getting plugged by a sniper.

People with the 360 are forgetting one thing... If you buy a 360 and transfer your live account to it you cannot use the same live account on your old system... It is a big deal for 360 BC...

I don't see Sony having this problem... You know the PS2 was out a year before the XBOX and now they are a year behind on getting the PS3 on the shelves... what are they doing with their time???? Why don't they have a working emulator that can be like the 360s? Where you can download updates as they become available.

I dont care either way but they have had TONS of time to work on the PS3... why is this even an issue?

One thing is certain. Microsoft was very good at making Sony's life nearly impossible. They have so many things to deliver; it sounds almost impossible to do them all. They need to exceed the xbox 360 in everything, XBox Live-like service, Graphics, speed, and now BC. I think Microsoft goal was not to make a console better than Sony’s; but to bankrupt Sony by forcing them to buy into a very expensive game that they didn’t have a choice not to play. Sony should have done what Nintendo said, "No thanks. I rather to do my own thing.". If Sony does not deliver at least 2 times what Microsoft is doing they are dead.

I was wondering about something I first heard a while ago and have been thinking about it... they 'suggest' that users can swap the hard drive with any hard drive found at a local computer store.. so like.. are they promoting people opening the case and voiding their warrany? OR are they allowing people to open the case and mess around with it, at no expense?

BC is a nice feature to have since if you missed out on some games and you don't have the system anymore due to it being no longer being manufactored you can still play those old games on the new system.

Also another reason for BC is that if you hear this game is great but it is the third or second in the series and the prior ones are on the old console well you can still play them on the new one.

Often people are put off by not being able to play the prior releases of a series because they miss out on the game story or don't feel right playing the second or third without playing the first one.

Ahem Hal that is indeed unaswered as to how you are going to upgrade the PS3 because a lot of those pc componets they mentioned won't fit into the PS3 or if you tried you would damage the insides.

I suspect Sony will offer an upgrade service that keeps your warranty including any extended store warranties intact but charges you through the roof.

So instead of paying 500 dollars you pay about eight hundred dollars total for upgrading the thing to the 600 dollar version.

Backwards compatibility is important because of the initial lack of 3rd party support. It matters especially for sony because of the hugh library of old games.

In addition, if 100 million PS2 consoles (give or take) are actually out there, it actually makes more sense for developers to continue to support the PS2 until adoption has reached criticial mass for profitability. Early adopters of the PS3 could be involved in the transitional phase and have the best of old and new.

if there is the old ps2 hardware and the new HDD and blue-ray... cant u hack it?

reminds me of DS and GBA (since the chipset is shared correct?). WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL lol

So what the hell is wrong with doing that? Its what they did with PS2 and makes sense to do the same with PS3. Its a no brainer. But instead of making a positive remark on the fact that Sony are doing what Microsoft would have liked to do (and shoud have done but didnt want to pay nvidia mad license fees). You make it out to be a bad thing? Jesus Joystiq, you guys are incredibly annoying.

With the state that BC is on Xbox360, im glad of the reassurance that all my games continure to work in Playstation land. I've ditched half my Xbox 1 games because of the mess MS are in with BC. So what if it means no upscaling, filtering etc? At least they will actually WORK!

bladestar, that really doesnt make much sense...the 360's BC can play about 250 games and requires an HDD. Sony could do half what they are doing now and still come out alright which will hopefully spur Microsoft to get the train rolling on some more 360 BC updates since I still cant play a lot of my library.

Hal, all the spec sheets say 2.5'' detachable HDD slot so I am guessing that is what you would open up instead of the whole console. It would be pretty ridiculous of Sony to say "go ahead and upgrade" and then have your warranty voided but who knows. The idea of them having an upgrade service themselves that charges you is pretty farfetched and unexceptable.

assuming for a moment that this is true, the real question is whether or not this is a new decision. there is still a lot of software/hardware glue work that would need to be done to ensure 99.9% compatibility. could this mean a slight delay or the possibility that it won't ship with 100% compatibility, as it can take months just to test all of the titles. they still have to tie existing parts like input together.

i assume that the PS1 is fully software emulated already, since they're doing downloadable games on the PSP.

that's one of the reasons that the MS update is so slow, because a tiny change could make a game unplayable halfway through it.

"People with the 360 are forgetting one thing... If you buy a 360 and transfer your live account to it you cannot use the same live account on your old system... It is a big deal for 360 BC"

That is absolutely WRONG. I am using the same xbox live account for my old xbox and my xbox 360. You just can't be on the same live account with both machines at the same time.

Umm I hate to rain on sony's backwards compatible parade here but if there is no difference in the game (similar to some 360 games) b/w the PS2 and the PS3 WTF is the point? I am no math major, but just by looking at the sales numbers of the current generation that there may be all of 3 people who will by the PS3 that dont already own a PS2.

Has any of this even been verified by Sony or is this just this weeks rumor for the PS3? What's wrong with people these days? Just freakin' wait for them to announce launch titles and other features before making broad assumptions about what will happen.

My PS2 is already worth nothing to resell. I was vaguely considering a PS3 at some point so I could play FFXIII in a somewhat decent resolution with some freaking AA. No AA drives me NUTS in current gen PS2 games. However if they're going to just use a PS2 on a chip, it might not have access to these features on the PS3 graphics setup... which would suck.

I prefered to play Tekken 3 in my Dreamcast (Bleem emulator) than in the PS2. It looked a lot better on the Dreamcast.

This may not be the place for this but I like to read the posts and comments and this bugs me: This is a comments section. A comment is not longer than the post you are writing about. If you want to be a writer get your own blog.
If you have to start a new paragraph this is a new thought and there for a new and separate comment. This is how you get to the first problem. If any of this seems difficult hit yourself in the head with a hammer.

Dave...what are you talking about? FFXIII is a PS3 game... why would it have to rely on the PS2 chip for anything? Its not a BC game designed for PS2.. its a PS3 game.
amd guillermo...what does that have to do with anything?

I don't care if it is a chip or an emulator. I just hope that there is a way to transfer your old data to the new system. That's my big complaint with the 360. I was in the middle of playing two games on my Xbox when I bought my 360. I would like to finish them but I don't want to use my old Xbox because I only have two component inputs on my TV which are being occupied by my HD DVR and my 360, neither of which I want to disconnect (who wants to move a 61 in rear projection TV?) I could use the regular video inputs but I would have to find them and it wouldn't be in HD so why would I do that? Even if I did hook it up I don't want to go back to wired controllers. Because of the obvious reasons and my son is crawling now and loves to pull on controller wires and or eat them (I already had to remove the power button from the TV because he loves to turn the TV on and off while I am gaming or watching TV). Finally I could just start the games over on the 360 but I am already half way through the games. If I did start the games over I would want to buy the 360 version of the game so I could at least get my gamer points for it but I already paid $50 for it and the trade in is like $10 so I would end up paying anther $50 dollars to play the same game that I already own and am half way through.

End rant!

Anybody want to trade a 360 version of Tony Hawk American Wasteland for a Xbox version of the game?

What happens in Prince of Persia 3?

hmm, maybe developers could actually take use of the extra cpu to write ps3 games as well? Emotion Engine + Cell + RSX ...

Hmm...maybe developers will program it to play a PS3 game on one screen and a PS2 game on the other.Umm,only one display output,doh,never mind,next!

I reckon Ken could say this at his next press conference,
'Emotion Engine,Cell and RSX will finaly enable developers to bring Toy Story Graphics to the consumer living room.'
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahaa...
We love you Ken!

the idea is easy transition.

alot of people with ps2s have around 30 games each. you sell/stash your ps2 away and buy a ps3 u will have no problem because you can play all your ps2 games that you already have and also play ps2 games that will come out for possibally another 2 years.

the main thing to do here is ensure that all games are backwards compatible from the start because alot of people may not have access to the internet and alot of people may not link up their ps3 with the internet in their house. microsoft are lazy they just assumed everyone has internet and those who want to have backwards compatibily for only a few games go and download it.

xbox 360 is a broken machine, with addons and slow service updates - the usual idea is to build a solid quality product from the beginning.