Sony respond to European gamers disappointment with PS3

[Steven W]

Sony have been grilled by Playstation website, Three Speech, about the backwards compatibility issue with European consoles.

Check out what the company had to say in this Headline

[directhex]

"i liked rumble "
"get with the program, you has-been!"

yeah, that's the reaction everyone has to rumble. "god i feel like it's the mid ninties when this thing shakes"

[nichomach]

The PS3 launching in Europe is every bit as powerful as the PS3s available currently in North America and Japan.

Translation: We're choosing to define "power" as only including PS3 specific features and ignoring the additional features we've given to the US and Japan.

PS one titles remain backwards compatible and we will continue to assess the compatibility of PS2 titles right up until launch We will continue to offer firmware upgrades to increase the number of titles that are compatible,

Translation: We have no intention of rectifying the basic problem that the US and Japanese consoles have additional hardware which means that for them there ARE no compatibility issues.

but rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.

Translation: We REALLY need to cut manufacturing costs, so we're ripping out the stuff that costs extra money in the US and Japan, since that's stuff WE pay for, and concentrating on trying to distract you from the fact that your games don't work with new stuff that we can make YOU pay for.

The original PS3 used the Emotion Engine/Graphics Synthesiser to emulate PS2 titles. With the latest European specification we have removed the Emotion Engine, retaining the graphics chip. This has an impact on the number of PS2 titles that will be backwards compatible.

Translation: Look, we REALLLY, REALLY, REALLY needed to cut production costs...

Basically, the sonydroid could have more succinctly stated "Get stuffed. We know your games won't work, even though we said they would, and we know you're getting a stripped down console and paying more, but you know what? We don't care, 'cause our marketing droids tell us you'll buy it anyway."

[mcmiller]

what do u reckon sony have been having poor sales do to cost , so they have decided to drop the price as quickly as possible and this is one way to do it

[nichomach]

That's one theory, but that would only work if the price of the console were reduced - but it's actually more expensive.

[dangel]

Sony have to get costs down - their losses per unit (console) are enormous at the moment.

I utterly agree with the right honourable nichomach on this one tho.

[directhex]

Translation: Look, we REALLLY, REALLY, REALLY needed to cut production costs...

i think this is the bit that proves they're full of ****

the ps3 doesn't contain an EE and a GS - it contains a combined chip as used in the slimline ps2

it costs *more* to restart manufacture of GS-only than the combined chip they use in the ps2

[mcmiller]

it costs *more* to restart manufacture of GS-only than the combined chip they use in the ps2

im guessing this wasnt an overnight decision, so they have probadly had the production line setup for months if not from the beginning, they have only just decided to tell ppl this knowing that ppl's reactions would be pretty bad.

[directhex]

im guessing this wasnt an overnight decision, so they have probadly had the production line setup for months if not from the beginning, they have only just decided to tell ppl this knowing that ppl's reactions would be pretty bad.

2 production lines costs more than 1