All PS3's to be backwards compatible?

[Scott]

Link

Interview with David Reeves. Hes yacking about the Singstar backward compatibility and says more titles can be done through emulation.

[Mr Cool]

So you want me to believe that they took out the chips for BC to save money and are now going to do it in an emulated fashion which is more costly? Unfortunately I find that quite doubtful.

[Shixx]

So you want me to believe that they took out the chips for BC to save money and are now going to do it in an emulated fashion which is more costly? Unfortunately I find that quite doubtful.

Why would it be more costly?

[Scott]

So you want me to believe that they took out the chips for BC to save money and are now going to do it in an emulated fashion which is more costly? Unfortunately I find that quite doubtful.

Emulation is "more costly?" In what universe? Yes, it costs money to develop a software emulator, but it's a fixed one-time cost. It adds zero manufacturing cost to each PS3 that uses it - and it this point reducing the per-unit cost is the name of the game. Sony will be producing tens of millions of PS3s. Saving a few dollars each easily justifies spending millions on emulation software development.

[Mr Cool]

One time cost?!?!? What are you smoking? Software development, especially emulation is an ongoing cost, just look at the 360, they updated the emulation software multiple times, the only way it\'s a one time cost is if you leave it in a shoddy incomplete state.

[Scott]

One time cost?!?!? What are you smoking? Software development, especially emulation is an ongoing cost, just look at the 360, they updated the emulation software multiple times, the only way it\'s a one time cost is if you leave it in a shoddy incomplete state.

I don't smoke. My point is that with emulation the fixed cost regardless of the number of units produced, which for large production runs yields significant savings. Do you think they should have included PS1 hardware as well "to save money?" Or that Microsoft would have been better off including original Xbox hardware in the 360? Complete nonsense.

Of course it would be cheaper still to completely dump backward compatibility, I don't disagree there. If we've learned anything with the success of retro gaming, it's that there's money to be made selling product you've already got in the vault. Emulation is the key to being able to re-sell the PS2 library so let's assume that they do feel that backward compatibility is important.

If software emulation is possible (still not 100% clear) then it's definitely a net savings over including the vestiges of PS2 hardware that were still in the 80GB MGS4 model. At an estimate of £10 in hardware savings per unit, with Sony targeting more than 100 million more units sold, then so long as it costs less than £1B to develop, enhance, and maintain then it's a net win.

[Mr Cool]

B/C is not written on the boxes of the next wave of PS3s. They have no intention of worrying about it.

[Scott]

B/C is not written on the boxes of the next wave of PS3s. They have no intention of worrying about it.

I agree that there's no reason to be optimistic about it ever making an appearance. Among other things, the hardware they'd be trying to emulate is a nasty challenge. They may well be done with backward compatibility.

[Shixx]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if they did. all that's involved is alittle coding. Guys in their Garage's can make Emulators. It shouldn't be that hard or costly for pro's to make one.
Granted it will probably be when the 160gb PS3 comes out and it will only work if the whole game is on the PS3's HD. Some how they Will bring PS2 games to the PS3 eventually.