Late Night Consoling

PlayStation 3's backwards compatibility feature, which allows the system to play PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles, had some hitches upon the console's release in North American and Japan, with many games suffering from unsightly graphical glitches. Though that issue was corrected with a patch, it's looking like PS3 owners in Europe, Australasia, Africa, and the Middle East will face more barriers to running their legacy PlayStation and PS2 games. Sony announced today that the PS3 consoles distributed in those territories will lack the hardware backwards compatibility solution present in the North American and Japanese models. Instead, backwards compatibility will be achieved through software emulation.

Unfortunately, one reality of using software emulation is that reliable backwards compatibility must be achieved on a per-title basis. Based on today's press release as well as statements from Sony executive, it seems that the less demanding PlayStation backwards compatibility will remain fairly strong, but many PlayStation 2 games will not play on the machine. "The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models," said a Sony rep speaking to Reuters.

The situation is similar to that faced by Microsoft with its Xbox 360, which uses a software-based solution for its Xbox backwards compatibility, which has still not covered the full Xbox library. Like Microsoft has done, Sony promises to release patches improving compatibility--starting when the console is released on March 23--but promised only that "some additional PS2 titles will become compatible."

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves downplayed the news, noting that PlayStation 3 games provide entertainment far beyond that which is offered by games for the console's predecessors and stating that Sony will be devoting resources to creating new games. "PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system," he said. "Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. 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."

Production cost reduction is the primary impetus behind removing the hardware components. Recently, Sony has expressed its plan to lower costs on the machine, which like many young consoles currently takes a per-unit loss. Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda indicated that as the company approaches the second half of the fiscal year starting this April, the company hopes to be breaking even on PlayStation 3 sales.

When the console launches on March 23, Sony will have a backwards compatibility site operational. It currently contains only a splash image.

Online reports tracking back to Nintendo's official site reveal that Nintendo plans to bring games from the well loved Neo Geo to its Virtual Console download service on Wii. There has been no indication as to whether Neo Geo games will make it to Virtual Console outside of Japan.

Though the MSX console was already announced as coming to Virtual Console in Japan, only now have any MSX games been officially announced for the service. First up will be Bothtec's Eggy and Compile's shoot-em-up Aleste. As with Neo Geo, there was no announcement of MSX games making it out of Japan. The MSX had very little exposure in North America, though several versions were more available in Europe.

Microsoft sent word that it will soon be expanding its line of Xbox 360 Platinum Hits. As of March 16, the following titles will be available in North America for the standard Platinum Hits price point ($29.99 in the United States):
- DICE's Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
- Criterion's Burnout Revenge
- Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2
- Team NINJA's Dead or Alive 4
- EA Chicago's Fight Night Round 3
- Rockstar San Diego's Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis
- Ubisoft Paris' Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
- Indie Built's Top Spin 2

Platinum Hits lines in Europe, Japan, and Asia Pacific territories will also be updated. New European entries, priced at 29.99 euros, are as follows:
- Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2
- Team NINJA's Dead or Alive 4
- Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 3
- Rockstar San Diego's Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis
- Ubisoft Paris' Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
- Crystal Dynamics' Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend