I found this article in the todays Financial times. It was lying around in the smokerslounge at work. It had a big sticker on it that said I shouldn't take it with me. So obviously I did.

Long story short: backwards compatibility isn't a 100%



By Leo Lewis in Tokyo
...................................
Within 72 hours of the chaotic launch of of Playstation3, Japanese games enthusiasts have uncovered technical problems with Sony's latest console.
The company has been forced to staunch a potential flood of complaints by promising early PS3 customers a software upgrade, downloadable over the internet.
Gamers buying the PS3 after it is launched in the US next week will probably receive upgrades "secretly" added to the data on games discs.
The trouble centres on the machine's abilitiy to play games originally designed for the PS2 consoles - a promise vital to early sales.
According to gamers who have tested hundreds of titles in their collections, many PS2 games do not work properly: in some cases the screen freezes at critical moments, in others the buttons fail to respond.
Some people reported instances where the background music became distorted or the animated characters went haywire.
The problem apears to affect more then 120 games. The claim that the PS3 would seamlessly handle so-called "backwards compatibility" is a key selling point of the console in its early stages because of the limited range of launch titles on offer, and the high quality of "late generation" games available on the privious console.
Sony executives had previously warned that 100 per cent backwards compatibility would be a complex promiseto meet because the technical architecture of the PS3 is so different from it's predecessors.
Games industry observers said the problems where unlikely to derail the PS3's prospects, as the PS2 did not deliver full backwards compatibility and ultimatley did not suffer

I didn't find this very surprising at all. I'd been hearing this and that about production problems and well here we have evidence. Sony really is fucking things up.

This is going to be fixed, but its really annoying and out of line. Imagine keeping money for a so expensive console, buy it, take it home and realise that 70% of ur games wont play.

I think they should have announced about this problem before they realised ps3. At least that instead of keeping people thinking that they buy a consol with 100% compatibility

I guess it's a good thing that I hadn't ordered one. There's always errors on the first launch of consoles.

There are problems with the PS3 besides the obvious?

Also: yeah 100% backwards compatibility was never really guaranteed iirc. There was bound to be a little problem here and there

Heh, no surprise at all. The first wave is usually the most flawed.

Bad news during such a late stage of development, indeed.

$5 says the 120 games were sports games and games made by Bandai.

Well they better have it fixed before it comes to europe. Im not paying so much to find things not working. Didnt the 360 experience problems too?

$5 says the 120 games were sports games and games made by Bandai.

Lol, nice.

This is schlock reporting at its worst.

IGN got their retail PS3s a week ago, and encountered this problem on a couple of games. The 1.1 firmware update (which is already available) fixed the problem.

So, these complaints are all coming from people who probably haven't updated their PS3 via broadband (and given how cheap it is in Japan, if you can afford a PS3, you can afford a few years of broadband), and are waiting for the firmware updates to appear on games, like happens on the PSP.

Mind you, the update isn't 'secret'; it's an option you have to select in the Game menu.

Reporters like this piss me off.

Thanks for clearing that up Raidenex. Buggering reporters.

$5 says the 120 games were sports games and games made by Bandai.
Don't forget Final Fantasy.

In a statement in Japanese on its Web site, Sony Computer Entertainment, the company's games division, said the problems differ depending on the game. Titles such as Gran Turismo and the Final Fantasy series sold for previous generations of the Sony console have menu and graphics problems, the company disclosed a day before the launch in Japan.
Complete article. (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2006/gb20061114_767472.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily)

HAHAHAHA. Sony sucks. AHAHAHAHA. *Runs away.*

Don't forget Final Fantasy.

Complete article. (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2006/gb20061114_767472.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily)

Those games have menu and graphics problems anyway. (Oh snap!)

For once, reporting on the PS3 is more dramatic then it needs to be. This is hardly a major issue and I think some people jumped on the anti-PS3 bandwagon prematurely.

those people out there who are shocked, suck. Those people who didn't research, suck. those people who are on ebay bidding $1,800+ for a PS3 all suck and are fucking gay faggot stupid piss-head ignorant pieces of shit who shouldn't even even be alive except there's not enough cannables in the world to eat them, they're about to waist valuable money on something that will probobly break and yet there are starving people in the world. Those people who are making the profit on ebay selling PS3s... priceless.

HAHAHAHA. Sony sucks. AHAHAHAHA. *Runs away.*

x2

here's a hilarious article from Maddox that basically explains how i feel about Sony in general (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sony_bullshit)

*edit*...i didn't notice someone made a thread about his latest blog entry yesterday...

those people out there who are shocked, suck. Those people who didn't research, suck. those people who are on ebay bidding $1,800+ for a PS3 all suck and are fucking gay faggot stupid piss-head ignorant pieces of shit who shouldn't even even be alive except there's not enough cannables in the world to eat them, they're about to waist valuable money on something that will probobly break and yet there are starving people in the world. Those people who are making the profit on ebay selling PS3s... priceless.
Pfft.

An Xbox360 sold for about $10,000 on Ebay iirc, so a PS3 is going to suprass that easily. Yes of course whoever buys one for that much money is downright stupid. But if you can blow that much money like tissues, more power to you.

You're definitely stupid if you get a system at launch. Everyone should know that almost always the first ones are going to have problems.

You're definitely stupid if you get a system at launch. Everyone should know that almost always the first ones are going to have problems.

personally...i'll get a PS3 when i feel the need to...right now...nothing about Sony is all that thrilling...especially after that battery recall

You're definitely stupid if you get a system at launch. Everyone should know that almost always the first ones are going to have problems.

Unless, of course, it's a system made by Nintendo.

This isn't even fanboyism... every system after the NES has been incredibly technically sound. The only real issue (that comes with age) is the cartridge-blowing.

I just hope that doesn't happen with my DS :(

For any new console, excluding Nintendo consoles, I recommend that you wait until the second revision (of the console in question) has been made to make your purchase! :)

For any new console, excluding Nintendo consoles, I recommend that you wait until the second revision (of the console in question) has been made to make your purchase! :)

Yep, it's the best thing to do if you're not just made of money.

Hooray for relevance!

naw.. this isn't shocking at all to me either. I mean.. to this date I'm still having issues playing certain PS1 games on my PS2. One of them is FFVIII. So seeing that they would be having issues with this now... i believe it. As long as FFXII works ok I'll be happy.

yea problems, like getting shot! wal-mart needs more secruety.