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Next-generation having problems with last-generation

Early reports from Japan say that PlayStation 3 is having problems playing older PS2 games, despite the fact that inside every PS3 are Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer chips included for the sake of backwards compatibility.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 console continues to be quite limited in its ability to play older Xbox games, although it must do so with software emulation as it does not include any of the original Xbox's hardware.

Sony announced this problem on its Japanese Web site on November 11, and said it expects similar compatibility problems to remain for the North American launch on November 17. According to Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka, a select number of the 8,000 PS2 games are failing to work properly on the PS3, some that couldn't be played and others making the wrong sounds or images.

On the Japanese PlayStation page, there is a form where users can check the status of their software by inputting the title, publisher name, release date or product number. IGN and QJ has a list of problem titles they have encountered:

  • Tekken 5: A number of modes don't play background music properly.
  • Xenosaga Episode II: The opening movie sometimes stops and sometimes doesn't properly play background music.
  • Code Age Commanders: Problems (including data loss) with save game data.
  • Radiata Stories: Background music during movie scenes may not play back properly.
  • Star Ocean Till the End of Time (includes Directors Cut): Movie scenes may not have proper sound playback.
  • Driving Emotion Type-S: BGM may not properly play back during races
  • Gran Turismo 4: The screen may freeze following the title demo.
  • Hot Shots Golf 3/4: Some sort of problem with the controls becoming unresponsive
  • Operator's Side: The game freezes at the logo screen when started up with the Seamic controller
  • Onimusha Dawn of Dreams: Screen will occasionally appear 2cm to the right
  • Hyper Street Fighter II Anniversary Edition: The screen will not appear correctly in some instances. The S.F.II Movie cannot play properly.
  • Megaman X7: There are times when the background music won't play properly
  • Devil May Cry: The screen will sometimes freeze during the title demo
  • Onimusha: During movie playback, the sound will occasionally stop
  • Suikoden III: Cannot read PS1 data during the game.
  • Silent Hill 2: When going from the title screen to the demo screen, the screen may freeze
Sony says that compatibility issues arise due to hardware differences such as the lack of physical memory cards, no controller rumble feature, and other issues related to different hard disk and USB specifications. Games which make use of the PS2 HDD, such as Final Fantasy XI, will also not work on the PS3.

According to IGN, Sony commented on its backwards compatibility that it never had expectation for all of its titles to be playable on PS3, and that "some people can put up with playing games that lack sound."

Sony states on its Web site that future system updates, and perhaps even software-specific patches, will improve backwards compatibility with older software.

UPDATE November 20: Sony has made a PS2 compatibility status page to serve its U.S. customers. Find it here.

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Another ignorant statement from Sony
By solgae1784 on 11/14/2006 9:17:56 PM , Rating: 4
"some people can put up with playing games that lack sound."

Yet another ignorant comment from Sony.

I don't know why, but they seem to be doing their best to lose their credibility from their customers.




By threepac3 on 11/14/2006 9:31:18 PM , Rating: 2
Do you really care what Sony says anymore? Look pass the PR BS translated from Japanese to English.

Anyways, Don't look at it as Sony "lied" and couldn't provide full compatibility. Look at it as problems with a very small list of incompatible games. If you compare it to other "next-gen" consoles, it certainly could have been worst. Though some of the best games for the console have some sort of annoyance.


RE: Another ignorant statement from Sony
By squeezee on 11/14/06, Rating: 0
RE: Another ignorant statement from Sony
By solgae1784 on 11/14/2006 11:02:59 PM , Rating: 3
It's all over on Asian sites already, so in a way, this news is late.

And yes, that is EXACTLY what Sony said.

While I didn't expect 100% compatibility, (even PS2 didn't ran all PS1 games) this is getting out of hand. At least Microsoft was a little bit nicer to inform us that there WILL be incompatible games way before they started selling Xbox 360s.


RE: Another ignorant statement from Sony
By othercents on 11/15/2006 10:46:51 AM , Rating: 2
Well now that you know you don't have to buy one. I guess your stuck buying the Wii since it is supposed to play all the old GameCube games.

This really won't stop people from buying the PS3. Granted I wanted to be able to play the PS2 games on the console, but I know that Sony could not have tested all the games before launch especially when they are focused on just getting the PS3 side working to compete against the Xbox 360.

I'm sure in time they will make an adjustment to allow the PS2 games to think there is a memory stick installed and the hard drive available. Give them time. This is actually a better option that what Microsoft did which was port a few games and say none of the rest will work.

Other


By solgae1784 on 11/15/2006 11:19:10 AM , Rating: 3
At least we can expect software updates with PS3, indeed.

PS2 was worse when there was no online capability at launch.


By pekingu on 11/15/2006 6:53:18 PM , Rating: 3
“What would you say to consumers who like Sony and want to buy your products, but perhaps feel that because they’re in Europe they’re always last in line?

European consumers have shown that historically they don’t mind that, because they end up buying as many PlayStations, if not more, than the US and Japan. In Europe, it doesn’t seem that the release of our platforms after the US and Japan - in the long run - affects how consumers feel.”


Sony best moments, Europeans in third line and insulted, Batteries exploding, ps2 games without rumble and sound, rootkit drm, just waiting the next sony big line.


By PrinceGaz on 11/21/2006 6:45:30 PM , Rating: 2
The only people that normally ever have to put up with games that lack sound are those using emulators from third-parties, where the sound emulation hasn't yet been implemented. Those emulators are written by people in their own time for no financial gain, so it is understandable sound is missing or incomplete in early versions.

For Sony to say that it is okay for their PS3 console to not emulate sound correctly is not acceptable.


This is kind of good news for Sony
By ATC on 11/15/2006 3:35:47 AM , Rating: 3
Don't get me wrong. I'm no sony fan. But right now I'm on my third 360 after a number of hardware failures and there are many xbox games I cannot play. So if this is the worst news coming out of the PS3 camp (a select number of PS and PS2 games having problems, with Sony sure to release a fix soon) they're doing pretty good.

Early reports from Japan about PS3 gaming are all positive. No glitches, no graphical stutters and the system is near silent with the power supply built right in! My 360 you can hear from upstairs (drive noise - not fans) which kills the mood for quiet late-evening gaming.

I don't know about you, but considering all that, this is pretty good news for Sony I would say.




RE: This is kind of good news for Sony
By evanhaut on 11/15/2006 8:26:38 AM , Rating: 2
Hardly. While software builder Microsoft is turning away from even trying to fix their XBOX/360 compatibility issues, I can only think that SONY is announcing the beginning of the end of their PS I & II backlog by claiming to fix their compats with a simple update..

They migth have sold all of their PS3's in Japan, but they sold a lot less PS3 software titles.. just the corner where to look for profit.


RE: This is kind of good news for Sony
By ATC on 11/15/2006 8:54:43 AM , Rating: 2
Well you can argue that it's much tougher for MSFT to do anything right now about it since they pretty much planned from the start for very limited back-compatibility and hence you're statement might be true in reference to them, but Sony, on the other hand, went into all the trouble and cost of putting PS2 hardware right into the PS3 console. Why would they do that if they didn't truly intend for full backwards compatibility?

Further, it would make no sense at all not to fix these seemingly minor issues unless they're asking for a PR disaster.

Of course, only time will tell but your statement does not make much sense.


By peternelson on 11/15/2006 11:17:33 AM , Rating: 5
Let's get this in perspective.

There are problems with 200 games, out of a catalogue of around 8000 titles.

Lets see that means 7800 titles are backwards compatible.

Expressed another way, 97.5 percent of titles are compatible, and Sony hope to fix some of the others by an update in future.

As a ps2 owner I'd say its a big benefit to use lastgen games.

PS3 in this respect is far superior to xbox360 compatibility because it is not restricted to the premium console (with hard drive), does not require large download (and storing them) for each title made compatible, and attempts to work with all titles rather than just a minority (MS gave up attempts).

I'd say 97.5% (it's actually higher) is a great achievement.

There are some games I probably could play without sounds ;-)

For the games that don't work, I can always buy new ps3 specific titles in their place.


By evanhaut on 11/15/2006 11:37:22 AM , Rating: 2
PS I & II never did receive such an urgent update. I meant for SONY Entertainment's PR tank to pump up its tires as SONY Electronics' reputation of firmware updates is likely to scratch more than the PS3's face..


BBC tells a slightly different story
By jay0110 on 11/14/2006 9:34:39 PM , Rating: 3
I read this half an hour ago on BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6146328.stm

"Japanese newspaper Sankei has reported that the problems affect about 200 games sold for the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Sony has declined to give numbers."

In all honesty, I don't think this is a major crisis for PS3 owners. After all, I think the majority of them are looking forward to play PS3 games.

After a year of its release, Xbox360 still struggles with original Xbox games. So for those bash-sony-no-matter-what fanatics, you might as well start with Xbox360 first.

P.S. Someone at DT should give Marcus Yam a break; seems like he's stuck covering all the bad news related to the PS3.




RE: BBC tells a slightly different story
By Xeeros on 11/15/2006 1:25:17 AM , Rating: 2
Total Hardware Sales: 81,639
Total Software Sales: 66,684
source- Media Create

Clearly the people in Japan would agree with you about buying a PS3 for PS3 games with those amazingly great software sales. /sarcasm

Looking at those sales numbers is very depressing considering Sony needed to have some great 5:1 ratio numbers in their own home territory. I wonder what the 14,955 people who didn't buy a game for their brand new PS3 did (assuming nobody got more then 1 game)?

Sony is probably facing the same problem that they had with PS2 people are buying for a cheap Blu-ray player for now. Now what is the most likely outcome in the US where the 360 is actually having a good year? and also nobody I have talked with on our Reserve list is particularly excited about the launch titles.


By jay0110 on 11/15/2006 3:51:55 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Clearly the people in Japan would agree with you about buying a PS3 for PS3 games with those amazingly great software sales.

Heh, I see where you're coming from. However, who said Sony doesn't get any green from whoever is buying those BR movies?

quote:
Now what is the most likely outcome in the US where the 360 is actually having a good year? and also nobody I have talked with on our Reserve list is particularly excited about the launch titles.

We can all wait and see, however:

1) the 360 didn't get an HD-DVD drive till 2 days ago, unlike the PS3, and that might drive some to grab a few BR titles.

2) Excitement over launch titles can change dramatically once the console hits the market.

3) Even if those folks you talked to on the Reserve list might not necessarily be happy with the launch titles, I'm nearly positive they'll be thrilled once titles like Call of Duty 3 and FF XIII hit the shelves; that and those pleasant folks might not represent the majority who are buying the PS3 after all ;)


By Loc13 on 11/15/2006 9:37:57 AM , Rating: 2
There is no doubt that some of those people are planning to sell them on auction sites. But you also need to take into account the number of launch titles in Japan, five! It is very sad that Sony only has five titles for launch in its own territory, and seems like only two of the five games, Gundam Story and Ridge Racer, appeal to Japanese gamers. And some Japanese gamers MAY simply buy the system first, and wait for more appealing titles to come up.


By Sock on 11/15/2006 11:46:24 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I wonder what the 14,955 people who didn't buy a game for their brand new PS3 did (assuming nobody got more then 1 game)?
Total Hardware Sales: 81,639
Total Software Sales: 66,684
source- Media Create

Easy answer, the were bought for re-sale on ebay or who knows where else. That is why you see poor software numbers. Why buy a game if you are going to sell system?


Awesome
By InvisibleEcho on 11/14/06, Rating: 0
RE: Awesome
By cnimativ on 11/14/2006 9:44:30 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Wow. I wonder if car companies would ever market a car like that? "Some people can put up with only 5 cylinders firing instead of 6."