PAL PS3s to have 1000 Backwards Compatible Titles, Harrison's Nose To Grow Longer?
"Three Speech" has posted an exclusive interview with Sony's Master of Words, Phil Harrison. In this interview, he addresses, among other things, concerns about the PlayStation 3's gimped backwards compatibility for the new set of PAL PS3s. Here's what he had to say:
Harrison would not be drawn on specific PS2 titles which will be playable on PS3 on March 23, but it seems the only problem we will have is deciding which ones to play: “The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles.”
One-thousand games isn't bad. However, what concerns me is if this is yet another string in that tangled web that Sony has woven since well before the PS3 launch? Another question is just how well these titles will be supported? I suppose we'll find out around March 23 how well Sony has pulled this off...if at all.
In the meantime, you overseas folks can take a look at the BC list...but only on and after March 23. So, it's probably best to bookmark it and come back to it then. For the rest of the short and sweet interview with Mr. Harrison, follow the link. He goes on to discuss Sony's thinking behind the removal of the Emotion Engine and expresses his opinion on the importance of backwards compatibility. Be sure to let us know what you think.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - PHIL HARRISON ON BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY [Three Speech]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 1 March 2007
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: Backwards Compatibility, Emotion Engine, Phil Harrison, PlayStation 3, PS3
Nice job taking potentially good news and making it sound negative.
1,000 titles sound good to me, even though the PS2 library is substantially bigger than that, I'm sure that most the PS2 games I'd play on a PS3 would work properly. Coupled with the fact that I don't intend on buying any new game system until the fall, I assume the BC list will have gotten much bigger by then.
For what it's worth, Harrison seems to be one of the more level-headed execs over at Sony. That's not saying much, but at least it came from him rather than Mr. Ridge Racer.
The thing I'm worried about with this software emulation is that it won't play all of the games I have. My PS2 library is predominantly made up of high-budget RPGs, a class of titles which has a record of being very difficult to emulate via software.
Square-Enix titles from the PSOne era are particularly infamous in that regard. The PSOne emulator I used in college had a rather large number of specific 'fixes' for Square and Enix games had to be turned on specifically for them, but would cause other games to crash.
If the same is true for the other quality titles in the PS2 library, I see a long wait for system updates before they can be played.