Think back to the autumn of 2006, right before the big PS3 launch. Expecting someone to pay five-hundred-and-ninety-nine-U.S.-dollars was (rightly) considered ludicrous, but the ability to play the entire PS2 library on the system somewhat lessened the blow. But then Sony removed the Emotion Engine chip from the PS3, thus rendering it unable to play PS2 games. (More recent models, like the one found in the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle, used a just-sorta-okay software emulation method to grant partial PS2 backwards compatibility.) All that may well change if Sony goes ahead and executes the idea found in this recently unearthed patent.
The patent, which was filed in December, 2008, shows a method whereby Sony would harness the power of its fancy-pants Cell processor to emulate, from soup to nuts, the Emotion Engine. Emulate that, and it’s like having a tiny PS2 inside your PS3, and all that that implies.
The best part is that since every single PS3 on planet Earth has a Cell processor, every single PS3 could take advantage of this latest bit of technological wizardry.
Keep in mind that patents are filed all the time, so this is by no means any sort of “confirmation” that you’ll be able to play Final Fantasy X or Shadow of the Colossus on your PS3.
Then there’s also the issue of whether or not you’ll merely be able to use your actual PS2 discs, or whether Sony has some sort of “Classic PS2 Games!” PlayStation Network store up its sleeves.
Oh please, God, let this happen. I think the bitterness over not being backwards compatible is still contributing today to all the PS3 hatred out there. I have an entire catalog of games I don’t get to pick up and play anymore unless I hook up my PS2, which I don’t want to do.
LAFF!
I have my PS2 hooked up in my bedroom and I play Guitar Hero 2 there as well as Silent Hill and other classics from the comfort of m ybed all the time. In the living room I have the monolith aka PS3 hooked up and yes its a nice set up. Case in point time to get your own place so you can have different consoles hooked up in different rooms. I am thinking of moving my old xbox and dreamcast to the garage.
…or I’d have to buy another tv to put it on.
Good for you, “Josh”, but not all of us WANT to have 90 things hooked up. As for me, if Sony does this for FREE as a favor to their customers, then GREAT I’m all for it. But if they do it as part of a PS2 downloadable program, where you have to pay to play, then they can shove it.
You’ve got your facts a little wrong there.
The Emotion Engine, EE chip, is the PS2’s CPU.
The GS, Graphics Synthesizer, is the PS2’s GPU.
The launch models i the US had both the EE and GS in them.
UK models and early 80GB models in the US had only the GS in them, but still played PS2 games.
It wasn’t until the GS was removed that they no longer played PS2 games.
So the removal of the EE didn’t make the system unable to play PS2 games, it was the removal of the GS.
Sony emulated the EE long ago on their PS3, its the GS they need to emulate.
Wonderful, now all the backwards compatibility arguements can come to an end. Don’t worry, Sony will enable all PS3s compatible with PS2 in due time.
Perhaps after the price drop they may make the PS2 games downloadable from their PS network. Wether its free or not doesn’t matter. Its better than nothing at all.
i just bought the 160 gb ps3 and i thought that i could play ps2 games on it like hitman blood money and gta san andreas but yeah i hope sony can come up with some thing, btw does anyone know if gta lost and damned is coming too psn
There is some quite a misundersanding here! The first PS3’s has the “EE+GS” chip (from the PS2 slim), right. But, the first European PS3’s had only the older GS chip (originally used in the non-slim PS2), and SO THE EE WAS EMULATED BY THE CELL ALREADY THEN, hence the lesser than before PS2 B.C.! Latter models lacked this GS chip, as well, hence no B.C. at all! Because the GS is much harder to emulate in SW than the EE.