PS2 games on PS3: Who cares?

Sony has revealed today that only "a limited range of PS2 titles" will be playable on PlayStation 3 when it launches in March, due to a change in the console's architecture. PS2 games on PAL machines will be played through an emulator - as with Xbox 360 and Xbox titles. This means Euro PS3 owners will be able to play fewer old games than US and Japanese gamers, where the PS3 features built-in hardware to support Sony's last-gen games.

Clearly, this could be perceived as disappointing news for UK gamers who have already waited longer than the US and Japan for the arrival of PS3. But does it really matter that much? To bring you a balanced view on this opinion-dividing development, gamesradar.com offer two perspectives from either side of the fence.

[FordGTGuy]

buying the console no one really.

[FeralPhoenix]

I think this article makes great points for both sides of the debate....as for my view I would definitely fall in the "who cares" category because the only time I played a xbox game on my 360 was to see the difference (Halo 2) and I have alot of xbox games that are great, but I'm not the nostalgic type "new stuff" makes me excited and honestly I don't have enough time to play all the "new stuff" I like....I have a wife and kids, so its impossible for me find the time for my old games...sometimes I just look at them, wipe off the dust, remember something I really liked about the game, and then 3 seconds later I'm enjoying Crackdown on my 360....hmmm, but for those who can't let go, I guess they really do care about BC.

[videogamenews]

I don't care. Why would I want to play PS2 games on a PS3? Just like I have no intention of ever buying an Xbox game for my 360.

[Jones Miller]

Quote Matt Cundy, Associate Editor:

"Wise up, move on and embrace the new generation. Oh, and don't throw out your old consoles."

Why would you want to keep your old consoles then?

[TheGoodMART]

The only time i put a ps2 game on the ps3 was when i first got the system just to see if they worked and also after the 1.5 update because I wanted to see the difference

[techie]

I do. Prince of persia, god of war, grand theft auto, okami, ico, shadow of collossus...

[Bathyj]

I definately care about BC. Actually I care more now because I'm hoping these old game with be improved with AA and higher res giving them a new lease on life. I still think people are being gloom merchants about this. I trust that Sony, while they may not even get 70% of all games compatable, will have 80 to 90% of the most popular games compatable. Also I think they need to bring back more on PSN like they did with Tekken 5:DR. The best thing about my Wii by far is the VC. Sony have such a huge collection of Back catalouge games it would be a great cash cow for them to bring classics back. Can you seriously imagine if they put FFVII in 1080p on PSN for 10 or 15 bucks. The world would go nuts. It would sell 5 million all over again and the positive news would do them no harm. When you think about how many classic games cleaned up and could potentially do it again I'd be amazed if they weren't looking at doing this with a lot more title. Hopefully Tekken will do well and it will sent a trend.

Having said all that I never get rid of my old consoles anyway so if a few titles aren't supported it wont be to be. Alson I dont think the guy in this article should be so concerned because XB BC isn't up to scratch. Its not fair think the worst automatically of Sony because M$ hasn't done it right.

[Captain Tuttle]

Is that Europeans are getting less than they were promised. Historically consoles improve over time, they don't lose features. And it just makes Sony look bad, like a bunch of amateurs. It's really not a good sign that this is happening. They could be getting into real financial trouble. It's too bad, really.

[PureGamer]

people are acting like this is going to be sony's downfull lol come off of it. It hasnt took every single PS2 game out so everyone still has loads of them to play on the PS3 if you that worried keep your PS2.

[Bullseye]

At a personal level, there are clearly people who find this disappointing news.On the otherhand, this appears to be quite trivial in terms of its effect on selling consoles.Certainly its not an issue for me, i'm more interested in lack of current PS3 games and initial outlay in order to purchase in the first place.I already know that i will purchase a PS3 at some point,if this helps Sony cut the price, then i will be onboard all the sooner.So, its actually good news for me

[Killer Cop]

If people have PS2 games, they have a PS2. As said in the article, and what I said before, just unplug one single cable from the PS2 and plug in the cable from your new PS3. It's not like military training you will go through. And you know what, if your TV has several ports to plug in, the only thing you need is pushing another button on your TV remote. Unless you are so stupid to throw out your own PS2 of course, I don't see a problem at all, especially when firmware will be updated over time.

[Karebear]

Noone really knows if this is a good thing or a bad thing yet. Sure I have a large collection of PS2 games I still like to play on my PS3, that's a no brainer, but there are certiainly some of the older ones that I just can't play because they graphics look SO BAD on a large HDTV. If sacrificing a few more obscure titles would let the PS3 do some simple AA and upscaling to the PS2 games, I'm all for it. Plus its not like they are going to have two firmwares out there. Whatever boat Europe is in, the US will be too. I can't imagine them offering a choice of which method to use, that would be a support nightmare. I know its rough, but we just need to wait and see. All the flaming and posting in the world won't change the fact that noone really knows how this is going to turn out :)

[OutpostCommand]

I personally find backwards compatibily rather important.
MGS1, MGS2 and MGS3 (In my opinion) are the three best games ever made (So far).
I will be gutted if I cant play my three favourite games of all time on my PS3.

[Skynetone]

Does any-one at sony live in the real world

it should have been the best concole ever not a mixed bag of toys

they need a kick-ass game soon or they might be in big trouble

[techie]

I think this debate has gone on long enough...we really have discussed whether we care or not in the announcement. So lets just leave it at that.

[Captain Tuttle]

Are you a mod?

[Monchichi025]

Yes, Sony may be having some sort backwards compatibility.... but with this news coming out, people are going to get the news twisted and MANY casual gamers will only hear "No backwards compatibility at all." you see casual gamers don't come to sites like this to read info, they get there info from friends. And you know 1000's of X-box fanboys will just be telling people; no backwards compatibility for PS3...SORRY!!

That may be wrong, but it is what it is!

[Booneral]

I do care, and I don't care... depending on whatever Sony is planning to do with HD support over PS2 games.

It is nice playing Halo, Halo 2, Forza Motorsport and some other games like that on 360 in HD, they still look very nice.

I'd like to play MGS2-3, Final Fantasy X-XII, Devil May Cry 1-3 and some other games on my PS3 when I get it. I have no doubt that those popular games will be just supported fine.

I just hope software emulation will enable PS3 to deliver HD in PS2 games. That'd be awesome. But if it will be just like PS2, then I don't care, my PS2 is still here, and I would just use PS2 for the sake of Dual Shock. Oh yeah, I'd sacrifice Dual Shock for HD support lol...

[Boink]

to answer the title of this article "who cares?"

the 100 million people who bought a ps2...

[power of Green]

Your living in lala land anyways casual gamers do visit game sites and all a casual gamers is, is a person that does not play games that much Bill Gates, Peter More, Ken K., PHIL H. all could be casual gamers lol. Believe it or not I'M! a casual gamer as i only have one consile that i play an hour or two; 2 or 3 days a week, my score is 2500 or somthing sence last march while a huge number of 360 owners are in the 10,000 and above range.

You can be a casual social drinker and know your beers/wine's, what your saying is we all need to be drunks to be knowlegable about games. lol

I have to change my thinking also; the inner workings and the politics of the game indusrty are not mainstream.

[Bowie fan]

I've never owned a PS2, and probably wouldn't be bothered about backward compatibility, were it not for the fact that my local supermarket is selling well over an hundred titles for it at £7.99 apiece. And that has piqued my interest, because quite a few of them look like pretty good games to me.

In my view, Sony's decision to renege on it's promise of full backwards compatibility, (with hardware support) is genuine cause for concern. And certainly enough of a problem to make me wonder whether or not it's worth buying a PS3. Especially as PS2's have never been cheaper to buy than the £50 they are at the moment!

Which in itself raises another issue. If the PS2 can be sold for a mere £50, how much money can Sony realistically expect to save on production costs by not including the silicon of the 'emotion engine' in the PS3? It must be peanuts per unit, at best!

[techie]

Well you see I heard that the ps2 chip was about $50...mass produced much less. So let's say £10 (pounds make more sense to me) ...a million sold saves 10million pounds... 10million sold saves 100million pounds... and you see when you're selling worldwide hardware any penny saved on each unit equals money saved/made. Why do you think they left the HDMI off the 360? Because they didn't think they needed it even though it would have cost them pratically nothing per unit. Etc.

Also...Bowie fan!? Right there with you.

[WTF]

Also there were rumors that sony was making another version of the ps3 without blu-ray,but it was just a rumor.

[Bowie fan]

I agree that penny pinching on production can save a fortune on a global scale deepbrown. I'm just not convinced that in this case, the money Sony will be saving, will be anything like adequate compensation for the potential loss of PS3 sales it could incur. Backward compatibility is a big selling point for the PS3, especially to people like myself who have never owned one, but would welcome the chance to be able to pick up some of the games at bargain bin prices.

It's also worth considering that Sony's cost cutting exercise is almost certainly destined to find it's way onto the NTSC production lines, at some point in the future. After all, Sony aren't going to be content manufacturing two different grades of console indefinitely. Least of all, when they're desperately trying to save a little money!

Think of the problem that could bring with it when existing stocks of the 'uber console' have dried up, and any replacements under warranty are of the cheaper variety, without hardware BC. I guess that will be the point when BC suddenly becomes an important issue for some unlucky punters. I know I certainly wouldn't be too thrilled to discover that my $600 investment had been replaced with a piece of tack of inferior build quality, and lower specification!

@WTF.

I hope that's one rumour that turns out to be true mate. Although I also think it's something that Sony should have really done from day one. At this point in the game it just seems like too little, too late to make any real difference.