Is the PS3 backwards compatible?

Author: Ryan Garside
Published: 14th November 2006
Comments (25) Stumble
Japanese people queuing for the Playstation 3.

Japanese people queuing for the Playstation 3.

As if you haven't been saturated in reports about the rush to buy a Playstation 3, more news regarding Sony's kit is filtering through for us to report to you.

First up, Reuters is reporting that Sony is having problems with its software. More specifically, the backwards compatibility with Playstation 1 and 2 games isn't working universally with every game. Apart from being an annoying bug for consumers, this will cause extra annoyance for Sony who spent a lot of money on the hardware to make the system backwards compatible.

The problem, however, isn't too uncommon with console launches and Sony plans to provide online updates to rectify it. If you remember back to the days of the PS2 release you'll know that their were compatibility issues to begin with there also and worst still, the Xbox launch saw discs being scratched.

Overall the PS3 launch has been a success, with Betanews reporting that 88,400 PS3's have been sold in the first weekend. Of that number 62% were the advanced 60 GB hard drive model with the best selling game being Ridge Racer 7 (selling 30,000 units). Despite all these numbers VideoGamesBlogger reports that 0.98 games have been sold per console, which means a lot of people have bought PS3's without buying any games. Is this an early indication that people will be buying the PS3 for the Blu-Ray drive? Only time will tell.

Would you buy a PS3 just to play Blu-Ray? Let us know in the forums.
Quote DougEdey 14th November 2006, 15:16
I think that it more shows that either people wanted to get their PS3 out of the store then come back to get the games when that was safe, or people were ebaying them, or even that the games weren't very popular.
Quote bloodcar 14th November 2006, 15:37
Quote:
Originally Posted by Article
Is this an early indication that people will be buying the PS3 for the Blu-Ray drive? Only time will tell.
More like an indication that many of the consoles were bought to be resold in auctions.
Quote LoneArchon 14th November 2006, 15:44
Quote:
Originally Posted by bloodcar
More like an indication that many of the consoles were bought to be resold in auctions.
and they are going for outrages sums over 18 million us(2,147,483,648 Yen) http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/search?p=ps3&f=0x2&alocale=0jp&apg=1&s1=cbids&o1=d&mode=2&auccat=0
Quote woodshop 14th November 2006, 15:53
I just want them to make an uber cluster. :) o the power .....
Quote DXR_13KE 14th November 2006, 16:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoneArchon
and they are going for outrages sums over 18 million us(2,147,483,648 Yen) http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/search?p=ps3&f=0x2&alocale=0jp&apg=1&s1=cbids&o1=d&mode=2&auccat=0

holly F.

there is a bloody PS2 inside the PS3, how the hell doesn't it play all PS1 and PS2 games?
Quote M4RTIN 14th November 2006, 17:03
i thought it was supposed to emulate it on the hardware level not like the 360, so in theory it should work no probs.. well then so should the ps2 but it never played metal gear solid right.

on another note ridge racer 7 is crap, its just a basic port of ridge racer 6 with a few cars only on the ps3 version. plus it looks seemingly worse on the ps3
Quote Kipman725 14th November 2006, 17:07
it apears to have problems with PS2 games that could use a hard disk and PS2 games that won't play nice with the new controller.
Quote M4RTIN 14th November 2006, 17:09
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kipman725
it apears to have problems with PS2 games that could use a hard disk


so thats none in europe and 1 everywhere else.. after final fantasy 11 what else is there
Quote eddtox 14th November 2006, 18:52
Quote:
Originally Posted by Article
Would you buy a PS3 just to play Blu-Ray?

The only thing which would make me buy a PS3 and/or Blu-Ray is if all the PCs in the world depended on it!

-ed out
Quote mikeuk2004 14th November 2006, 19:03
ok 88400 sold sp theres 11600 still sat somewhere in shops??? I cant see that they are unsold
Quote atanum141 14th November 2006, 19:23
Sad trully sad......
Quote Firehed 14th November 2006, 20:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXR_13KE
there is a bloody PS2 inside the PS3, how the hell doesn't it play all PS1 and PS2 games?
I was wondering just the same... they literally stuffed the PS2 hardware in there for backwards compatibility. Only Sony could screw that up :(
Quote LoneArchon 14th November 2006, 20:04
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeuk2004
ok 88400 sold sp theres 11600 still sat somewhere in shops??? I cant see that they are unsold
Sony cut launch numbers to around 80,000 for Japan so the 200,000 they wanted to ship launch day became 88,400. As it stands now the numbers for the US are also going to be cut back from the 400,000. They are having issues with the making Blu-ray drive laser in large numbers
Quote Vash-HT 14th November 2006, 20:29
From what i've read only 200 titles do not work, out of 8000, comes out to something of 98% BC, which is very good if you ask me. There is not an exact copy of the ps2 inside the ps3, and if its running using the ps3's software it could be problems with the differeing software. All I'm saying is its not that bad, I don't think every single ps1 game worked on ps2 and there weren't nearly as many complaints back then. Anyway Sony is planning on fixing it through firmware updates, so its not much different from MS fixing their BC through updates.
Quote themax 14th November 2006, 20:47
The real U.S. numbers are about 200,000. From what I've read 100,000 between Mexico, and U.S. Territories. The other 100,000 will go to Canada. Still 400,000 for North America technically.
Quote M4RTIN 14th November 2006, 20:53
surely 100k for mexico, 100k for canada and 100k for ua equals 300k :?
Quote Anakha 15th November 2006, 03:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by M4RTIN
surely 100k for mexico, 100k for canada and 100k for ua equals 300k :?

Try re-reading.
200k for the USA, 100k for Canada and 100k for Mexico

200000 +
100000 +
100000
=====
400000
Quote ChromeX 15th November 2006, 09:20
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoneArchon
Sony cut launch numbers to around 80,000 for Japan so the 200,000 they wanted to ship launch day became 88,400.

Yeah they were at 80k but then they somehow pulled another 20k out their arse.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/11/11/only_100000_ps3s_for_japan_launch/
Quote plug_in_ross 15th November 2006, 09:44
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoneArchon
and they are going for outrages sums over 18 million us(2,147,483,648 Yen) http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/search?p=ps3&f=0x2&alocale=0jp&apg=1&s1=cbids&o1=d&mode=2&auccat=0

Bear in mind, that price is for three 60GB PS3's. Still a lot of money though, I know what I'd rather spend over 9 million quid on.
Quote mclean007 15th November 2006, 11:49
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoneArchon
and they are going for outrages sums over 18 million us(2,147,483,648 Yen) http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/search?p=ps3&f=0x2&alocale=0jp&apg=1&s1=cbids&o1=d&mode=2&auccat=0
Conveniently, 2,147,483,648 is 2^31, so I'm guessing Yahoo auctions uses a signed 32-bit field to store maximum bids. Strange, however, as a normal signed 32-bit number would allow values from -(2^31) to (2^31)-1 (i.e. 2,147,483,647) - I think I must be close to the answer however.

EDIT: What I'm saying is that this is clearly the "Live8" effect - when London Live8 tickets were given away for free as a kind of ballot, loads of people put them on eBay to make a quick buck. Some people understandably got a bit annoyed by this (either because they had tried and failed to get tickets themselves and lost out to touts, or because they objected morally to the cynical exploitation of tickets to a charity event for personal profit), and there were lots of clearly absurd bids on there (e.g. £5m for a pair of tickets etc.) to spoil the auctions. Clearly the same is happening here - Japanese gamers are peeved at having been denied a zero-day PS3 because some tout paid a Chinese guy $50 to stand in line, then tried to sell it for absurd profit elsewhere. The lesson - if you're going to buy things at launch and then sell them on eBay, use BuyItNow. Personally, I don't see why anyone would pay massively over the odds for something they will be able to buy over the counter for the retail price in a few weeks.
Quote BladeofTheImmortal 15th November 2006, 18:44
Id hold that number to whomever bid it.
Quote Evenge 15th November 2006, 20:18
Well I hope that ps3 is backwards compatible, because i own quite a lot of ps2 games. Would i buy ps3 just for blu-ray drive? No, because dvd isn't going anywhere yet
Quote BladeofTheImmortal 15th November 2006, 21:16
It's mostly backwards compatible for all games. Seriously, there are like what 6,000 PS1/PS2 games out there, give them a break if 100 titles are having a bit of trouble being backwards comp. its still nothing like the Xbox 360s BC, or basically lack thereof.
Quote Swafeman 15th November 2006, 21:58
its 200, and thats unconfirmed, altho its still a small percentage there is probably more sonys not telling you about

they also keep to theirselves that the games include gran tourismo and final fantasy - which seem to be the only games worth still playing :|
Quote Gizmo1990 15th November 2006, 22:20
Erm.. "Successful launch" "early indication that people will be buying the PS3 for the Blu-Ray drive" :(

Does the writer of this article actually FOLLOW the games industry or does he just read the morning metro on the tube to work? :) :(
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