High PS3 cost takes toll on PS2 backwards compatibility for PAL PS3

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 23 February 2007 20:05

Your IT - Entertainment

The third thing to do if you can’t live with feelings of disappointment or offence is to buy an Xbox 360, a Wii or a PC gaming system. Actually there’s a fourth thing and that’s not play games at all.

When the issue of reduced PS2 compatibility arose for the US and Japanese models of the PS3 before last year’s US and Japan launches, there was disappointment then too. So discovering that the PAL model has even less compatibility is disappointing, but hardly earth shattering.

I really don’t think that the PS3 not being able to play some older PS2 titles is really going to be a deal breaker, do you? After all, are you buying a PS3 to play PS2 and PS1 games, or are you buying a PS3 for the PS3 experience?

Sony is the only console maker that doesn’t yet have a next-generation console available from authorized channels around the world. That will change on March 23, and then the next-gen console wars will finally get underway in earnest, along with a spectacular global PS3 advertising campaign that will last from now until the end of the year and beyond.

It likely won’t be a continuous non-stop campaign, but can there be any doubt that Sony will be heavily promoting the PS3? As you can imagine, the promotions will run around the next generation experiences that the PS3 offers, of which there are many. The PS2/PS1 compatibility issue is just a blip on the radar.

Go ahead, feel offended by Sony if you want. For my money, it’s just a storm in a PS3-cup that will soon pass, as the focus moves firmly onto the next generation, relegating the last generation to the place it belongs – yesterday.