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Sony respond to European PS3 backwards compatibility problems

by Steven Williamson on 23 February 2007, 10:28

Tags: PlayStation 3, Sony Computers Entertainment Europe (NYSE:SNE), PS3

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Sony have made it clear that the European version of the Playstation 3 console will play fewer PS2 titles that than the North American and Japanese versions.

A spokesperson for Sony said, "Backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models.” In terms of figures, we have no idea what this actually means!

“Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3.”

Around the time of Sony's first announcement of this function, the estimate for the amount of backwards compatible games to have passed this criteria was approximately 50-85%, but at E3 last year Sony changed their tact by informing us that the PS3 would be 100% backwards compatible - IGN reported this news straight from the PS3 conference.

Back in October, Sony changed their minds again whilst speaking to IDG News service, when Reiko Sakamoto said, "It's hard to say the PlayStation 3 will be 100 per cent backwards compatible. But as we said earlier this year, we aim to make it so as much as possible."

It's crucial that Sony succeed in making the PS3 compatible, not only to keep the millions of PS2 fans happy, but also to gain the edge over Microsoft, who notoriously didn't deliver as promised on backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360.

Despite gamers complaining about lack of backwards compatibility on both the Xbox 360 and now the PS3, research actually shows that few old games ever get played on new machines.

Whatever the case, we'd still like to know why European PS3s won't have the same backwards compatibility as other regions, after all we'll be paying more than any other region for less functionality. Nice work, any chance of knocking a few quid off?


HEXUS Forums :: 2 Comments

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at least MS made everyone's backwards compatibility the same. Sony are giving us an inferior console
sony just dont care about europe, a number of interviews with people working with the ps3 showed us that. and of course, my fave quote:

“When it comes down to it, faced with a choice between nothing and a PS3, punters will always opt for the PS3,”