EU PS3 = Software PS2 Emulation

I don't understand why you would do that without even knowing what games work. It could be that every game you want to play and complete is BC comptable. In which case, you'll be stuck with a Region A BD player, and NA PS2/1 system.

Reasons:
- It's still cheaper than the PS3 price in €s
- I'm annoyed at Sony for paying more and getting less
- I consume most of my media in English anyway, and I am actually in need of a region 1 DVD player for my fairly large anime collection.
- Importing games from NA is (slightly) cheaper than buying them locally.
- Hurting Sony by buying a PS3 that costs them more and not buying any games for the time being. :p

But I'm well aware that this is not a rational decision, as I was fully prepared to wait with buying a European PS3 until Fumito Ueda's new game is out (at which point the software emulation will either have been reasonable or abandoned).
 
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I never said it didn't matter. I said that no-one is tied to a platform because of the previous library. You don't choose your next platform based solely, or mostly, on it being able to play your old games that your old console can still play.
That's pretty much just a hypothetical situation though, as all the consoles thus released, since consoles began, have had large enough difference in software libraries, costs, features, etc., that BC is the last thing anyone's going to worry about.

Putting it another way, how many people have sat around thinking 'I want a next-gen console, and XB360 has games I like at a cheaper price-point than PS3, and I don't care for BluRay, and I'm not interested in Linux, but I'm going to buy a PS3 anyway because it'll play my collection of PS2 games'? How many people are now going to say 'What?! PS3 might not play my PS2 games?! Well I'll buy a different console instead then, because the ability to play PS2 games was the only thing attracting me to PS3!'?

Some people do in fact weigh their BC library in the decision process for a new console. Depends on the mindset of the person.

Some are hardcore and buy every system, so a choice is unneccesary.
Some are casual and buy whatever system has the game(s) they like at a price they can afford.

In between there are many flavors of gamer.

Some own only one console but buy a dozen+ games. They consider these games an investment ($) they put into a platform. This "investment" is weighed for these people in a future console purchase.

I never said it's the only thing that matters or it drives a person to only support one console regardless but I do believe BC steers a person towards a console.

***
Personally, I could not care less as I've said before in this forum. BC is pointless IMO as the old games still look horrible in comparison and I'm a bit of a Graphics Whore in that regard. Once I get a new console, the old might as well be tossed in the garbage (post HDTV). Oddly, SNES still looks good on interlaced tv's to me though.

ps1 (aside from 2d games) never got played again after DC.
DC,ps2,xb (aside from 2d games) never got played again. (although my fiance had to have FF12)
GC seems exempt a bit as I just bought it last year so the library was new to me but Zelda WW rarely gets attention anymore.

As it stands now, all my gaming attention goes to xb360.
 
[maven];935056 said:
Reasons:
- It's still cheaper than the PS3 price in €s
- I'm annoyed at Sony for paying more and getting less
- I consume most of my media in English anyway, and I am actually in need of a region 1 DVD player for my fairly large anime collection.
- Importing games from NA is (slightly) cheaper than buying them locally.
- Hurting Sony by buying a PS3 that costs them more and not buying any games for the time being. :p

But I'm well aware that this is not a rational decision, as I was fully prepared to wait with buying a European PS3 until Fumito Ueda's new game is out (at which point the software emulation will either have been reasonable or abandoned).

Wow, you mean with shipping and all of that its still cheaper to import it from America? :oops: Well, your reasons actually make sense then, considering your situation. At first, it just seemed like far too much of a knee jerk reaction that could bite you in the butt later on if you're not careful. It still can, but you seem to know what you're getting into. Having a unviersal power supply with standard connections helps with that, too.
 
Jeez guys calm down a bit, you don't even know what the new percentage is and you are already ready to crucify Sony over the move.
 
I am very much doubtful that this was not planned all along... You think they designed emulator in an month? I bet they simply didnt have enough time to perfect it for US launch so they built in hardware until they can do so....

Software emulation has always been the plan, and they've been working on it for years. The hardware inclusion in the US and in Japan was the 'desperate' move so to speak, rather than this.

But that said...

That suggests rather heavily they have no intention of reallly focusing on making sw emu "be all that it can be", as it were. Now, I've heard some suggestions that possibly that language is just an effort to set expectation levels at a low enough level to be able to comfortably exceed them going forward. Maybe. Maybe they decided if they were going to take the PR hit anyway, then get all the hate out now so some love can come later when they more than "clear the bar" they'd set so low. That kind of strategy is certainly not unknown in corporate relations. It just always makes me real uncomfortable when people assume that when a large corporation has told them they aren't going to do something that will cost them money/resources, that they'll really do it anyway. You'll typically get more heartache than not that way.

I feel very similarly.
 
[maven];935056 said:
Reasons:
- It's still cheaper than the PS3 price in €s
After shipping and taxes?
I am actually in need of a region 1 DVD player for my fairly large anime collection.).
May I ask what does your collection include?
Hurting Sony by buying a PS3 that costs them more and not buying any games for the time being. :p
:smile:
It's tempting. I was really close to importing one myself a while back. The thing that keeps me doing it is the fact that I don't buy lot of movies, and I would like to rent Blu-ray films in Finland, I quess multi-region hacks becomes available sooner or later, but I don't like to "bank" anything on uncertainties.

Sony seriously should have released a list to give us better understanding what this "limited" means.
The range of possibilities is way too large as is.
 
Software emulation has always been the plan, and they've been working on it for years. The hardware inclusion in the US and in Japan was the 'desperate' move so to speak, rather than this.

Actually if I remember correctly This model was exactly what Kutaragi had planned from the get go. He said something to the effect of, BC will be a mix of both HW and SW, which seems to be what this is for EU.

I still don't think they will leave the BC list on the shelf and forget it. Unless gamers stop complaining and the issue dies down similar to MS's BC.
 
Actually if I remember correctly This model was exactly what Kutaragi had planned from the get go. He said something to the effect of, BC will be a mix of both HW and SW, which seems to be what this is for EU.

I still don't think they will leave the BC list on the shelf and forget it. Unless gamers stop complaining and the issue dies down similar to MS's BC.

I´m sure he had also planned a 1000 euros price for the european market, but that would be too much, wouldn´t it ?
 
After shipping and taxes?
Aye. With taxes it's a wash, if I don't get stung it's a clear win.

May I ask what does your collection include?
Karekano, Blue Sub 6, Serial Experiments Lain, Akira, Ghost in the Shell 1 + 2, Fruits Basket, Hoshi no Koe, Kenshin OVAs, Read or Die OVAs, FLCL, ...

TheChefO: Again, how is that supposed to make me feel glad about this announcement as European consumer that we effectively pay more, wait longer and obtain less? Leaving aside the option that Sony does not suddenly go bankrupt and all support stops because of this cost reduction measure...
 
Actually if I remember correctly This model was exactly what Kutaragi had planned from the get go. He said something to the effect of, BC will be a mix of both HW and SW, which seems to be what this is for EU.

No, the model you're speaking to - the one that was to be 'expensive' for them to create - is the one the US and Japan got, and it was most definitely a fallback plan - though indeed the need for it was known months in advance. Now, it will essentially be just software in a sense, which was the original goal. This day was always coming, it's just it was supposed to come with near 100% B/C support for old titles! ;)
 
[maven];935095 said:
Again, how is that supposed to make me feel glad about this announcement as European consumer that we effectively pay more, wait longer and obtain less? Leaving aside the option that Sony does not suddenly go bankrupt and all support stops because of this cost reduction measure...

Well, by them staying in business it does help you and me as competition helps keep prices down and quality up... err ... at least it's supposed to.:p I think you EU guys need to start balancing your market a bit more.;)

From what I remember, both Nintendo & MS showed you guys love! Both systems came out within a month of other regions and at reasonable prices with decent libraries AFAIR.

The rest is up to your people, the EU consumer. You yourself have already sent a message but I'm not sure if it was heard clear enough.

Let me clarify: If you want to help balance the market and want to send a message to Sony but still want a ps3, buy a wii or xb360 too!
If at the end of the gen they still dominate your market, I think it's safe to say Sony will see no reason not to continue this attitude towards EU.
A more balanced market at the end of the generation will send a clear message that your region should not be taken for granted and your dollar must be fought for.

"United we stand, divided we fall."
 
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No, the model you're speaking to - the one that was to be 'expensive' for them to create - is the one the US and Japan got, and it was most definitely a fallback plan - though indeed the need for it was known months in advance. Now, it will essentially be just software in a sense, which was the original goal. This day was always coming, it's just it was supposed to come with near 100% B/C support for old titles! ;)

Are you sure? It seemed like some hardware was still included.:???:

op said:
Software will take over some of the functionality that was originally taken care of by dedicated chips
 
I am very much doubtful that this was not planned all along... You think they designed emulator in an month? I bet they simply didnt have enough time to perfect it for US launch so they built in hardware until they can do so....

it is not about price drop, it is about making money on PS3, which they dont right now... so every $20 they can save, is huge.

In fact, $26 per console is pretty huge... we are talking about some $60 million saved if they did it from start.

$60 million is development money for 6 blockbuster games like Gears...

Sure it was planned, and sure they have been working on that emulator for a long time, never said anything to the contrary. Now, unfortunately they didn't release a list of compatible games so we don't really know how immature the emulator is and therefore a lot of steam and bad words might be exchanged totaly in vain as it might actually be really good and only a handfull of games are not compatible, but what I am saying is that I didn't expect this move so soon.

From their announcement it sounds that the emulation is quite a bit worse than the hardware approach and hence I was expecting them to perfect the emulator further before they make the transition. As it is now I have to say that I am surprized they launched with the GS/EE all together and after a couple of million of consoles they already switch to a new revision while that revision is still incomplete. Then they could have saved a lot of money previously by not even having the initial PS3 configuration and if t that point the emulator was not at all at a good level they could have updated it later on...
 
Are you sure? It seemed like some hardware was still included.:???:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure - the press release is worded as such, but I'd just disregard. If what we mean when we say 'hardware' is the EE+GS and its associated mobo considerations and logic, then I definitely expect that to be cut.
 
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