Euro PS3 cuts PS2 Emotion Engine, NOT motion sensing

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Saturday, 24 February 2007

An online article from TG Daily has erroneously claimed that the PS3 is cutting motion sensing in its Euro models, but in reality has cut the backwards compatibility of the chip based ‘Emotion engine’, the graphical grunt of the PS2.

An article at TG Daily has mistaken claimed that motion sensing was cut from the Euro PS3, the PAL version that will also be sold in Australasia, Africa and the Middle East, with the error on the TG Daily article now corrected.

Likely this error occurred from the closeness of the words ‘emotion engine’ and ‘motion’, with the Emotion Engine the name of Sony’s PS2 graphics system which, at the time, delivered cutting edge graphics for a games console.

This error in publishing has occurred in the midst of Sony’s latest round of bad PS3 publicity, with Sony cutting out most of the chips that were supposed to guarantee PS2 compatibility in the PS3, although as we discovered last November, only delivered partial PS2 compatibility on Japanese and US PS3s.

Now Europeans, who along with Australians, New Zealanders, those in the Middle East and Africa, will not only be paying much more expensive prices for the PS3 than those paid in the US or Japan, but will have to make do with even less PS2 compatibility than previously thought.

This is because the PS2 chipset is being removed to save Sony money, so it can get to a break-even point on PS3 costs by the middle of next year. PS2 compatibility will now be offered via software emulation, and as this is effectively a big task to do properly, especially when faced with the huge library of PS2 titles, a lesser range of PS2 games can be played on Euro PS3’s than US or Japanese versions.

To counter the inevitable PR backlash, Sony is promising to release firmware updates which will enable more PS2 games to work on the Euro PS3, a process it had to undertake with US and Japanese PS3s as well, although this will now cause Sony to have to work harder at a time when Sony wants to focus on the PS3’s new capabilities and next-generation gaming experiences.

Will this new revelation truly cause Sony and the PS3 any long term harm? While some will be disappointed, and even some of the Internet are claiming to be offended, the issue will soon die down and blow over.

After all, are you really going to buy a PS3 because it is PS2 compatible? Sure, there’ll be plenty of people with PS2 libraries that will enjoy playing PS2 games for a bit longer. But with the PS3 focus on next-gen gaming and more, this issue will eventually be remembered as little more than a storm in a PS3 cup.
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