Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 20 March 2007 07:45
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The other big negative issue to recently hit the European/Australian, was the removal of the hardware Emotion chip from the PS3, this chip provided the means to gain 98% backwards compatibility to PS2 game titles.
Ephraim goes on to mention that since the original launch of PS3, Sony has been able recreate the backwards compatibility using software emulation. A saving of $27 (the cost of the Emotion chip) per PS3 when you are planning on producing 10 to 15 million units was too good to pass up
Up to about 1000 titles out of the catalogue of 2200 PS2 games have been software emulated, Ephraim estimates that on the date of launch the total games backwardly compatible will be about 1200; “For PR purposes, it was not the best thing for us, but in the real light of day, when we launch, I don’t think it will affect consumers that much, especially if we have 70 to 75 percent of titles compatible”
Ephraim went on to explain more about PlayStation Home, which will be available for download soon after the launch. The lush 3D environment will provide a Sony version of Second Life, enabling online discussion, game match making, Avatar and apartment customisation and general showing off of awards and style.
Playstation Home users will be able to create content for others to view within their own apartments. As Ephraim says, this is a quantum leap forward for this attempt at a virtual world environment on a games console.
What about the launch itself, what will be happening, see page 3
