“Broken Promises” PS3’s Backwards Compatibility

PS3 + Level Up
10.09.2007 at 1:46 pm

Check out the great article by N’Gai Croal at Level Up.

“While it is definitely in Sony’s best interest to introduce a cheaper model to help spur sales and grow its installed base, we have to add in no uncertain terms that we are extremely disappointed by the company’s elimination of backwards compatibility. We’re not surprised—the cost of goods in the PS3 made it likely that critical components would at some point be excised; also, we were the first to report Sony’s placement of an order for large quantities of 40 gigabyte hard drives—but we’re nevertheless shocked at this retreat from Playstation founder Ken Kutaragi’s vision for eliminating software obsolescence though continued hardware compatibility. While the idea that you could just take about any one of your PS1 or PS2 discs, pop them into your PS3 and play them wasn’t central to the PS3’s fortunes, it was seductive because of the way it made videogames just like other media: your CD player or DVD player may improve, but it still plays your older disc-based content. What’s more, it was a talking point that Sony used to needle Microsoft during the run-up to the Xbox 360 launch and thereafter, because of the Redmond giant’s much-discussed backwards compatibility woes.”

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