European PS3 to rely on software emulation
Friday 23rd February 2007, 01:01:00 PM, written by TeamB3D
In a surprise press release
made by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe earlier today, it was
revealed that the European version of the PlayStation 3 - set to launch
March 23rd - would also be the first hardware revision to feature a
greater reliance on software emulation for achieving PS2 backwards
compatability.
Written about recently in the context of comments made by Sony CFO Takao Yuhara, the EE+GS legacy hardware presently included in the PS3 has always been one of the most prominent targets for cost-savings; beyond the chip itself, spillover benefits include reduced board complexity and memory module expense. Sony has had dedicated teams working on perfecting emulation of the complicated PS2 architecture for years now, and the situation has only been made more difficult by the extremely large variety of methodologies developers used when coding their software to extract performance in that exotic environment.
Additionally, it seems the move to fuller emulation comes before all of the kinks have been worked out. States SCEE president David Reeves:"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."
Further language in the release makes clear that the support for catalog PlayStation 2 titles on this newer PS3 revision will begin as 'limited.' Although the list of supported titles will no doubt expand as time goes on, and likely include the majority of 'important' games to begin with, one of the key lines of appeal Sony has chosen to emphasize in the past has been the idea that future Sony platforms support legacy games as well. The amount of PR devoted to this subject will likely create some blowback for them now, and it speaks to the complexities of emulating the Graphics Synthesizer that the effort is being essentially halted in what Sony considers to be a 'good enough' state.
Written about recently in the context of comments made by Sony CFO Takao Yuhara, the EE+GS legacy hardware presently included in the PS3 has always been one of the most prominent targets for cost-savings; beyond the chip itself, spillover benefits include reduced board complexity and memory module expense. Sony has had dedicated teams working on perfecting emulation of the complicated PS2 architecture for years now, and the situation has only been made more difficult by the extremely large variety of methodologies developers used when coding their software to extract performance in that exotic environment.
Additionally, it seems the move to fuller emulation comes before all of the kinks have been worked out. States SCEE president David Reeves:"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."
Further language in the release makes clear that the support for catalog PlayStation 2 titles on this newer PS3 revision will begin as 'limited.' Although the list of supported titles will no doubt expand as time goes on, and likely include the majority of 'important' games to begin with, one of the key lines of appeal Sony has chosen to emphasize in the past has been the idea that future Sony platforms support legacy games as well. The amount of PR devoted to this subject will likely create some blowback for them now, and it speaks to the complexities of emulating the Graphics Synthesizer that the effort is being essentially halted in what Sony considers to be a 'good enough' state.
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