Earlier this week (and to the dismay of Europeans), Sony revealed that the European Playstation 3 launch will be missing a key component that Japanese and US consoles possess. The removal of backwards compatibility was commented on by an anonymous Sony spokesperson by way of Three Speech blog. This enigmatic character asserted that backwards compatibility support will be removed from all models of the Playstation 3 in Europe, Australia (and some Asian countries), Africa, as well as the Middle East.
The main component to make backwards compatibility a possibility was the inclusion of the Emotion Engine/Graphics emulator found in Japanese/US Playstation 3’s. European models will only retain the graphics emulator.
Unfortunately, there’s no current information available regarding just how many titles will inevitably be affected by this. The Sony spokesperson emphasized that this will leave a notable impact on the sum of backwards compatible titles. But, they are continuously striving to assess the compatibility of PS2 titles before the March 23rd launch. The anonymous Sony spokesperson further added that, “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.”
Better keep that Playstation 2 out for a bit longer. Not that you wouldn’t anyway, with the forthcoming God of War 2 release.
