Sony: Backwards Compatibility Is Never Coming Back

[ArchBlade]

...

I am saddened by this news.

I don't exactly have my PS2 anymore, disc drive is long dead. I was kinda relying on somehow obtaining some form of backwards compatibility for my PS3. Evidently, suicide is the only viable option.

*Jumps out window*

 

[MrGFunk]

the Nintendo Flesh-light...

Ewww....


OP:
As soon as they announced they were removing it, I went out and bought mine with BC, which I use.

I don't get why people are moaning. If they wanted it so bad they could have bought one when it was still available not decide to wait it out until it's reintroduced.

My problem is, if it bricks for some reason, I don't the feature back. It's replaced with a modern unit.
Anyway, I've still got a PS2, so if necessary i'll play that.


Don't all PS3s play PS1 games.

 

[HEXYDEZiMAL]

Regardless of how you Sony fans feel about what I say, the truth still stands.

The venerable PS2 was a durability joke compared to the original XBOX. I've worked on hundreds of those consoles in a wide spectrum of versions, and that's a statement of fact. Sony regularly changed around the guts of PS2s (roughly eight to eleven significant times, if memory serves) and that highly suggests that the fat PS2 was a beta test.

Sony wasn't ready to release the PS3. They ate huge losses for the longest time, and now they're screwing the late adopters for what the early adopters have. The games were abysmal at release, and they're still only solidly in the decent or 'on the 360 and PC as well' territory.

The PS3 has no truly remarkable exclusives in comparison; only exclusives that its owners believe remarkable, because it's all they've got.

Then as the situation developed, Sony (among many idiot statements they've made) revealed that their console had been made deliberately difficult to make games for. Carmack said that it has less memory and is the lowest standard they must meet. Their games will work on everything else just fine, after the PS3's eccentricities are catered to. This is not where you want to be with game developers.

Perhaps the most damning words regarding that came from Tom Leonard at Valve:
"The PC and the 360 are just more straightforward. We can focus on what we want to do, which is make game experiences, instead of sweating bullets over obscure architectural decisions they make with their platform ? I didn?t come into this business in the 90s because of some technical fetish. I came in because I wanted to give people experiences that made them have fun."

Overall, this means that any titles for the PS3 involve more of everything on the developer's part, because it is the longest, most arduous platform to make games for. In turn, that means that only the large developers can afford to produce titles for the PS3 -- so its game library has been severely limited by a barrier that Sony purposely put into place.

Given even some of these facts, it's not surprising to hear that Ken Kutaragi himself stated that the PS3 is not a game machine.

What isn't clear is what the hell else it is supposed to be.

It's a moot point to demonize the 360 and anybody who isn't kissing Sony's ass. There is no justification whatsoever for their blatant idiocy.

It's been proven time and time again that gamers go where the games go, and the 360 is the better platform for games. Despite profiting immensely from this lesson with the PS2, Sony seems to have completely forgotten it with the PS3.

 

[Digikid]

haw haw haw, I got a beautiful 80 gig with full Backwards Compatibility, it is lovely

No. You have a 80gb with PARTIAL BC. None of the 80GB have full. I have a 80GB as well and there are loads of PS2 games that do NOT work with it.

Sony is famous for screwing up....this is just another example of why they should give up. My PS3 is mostly a BR thing anyways.

HEXYDEZiMAL is dead right.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

the Nintendo Flesh-light...

Ewww....


OP:
As soon as they announced they were removing it, I went out and bought mine with BC, which I use.

I don't get why people are moaning. If they wanted it so bad they could have bought one when it was still available not decide to wait it out until it's reintroduced.

My problem is, if it bricks for some reason, I don't the feature back. It's replaced with a modern unit.
Anyway, I've still got a PS2, so if necessary i'll play that.


Don't all PS3s play PS1 games.

LOL nice to know someone reads my posts, even when I'm not praising Sony.

You have hit upon the EXACT point that is my biggest problem with this. You know, it's funny how much solidarity there is amongst the Xbox 360 fan boys... you can almost always count on them to band together no matter what issue you throw at them to defend of promote their machine of choice... The 360 only provides like 70% BC with the old xbox library (I'm being generous with that number) but they'll tell you or even admit the xbox library wasn't much to shake a stick at. Tell them over half their consoles RROD and they will either say they dont know many people whose have, tout Microsofts quick and decisive response to deal with effected units (which I respect), or dismiss any numbers outright as "flawed polls" and "lies spread by the competition."

Sony fans are less a community, which I suppose explains the failure of Home and the emptiness of my Playstation friend's list. Instead of finding common ground, we are once again casting off each other like a pack of jackals moments after battle is engaged.

Let me say this right off... Those of us with 20, 60, and 40GB PS3's are probably THE most LOYAL of Playstation fans. Why? Because we got OURS at launch, when everyone ELSE was BITCHING about the price and any OTHER reason they could talk themselves into getting an Xbox 360 with, WE were out saving our money and getting a system we believed in by a BRAND we had trust in.

Then.. slowly, in an effort to appease those naysayers, Sony began to abandon us die-hards. We saw the price slowly fall while BC was stripped away. The firmware imposed more strict demands on us. Sony couldnt even kick us a freaking $5 chord to transfer our old PS2 memory cards to our system, instead demanding an outlandish $20 for what is essentially a one-use item.

And yet even now, what do we hear? THat those of us who would prefer to have ALL features, those of us who would want to play our OLD PS2 games without having to have two systems sitting redundantly next to each other or having to PURCHASE a $70 additional UNIT for what SHOULD have been a KEY function in their current product, a function that it's customers WANT (I cant imagine ANYONE NOT wanting BC), and we are tossed out by our own PS3 brethren as well as the company?!?

I WANT BC.
I DO NOT WANT 2 SONY SYSTEMS SITTING AROUND.
I HAVE A NEWER SYSTEM I HAVE NO NEED FOR OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY.
I DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR DOWNLOADABLE VERSIONS OF MY CURRENT PS2 LIBRARY
THERE ARE PS2 GAMES I LOVE TO PLAY, I WONT ABANDON THEM
I CAN GET TWO PS3'S FOR THE PRICE I PAID FOR MY FUCKING 60GB
I AM THE CUSTOMER, I AM ALWAYS RIGHT.

If my PS3 ever (makes sign of the cross) breaks, I swear by all that is Holy that any attempt to charge me for repairs or worse, replace my 60 gb unit with a model lacking BC, I will decline it and I will never buy another Sony product again.

Sony don't care about me as a customer? My "wants" in a product are unimportant? Fine. Kiss my dollars goodbye.
I'm sure you won't miss them... or the dollars of the countless numbers of other formerly faithful fanbase customers who you rely on only when convenient to your profit line then toss aside once you've drained us.
And I certainly have no problem giving my money to your strongest competitors.
Because as a CONSUMER... I have the power. The Ultimate power.
The Power of MONEY.

 

[Darth Pope]

Just another bullet hole in Sony's proverbial foot.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

The PS3 has no truly remarkable exclusives in comparison; only exclusives that its owners believe remarkable, because it's all they've got.

I respectfully Disagree.

Metal Gear Solid has no equal in gameplay or presentation on the Xbox 360. In fact, the genre isn't even represented at all, as I can not think of a single title that is an Xbox exclusive.
In fact, beyond Halo, Mass Effect, Gears of War, I can't think of ANY xbox exclusives worth putting my Microsoft underoos on for. Sure those are great franchises, I'm an INSANE Halo Nut myself, but seriously, there's not much cookin in the kitchen on that console that isnt being served at every fast food chain in town, if you catch my drift. Although I will admit that when a decision is made about multiple system releases, I usually always opt for the 360 version. From the Dashboard to the Controller, The xbox is where I prefer to do my gaming to have fun.

But I digress.

Infamous... that game is a solid joy ride. NOT A SINGLE game in the genre on the 360 can touch it. Not one. Hell, honestly I think it's better than GTA IV. Yes I said it. Infamous is better than GTA IV.

Little Big Planet... is.... FUN. I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy jumping on it from time to time and taking a break from creeping down dark hallways with my nerves on edge and an itchy trigger finger. Sometimes I need to unwind from the stress of waging genocidal war on alien species from across the galaxy, from the future, from underground, from my own mind or whereever they are coming from. Little Big Planet is true coop and all ages fun and again, you can not point to one single inventive equally as fun coop joy on the 360 as little big planet. Not a single one. If you mention Viva Pinata, I may have to neuter you with a spork.

Ratchet and Clank. Seriously, man if you have not played that series you are depriving yourself. It's action-filled enough for the twitch happy shooter freaks, it's got enough fun and exploration for the Open Sandbox heroes, the puzzles are smart and intuitive for the geeks, and the story and brighter, lighter tone of the visuals make for fresh clean hardcore-casual fun. It's imaginitive and honestly I get sick of the whole "grim, dark gritty" futuristic world of every other video game out there.

FolkLore. If you havent seen or played this, you missed something great. It was like playing in Tim Burton's mind at an Anime convention. This game deserves so much love for it's story, visuals, atmosphere, gameplay, and puzzles.

So when people say there are no exclusives to compare with the 360 I think we need to rethink that statement. There are FEW exclusives on the 360 that really compare in originality and inventiveness to the PS3.

 

[Megacherv]

No, bullshit, no, older classics are still fun, it's the Aerosmith vs. Jonas Brothers argument, old stuff is better than new stuff, no, no, don't do this, no, bastards, no, it can't, no, NOOOOO, Sony don't do this to me, no, I just bought Killer7 yeaterday, just, no, NOOOOOOO

 

[cleverlymadeup]

And so is saying 77% of 360s break.

actually that percentage is proving that the 54.2% is probly a correct stat and does provide some credence to the claim

Or increase PS2 sales, one could cynically state. Though where do you get your figures that they weren't selling at a loss for awhile now? Everything is pointing to that they are, and we are just saying that software emulation of the PS2 couldn't possibly be an attributing factor to the price of the PS3.

when have the ps2 sales been rising? actually i got my information from news articles posted here on the escapist and other gaming news sites and also removing the bc was part of the cost saving measures, it said so in the articles.

Or I am spewing direct quotes from the man...

?We?re getting along with the PS3. We took a lot of time early on in the development cycle on learning it.?

?The 360 was easier to certainly to get to where we are now. More sweat equity had to be put into the PS3.?

"? even though we feel the 360 has superior hardware"

?The PS3 lags a little bit behind in terms of getting the performance out of it,? John Carmack told Edge. ?The rasteriser is just a little bit slower ? no two ways about that. The RSX is slower than what we have in the 360. The CPU is about the same, but the 360 makes it easier to split things off, and that?s what a lot of the work has been, splitting it all into jobs on the PS3,? he said.

ahhh but that's not what you claimed he said

you were claiming he said "the ps4 would be out before the ps3 version would come out"

so once again get your facts straight please

Wait...no I haven't. I stated the same thing, that Carmack thinks it's harder for his game to be developed the way he wants on the PS3. Not that it CAN'T be done, just that it is harder to do so. And that was done purposely and quotably by Sony developers.

actually you changed it once again when i provided you with the correct statements about it

actually the small controllers were made for EVERYONE cause they were a running joke

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/03/25/

Uuhh, no. when the xbox was released worldwide, Microsoft had an understandably hard time breaking into the Japanese market. One of the ways they tried to please them was by resizing the notoriously larger controller so that it would fit in their hands better. Comfort might help the Japanese to lighten up on the American company. The controller really wasn't a problem in America for fully grown adults, but to accomidate children and others, they released the Controller S (for small).

actually once again you fail at being right. the huge xbox controller was a running joke with EVERY gamer at the time. Adam Sessler from X-Play famously would ask big guys like Shaq and Kane from the WWE about which controller they liked better

it wasn't just for Japan, it was for EVERYONE they did it cause it was a joke that everyone was complaining about it, heck even when i worked for xboxlive it was a running joke about the big controllers and being too big for people

Again, no. I quote full truths(or at least as much as is released to the general public) and no lies.

EDIT: And if you had read my first post regarding the lack of any future BC in the PS3, you would have read that the only reason I got a 360 first and not a PS3 was the games. I am not a 360 fanboy. The only things I would buy a PS3 for are a handful of exclusive titles and only needing one machine to play my library of older games. Blu-Ray doesn't cut it, screw Home, and anything not exclusive is already going to be on the system I already own. If I can't consolidate and use my new machine to play my old games for no reason than to squeeze out some more bucks, why should I spend the few hundred dollars to buy the new machine?

actually you quoted WRONG things, you only corrected them when i showed you how wrong you actually were

well for blu-ray, you obviously haven't seen it on a good tv OR you've never seen it, either one. simply because there is a marked difference between the two and anyone who's actually seen it can notice it very quickly

as for the not wanting to spend money on a new machine, didn't you already do that by buying a 360 and needing 2 machines to play your ps2 games as well? also the 360 doesn't have fully bc either, there's tons of games for it that don't work, so you do need to keep both systems to play your older games

 

[HEXYDEZiMAL]

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a joke. If you paid to watch that game, more power to you. Yahtzee himself compared Infamous to Prototype. I could address the rest of your games, but suffice to say that you're just proving my point about Sony's lame exclusives and let's leave it at that. Nothing on your list is anything I'd be bragging about or remotely consider purchasing.

You also misunderstand. If I were a fanboy, that means I wouldn't be willing to purchase Sony's console if it had redeeming value.

I would, and it does not.

I have already mentioned its early game lineup and how much that sucked. I took one look at where it was then, and bought the superior console -- like anybody else making an educated decision would have. Ever since, Sony has failed time and time again to make me feel like I need a PS3. They have an almost pathological disdain for their customers, and they purposely undermine their own systems.

So you see, I'm perfectly willing to look into one -- when they offer something of serious worth that matters at all over the 360 and my PC. The PS3 doesn't and hasn't. It continues to collect dust in comparison, likely seeing use primarily as a Blu-Ray player for the average Joe.

By the way, I absolutely despise that fingerprintable plastic the PS3 is encased in. Anybody who would build the entire outside of their system out of that shit is obviously not making good design choices.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

Most exclusives on either system are generally a pile of wank, with the odd gem here or there (Mass effect / Little big planet)

However the multiplatform games usually play and run better on the 360.

 

[HEXYDEZiMAL]

Since this seems like a pertinent topic to mention it, my friend (who works at Walmart) just informed me that 15 out of their 33 PS3 Slims have been returned due to being defective. Crazy, that's like a 50% failure rate right from the beginning!

I can't believe you PS3 fans can take this kind of shit from Sony.

 

[shadow skill]

There is a reason that the Playstation 3 is called a Playstation 3. It is meant to play Playstation 3 games. It's like buying windows XP and expecting software designed specifically for Windows 95 to work on it. If there is any truth to this article [http://psinsider.e-mpire.com/index.php?categoryid=17&m_articles_articleid=1315] it may simply be too much effort for very little return to attempt to provide the feature in the newer models.

 

[Geoffrey42]

And where is your poll? Who did you ask for your data? What cross-section of the populace did you hit? Who funds your survey?

Or was this a little internet poll on a single website that can't possibly represent every xbox user?

actually it was here on the escapist and while it can be a bit skewed, having so many actually report failures, can't just be overly bad polling and samples, if anything it should be lower but really it's higher than the other places it's been reported

So it was on a single website that can't possibly have hit an accurate representation.

actually that percentage is proving that the 54.2% is probly a correct stat and does provide some credence to the claim

There's a failure here to recognize that a poll on the Escapist is going to have an inherent self-selection bias. One, you're starting with a not-necessarily-representative cross-section of 360 owners, and two, you're failing to eliminate the possibility that people with failed 360's are more likely to respond to a poll/thread about failed 360's. Your figure of 77% is unsupportable, and just because it is higher than some other un-sourced poll (the only info I can find on Game Informer's poll is the internet reporting of their results, no concrete information on how the survey was conducted, etc), in no way validates the other poll (statistics are typically a LONG way from "proving" anything, especially not-particularly-good-to-start-with statistics). Not that Jared is doing a particularly bang-up job of expressing his criticisms of your polling data, but they're valid concerns.

actually the small controllers were made for EVERYONE cause they were a running joke

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/03/25/

Uuhh, no. when the xbox was released worldwide, Microsoft had an understandably hard time breaking into the Japanese market. One of the ways they tried to please them was by resizing the notoriously larger controller so that it would fit in their hands better. Comfort might help the Japanese to lighten up on the American company. The controller really wasn't a problem in America for fully grown adults, but to accomidate children and others, they released the Controller S (for small).

actually once again you fail at being right. the huge xbox controller was a running joke with EVERY gamer at the time. Adam Sessler from X-Play famously would ask big guys like Shaq and Kane from the WWE about which controller they liked better

it wasn't just for Japan, it was for EVERYONE they did it cause it was a joke that everyone was complaining about it, heck even when i worked for xboxlive it was a running joke about the big controllers and being too big for people

And on this point, cleverlymadeup is most certainly right. The 'S' controllers were originally only slated for the Japanese market (something planned from the start, not reactionary to the eastern markets complaints). The massive original controllers for the western markets were so ill-received that the 'S' controllers supplanted them across the board. By the time I got my Xbox in... winter of 2003 (date might be off a little)... the standard pack-in was the 'S' controller.

It is one thing to have a difference of opinion; it is entirely another (and largely the realm of incoherent internet trolling) to disagree on established historical fact.

 

[Geoffrey42]

There is a reason that the Playstation 3 is called a Playstation 3. It is meant to play Playstation 3 games. It's like buying windows XP and expecting software designed specifically for Windows 95 to work on it. If there is any truth to this article [http://psinsider.e-mpire.com/index.php?categoryid=17&m_articles_articleid=1315] it may simply be too much effort for very little return to attempt to provide the feature in the newer models.

I think that may very possibly be the single worst example you could've chosen for arguing against BC as a reasonably desirable feature.

One of the key selling points of any major Windows upgrade is that the majority of your software from the earlier generations will continue to function on it.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

Why do I picture the guy who said this as a black tall figure having glowing red eyes, horns and fangs, standing in the highest tower of a creepy castle, as he states this, ending in a stereotypical "BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" maybe with some thunder in the background?

Oh well, guess I won't be buying a PS3.

Note: You see what I did there, Evil Sony Guy? I just proved you wrong!

[small]This post was a bit hysterical.[/small]

 

[similar.squirrel]

This is commonly known as 'screwing the pooch'.
Sony seems to have fallen from grace and landed with a resounding thud this generation.

 

[Evilbunny]

It seems to me that Sony shot themselves in the foot with that move.

They've done that so much now I'm surprised they have any foot left to shoot.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

They've done that so much now I'm surprised they have any foot left to shoot.

True. Seems like they do have some bloodied giblets that used to be a foot, though.

 

[Jumplion]

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a joke. If you paid to watch that game, more power to you. Yahtzee himself compared Infamous to Prototype. I could address the rest of your games, but suffice to say that you're just proving my point about Sony's lame exclusives and let's leave it at that. Nothing on your list is anything I'd be bragging about or remotely consider purchasing.

You also misunderstand. If I were a fanboy, that means I wouldn't be willing to purchase Sony's console if it had redeeming value.

I would, and it does not.

I have already mentioned its early game lineup and how much that sucked. I took one look at where it was then, and bought the superior console -- like anybody else making an educated decision would have. Ever since, Sony has failed time and time again to make me feel like I need a PS3. They have an almost pathological disdain for their customers, and they purposely undermine their own systems.

So you see, I'm perfectly willing to look into one -- when they offer something of serious worth that matters at all over the 360 and my PC. The PS3 doesn't and hasn't. It continues to collect dust in comparison, likely seeing use primarily as a Blu-Ray player for the average Joe.

By the way, I absolutely despise that fingerprintable plastic the PS3 is encased in. Anybody who would build the entire outside of their system out of that shit is obviously not making good design choices.

Wow. There's something called an "opinion", I'm sure you've heard of it, you've been spewing it since your first post. I'm sorry if you think that MGS4 [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/metalgearsolid4gunsofthepatriots?q=Metal%20Gear%20Solid%204], InFamous [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/infamous?q=InFamous], LittleBigPlanet [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/littlebigplanet?q=LittleBigPlanet], Ratchet and Clank [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/ratchetandclankfuturetoolsofdestruction?q=Ratchet%20and%20Clank:%20Tools%20of%20Destruction], and Folklore [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/folklore?q=Folklore] are "nothing to brag about/shitty", but generally, to the main public, they're considered good games, as do I.

Since this seems like a pertinent topic to mention it, my friend (who works at Walmart) just informed me that 15 out of their 33 PS3 Slims have been returned due to being defective. Crazy, that's like a 50% failure rate right from the beginning!

I can't believe you PS3 fans can take this kind of shit from Sony.

Um, maybe we can take it because that's just a single isolated incident from a console that has not been released yet and no where near the epidemic that the 360 has? Oooooohhhhh nnnooooo, 15 out of 33 consoles failed in a single store from the mega-chain Wal-Mart with thousands of other consoles being shipped to the mega-chain Wal-Mart alone not including even more thousands in thousands of other stores, IT'S A CATASTROPHE!!!

Sit down, be quiet, and realize that you're only saying your opinion, not fact, and that you're taking this much too seriously.