Peter Dille on keeping 40GB PS3 costs down
- Posted October 19th, 2007 at 11:04 EDT by Mike Harradence
- 3,650 views
- 29 Comments
Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Vice President of Marketing and PlayStation Network, Peter Dille, has gone on record to state that the company made the decision to remove PS2 backwards compatibility in the new 40GB PlayStation 3 in favour of keeping Wi-Fi.
Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz this week, Dille highlighted the importance of keeping costs of the new machine as low as possible, stating, "We've been hearing loud and clear that price is more of a primary concern to consumers.”
"We know that getting down to USD 399 will open up the PlayStation marketplace to a much broader swath of consumers that we had been at, at either USD 499 or 599."
Of course, keeping the cost at a minimum means removing a number of features present in earlier models. In addition to having only two USB ports, Sony ultimately decided to remove the graphics synthesizer chip needed to play PS2 games in favour of maintaining Wi-Fi compatibility.
The decision, Dille says, simply came down to fact that Wi-Fi is becoming an ever-growing feature of the PS3 gaming experience, and one that many companies, including Sony, are looking to take advantage of in the future.
[W]e'll be rolling out more and more features that take advantage of the connectivity between the PSP and the PS3, and Wi-Fi is really essential to that experience," said Dille.
"We've got some cool things you can do today with Wi-Fi, but there are also a lot more on the horizon that will help people understand why we left Wi-Fi in."
He also pointed out that consumers can now purchase a PS2 and PS3 at a lower cost than when PS3 first launched: "If you take the USD 129 plus the USD 399 that the PS3 is being sold for today, you are still getting into the game for less than the USD 599 price we launched at."
"In practice, once you get the PS3 home, the ability to play games in high-definition is more what [consumers] are interested in than their back catalog of PS2 games”, he concluded.
Comments
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DeadOnArrival06 |
DeadOnArrival06- 11:09am BST - October 19th, 2007
- 1
I agree. I hope people stop b!tching about the fact the emulation chip is gone and start looking forward to the great PS3 games that are coming out.
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ZeRoAc1dKo0L |
ZeRoAciDKooL- 11:23am BST - October 19th, 2007
- 3
I argee with deadon... i got 60gb ps3 as soon as they were in stock when ps3 launched and since then there was only one game i played and it was MGS2 just because i wanted to see the upscale they added(which is really great). After i played MGS2, i never played another ps2 game, just because my ps3's games kept me more entertained and i even play the demos more then my ps2....
PSN ID ZeRoAciDKooL
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 11:39am BST - October 19th, 2007
- 4
Whatever makes consoles move do it.But i still have one question,
What ever happened to the 60gb SKU,and if they still sell it then at what price point?
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SolsticeZero |
SolsticeZero- 12:04pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 6
If people want backwards compatibility, they just need to buy the 80 gig. It's really not that much more. And, think about it. the 360 still hasn't made more than 30% of their games BC. So, who cares about it. If you want to play PS2 games, buy the 80 gig or a PS2
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The Master
- 12:14pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 9
What makes me angry is not the fact that they decided to not include the EE, but rather, the fact that they don't use the EE for emulation anymore. The BC that we all use is done through software emulation, many of the newer 60 GB SKU's don't have the EE either, yet they still are BC. There was no reason to say it's not BC, all they would need to do is add the software (which they developed) for no additional costs, and even if they didn't want to take the time to update it's firmware, it should be able to be done through a future firmware update.
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meatee |
meateetj- 1:30pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 12
For those of you who don't understand, the original PS3 SKUs had TWO chips for playing PS2 games, the Emotion Engine and the Graphics Synthesizer. The 80 GB SKU removed the Emotion Engine, but still has the Graphics Synthesizer, so the only thing the software emulates is the Emotion Engine. The new 40 GB doesn't have either of these chips, so emulation isn't possible.
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tabular
- 1:58pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 13
At some point I hope Sony emulates the FULL PS2/PS1 spec using Cell and RSX. That way even the 40 gig version would have backwards compatibility and games could be rendered super sharp (think Tekken DR Online). This is what some pc emulators do and it would really make the older games worth playing again. There's a definite chance Sony will do it yet.
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Mattchewie |
Mattchewie- 2:50pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 15
I would agree that the ps2 is the better machine to play your ps2 game on but if you hook that sucker up to a HD tv...its...ehhh..not a great experiance. At least on the ps3 I could up convert that sucker.
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 6:01pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 16
@ Triple DK
It doesn't matter if ANYONE signs that petition,because MS is the Publisher of NG2,so if you want NG2 so much,i'm afraid you are going to have to buy a 360 for that.
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Alpha2
- 8:20pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 19
He should have waited until we had more freaking games to play before trying to talk about the power of the PS3's library. How can people enjoy the great Hi Def Experiance if there's only like 6 games worth really playing since most of what he have are pour ports of 36* games?
The fact is backwards Compatibility was the only thing that made the fact that we have so few games something barable. They needed to drop the price of the PS2 at least.
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Lp47PS3 |
Lp47- 8:52pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 20
Good way to look at it, i really cant wait to see what this new PSP yo PS3 wi fi thing is all about, sure theres already remote play, which i like alot, but i dont know what will be next. Probabley ps3 games on psp, like rumoured earlier. I think if you have ps2 games you most likely have a ps2.
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 11:47pm BST - October 19th, 2007
- 22
I'm buying a lot of PS2 games now since they're so cheap and BC is a big plus for me. I guess Sony knows what they're doing.
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ladellb
- 12:26am BST - October 20th, 2007
- 23
It's like when companies decided to "push" consumers to update our everyday tech/gadgets by needing to purchase CDs instead of casettes. At some point there has to be a leap to the next stage. Same thing happening with HD vs. standard def. At the same time the PS3 library of quality games is very small, and having BC was one of Sony's strongest assests. People will find a work-around and get over it, but the transition is always tough.
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TheRizeofWar
- 3:31pm BST - October 20th, 2007
- 26
The way i look at it if people wanted the backwards compatibility they would of paid for it when it came out. I have to many ps2 games so i paid to get everything. If the complainers want it so bad they just need to buy the 80gig or just wait longer for the price to drop even more and just deal with it. No biggy.
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The Cleaner
- 8:46pm BST - October 20th, 2007
- 29
I heard that Okami is going to be released on the Wii. Better graphics faster frame rates and enhanced controls. So what is my point?
That massive 120 million PS2 user base is at serious risk. No Backward compatibility leaves them stranded so they have no natural choice. It's open slather.
By this time next year all that Developer support we have seen being thrown behind the Wii over the past 18 months is going to begin baring fruit as title after title start rolling off the code-cutting assembly lines. Meanwhile PS3 devs continue to drop projects mid life. What do you think is going to happen? PS2 users spoilt on massive selection of games is going to have to make a decision. I dont see PS3 as being the favourite now. The news of Monster Hunter 3 missing PS3 and headed for Wii is just the start of Capcom & Namco titles jumping ship. Konami & Square will be watching.
The Wii is cheap to develop for and all the companies that made squillions out of PS2 are going to move their franchises to Wii. All those vendors will be advertising former PS2 franchises on Wii. Of the 120 million I'd guess that half will be lost to Nintendo. The other half has to be shared with Microsofts Xbox 360, and Microsofts Windows PC platform - both performing better than our PS3 console. Sony cant afford to share - they need a large base to make any economic sense. For me Xbox is the last choice buthave to admitt PC is getting a massive revival and it is absolutely crapping all over the PS3 selection for top end games / graphics.
Bottom line: We need to keep the PS2 base. If Sony was smart, - I mean if they had their act together then they would release PS2 games that had extra content, extra features when played on a PS3. IE: Sony should be tempting their users to upgrade instead of shutting them out.
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