Playstation 3 – business of compatibility

The best thing about this current generation of video game consoles was that no matter what software was released today, we were promised access to the games of yesterday. Literally, we were promised that the consoles would be able to play the actual discs from the previous hardware generation. The Wii could play Gamecube games, the 360 could play Xbox games, and the Playstation 3 could play Playstation 2 games and Playstation 1 games. While the PSX emulation still remains, the PS2 emulation started fading away. Considering that the PS2 had some of the best software released of all time (all time!), it would make sense to retain the backwards compatibility for that specific console.

Over the past year or two, I’ve read that the PS3’s software emulation for PS2 titles was not 100%. There were a few games that did not play right, but for the most part they did. I’m not sure if I stumbled across a single report of a major release’s not playing well. Still, Sony cut PS2 emulation out of later models. I always wondered why.

Some reports have revealed leaks of Sony’s future plans involving PS2 software. While the physical discs that consumers already own will no longer work on the PS3, they will soon be able to pay to download that software onto the PS3’s hard drive. In other words, if you sold your PS2 to both conserve space in your entertainment area and provide you with extra cash for purchasing a PS3 because you thought your game discs would still be relevant, be prepared to drop an extra $10 -$25 to play those same games you already have in your possession. It’s just business. I think it’s a bad business move against loyal customers, but it’s business nonetheless.

This business move is similar to the one for the newly released PSP Go, which is a slimmer PSP unit that forgoes the UMD bay of the original PSP in favor of downloadable content. If one wishes to play his old UMD movies, forget it. If one wishes to play his old PSP games on the new unit, then he’ll have to pay to download them. Sound absurd? It really is. This is worse for countries in which consumers pay for internet access by the volume of data transferred per month. But like I said, it’s business.