For those UK gamers wanting to get a PS3...

[Invisible Crane]

Here's the newly released backwards compatibilty list

http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc/bcGames.htm

[Chacranajxy]

Here's the newly released backwards compatibilty list

http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc/bcGames.htm

While not perfect, it's clearly not the 360-level compatibility that fanboys were expecting.

[ADC]

This is approximately what we can expect when Sony brings this revision out in the States, too. I'm not worried, especially since they can improve compatibility issues via firmware updates. Good to see that it won't be the disaster some predicted.

[Suwako Moriya]

This is approximately what we can expect when Sony brings this revision out in the States, too.

Is this related to future PS3s having the PS2 chipset removed thing I heard about? Someone at another forum mentioned it, but didn't provide a link or anything. Still I wonder if the removal of the PS2 chipset will result in lower costs for future PS3s.

[ADC]

Is this related to future PS3s having the PS2 chipset removed thing I heard about? Someone at another forum mentioned it, but didn't provide a link or anything. Still I wonder if the removal of the PS2 chipset will result in lower costs for future PS3s.
Aye. I think I saw the news on Gamespot a few weeks ago that the EU and AU PS3s will not have the Emotion Engine / Graphics Synthesizer chip and that, therefore, PS2 games will run in emulation on the Cell. I think they re-purposed the PS One processor for sound processing again, which is why it's not being removed as well. That said, the EE/GS probably doesn't add that much to the cost of the PS3, which still costs more than its retail price, so I doubt we'll see a price drop on the PS3 at retail.

Sony haven't said, though, whether PS2 emulation will include an upscaler like Xbox emulation does on the 360. I kind of get the idea that Sony didn't want the removal of the EE/GS to be common knowledge, though.

[quenelf]

IIRC they have only removed the PS2 CPU not the graphics chip. Previously it was a combined chip, now it's a single one. So it saves only a little money, maybe $10-$15 say. That's money saved for Sony as part of their overall changes to reduce losses, not for consumers (who actually pay much more in Europe where this is released first, than in the US or Japan which had the full chip).

They are probably still losing money on each sale so this doesn't immediately make a price cut likely but together with other less noticeable changes it helps them reduce costs which means they can more afford a later price cut. (Some people predict a price cut for next Christmas, while one Sony rep claimed that it probably wouldn't be for two years. In reality it depends on sales as to which.)

--quen

[ic14]

When they say minor issues, they mostly seem to mean occasional slowdown. Havent tried any games with major issues yet.