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Sony says "Backwards Compatibility will NEVER Return"

August 22, 2009 in News comments 51

In an Interview with Sony's John Koller, Koller revieals that Backwards Compatibility will never return for the PS3, as people are no longer interested in PS2 games.
My translation, "we want people to say "holy shit, why can't we play PS2 games on this" and then spend another $50-$100 on a PS2 system so we can make even more money!"

Do we need to stop yapping about backwards compatibility?

"It's not coming back, so let me put that on the table," Koller says with an air of finality. But it's all people ever talk about!

"It's not as big as a purchase intent driver as you may be hearing," he claimed. "We've got such a substantial lineup of titles on the PS3; most people are buying the PS3 for PS3 games. They've buying it for PS3 games and Blu-ray movies."

"That won't be returning," he repeats.
Paper Mario Dude via news.vgchartz.com »
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Most recently commented on by on Aug 29, 2009

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  • 20
    Miss Razz Aug 23, 09
    "most people are buying the PS3 for PS3 games."

    Well no shit. Gamers aren't buying the PS3 for PS2 games BECAUSE THERE'S NO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY!
    • 4
      Shuyu Aug 23, 09
      HAH. Too right. Cheers to you, good lady.
    • 1
      Rabla Aug 23, 09
      I lol'd.
      A lot.

      I'll remember that post for ages
  • 0
    Smoke Aug 23, 09
    But why would they spend the time and money on patenting backwards comparability via the cell processor?

    The guy's probably just in the marketing sector of Sony and knows nothing of Sony's future.
    • 2
      Paper Mario Dude Aug 23, 09
      Throwing money away is what made Sony...Sony
    • 0
      Daweii Aug 23, 09
      Smoke, you can throw money at everything it doesn't mean the idea you threw money at will work. B/C through the CELL was an idea and obviously didn't work well enough to patch in.
  • 0
    Red 9 Aug 23, 09
    Then again, I've learned to not take Koller seriously. Also, there've been plenty of things that were never supposed to happen that ended up happening (ie PS3 Slim).
  • 0
    Chais Aug 23, 09
    "Hi, my name's Sony and I don't give a shit what you nostalgic gamers say. NO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY FOR YOU HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHSHSHS!"

    I just have one thing to say to you, Sony. Be glad I can't stand Microsoft.
  • 0
    reaver11 Aug 23, 09
    Great pic. Awesome Evil Dead nostalgia.

    I don't know what to say about the BC. Obviously Sony isn't listening. How many people have you heard say they "don't want BC"? All anyone says is they "don't care" or "YES! YES! Gimme Gimme!!"
  • 0
    Duality_18 Aug 23, 09
    Ps2's are pretty cheap anyways.. besides... most of the games I want to re play are on ps1, and those are like 8 bucks now.
  • 1
    Kepp123 Aug 23, 09
    yeah but we as gamers like to have options on what to play.Personally i dont care at all but ppl do.
  • 0
    Jaw7765 Aug 23, 09
    All my friends bought a PS2 slim over the course of the last 2 years. It's not really that big of a deal to be honest if Sony drops backwards compatibility. Hell I still got my PS2 Fat that's 7 years old and going to be 8 soon.
  • 3
    TurMoiL911* Aug 23, 09
    Sony will no longer allow gamers to play their old PS1 and PS2 game game discs on their PS3 console ... thus forcing gamers to repurchase their old games on the PSN game store if Sony re-releases it.

    Oh, Sony. I see what you did there.
    • 0
      Kave En Aug 23, 09
      quote TurMoiL911
      Sony will no longer allow gamers to play their old PS1 and PS2 game game discs on their PS3 console ... thus forcing gamers to repurchase their old games on the PSN game store if Sony re-releases it.

      Oh, Sony. I see what you did there.
      I'm pretty sure you can run PS1 games on PS3. If not, what's the big deal. Does anyone here still have PS2 games, but not a PS2? If so, my question is....

      Why?
      • 2
        Star of Spurs Aug 23, 09
        My PS2 broke and I don't see the point of buying a new one, because they have a new console, which SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY THEM . Not me having to buy them again.
  • 5
    RabidChinaGirl Aug 23, 09
    Why do PR big shots always sound like complete douchebags?
    • 0
      dwg14390 Aug 23, 09
      Probably because they are complete douchebags.
  • 1
    Seeker X Aug 23, 09
    *Shows off his playback compatible PS3*

    This is the only other time where getting the console early was rewarding instead of later. Ironically enough, I hardly ever use any PS1/2 games.
    • 0
      Kepp123 Aug 23, 09
      yeah but you like having the feature don't you.(thats why you rubb it in our faces)
  • 0
    Paper Mario Dude Aug 23, 09
    Yea, I got the origional 80gb PS3, the one with Motorstorm and the Six-Axis controller with BC...had it replaced 6 months later in july 2008....and now its starting to crap out >.
  • 0
    Shinobi_razor Aug 23, 09
    but if you got a 60GB PS3 on eBay and sent it in for repairs, it would still have BC right? cause thats what im thinking of doing and i dont wanna lose the PS2 ability.
    • 0
      phowell23 Aug 23, 09
      Im pretty sure by law they cant give u a different one. They have to either fix yours or give you a brand new one thats the exact same kind. When i sent my 80gb with bc after they stoped making them they just fixed what was wrong with it and sent it back. Itll cost ya 150 to have it fixed tho.
      • 0
        Shinobi_razor Aug 24, 09
        yeah i know it will be 150, so i plan to get a broken one for pretty cheap, that way the price of that plus 150 will still come out to less than $300.
  • 4
    Killosity Aug 23, 09
    Then quite frankly I am not interested in continuing my longstanding support of purchasing sony platforms. Pretty sure me boycotting the console wont change anything, but Ill say this:

    I am quite happy to repurchase PS1 tiles on the PSN store; does not bother me. They are quite cheap and I have no worries about everything heading towards digital. What I do have a problem with, is the sheer lack of support for these PS1 classics on PSN. Its been 3 years for the PS3 in New Zealand, and what, you've got 43 PS1 titles on the store!? That absolutely sucks quite frankly. You've got maybe 4-5 decent games, and the rest was fodder, all scoring 7-8's in their respective Playstation magazines back in the day. Sony have not even made public, any sort of plans for the PS2 titles to be put on the PSN store, and by previous indication, Id have to wait another bloddy 4-5 years before we get anything decent on PS2!

    This Koller should not assume anything. Unless our PS3's secretly send information for all PS1-PS2 disc activity, then I am in disgust at him presuming that we constantly played on our PS3's. I mean, geez, your first year was so crap. Did Koller think we played Resistance: Fall of Man for 12months?

    Loser.
  • 0
    Storm Aug 23, 09
    Haha, great to see that all the PS2 support during the next-gen console reign will not go in vain, eh? -_- So by the time that group gets the PS3, they'll be in for a real treat.
  • 1
    Zero and X Aug 23, 09
    I am glad I have my 60gb PS3 that's backwards compatible, but I am worried about it breaking one day and my PS2 memory being useless when I transfer it to a non compatible PS3.
  • 1
    Dine_Agoti Aug 23, 09
    If they don't want to support PS2 games on the PS3 they should at least stop making PS2 games. A lot of good RPGs in particular are released on the PS2 nowadays, and they'd be significantly better looking on an HDTV if they were made for the PS3.
  • 0
    Cruxis Mana Aug 23, 09
    *Pats his trusty 60GB PS3
  • 4
    Play ISDF Aug 23, 09
    Does anybody think their trying to let Microsoft win? High prices (yes I know they have blu-ray and a price drop was announced recently but still), a lesser exclusive collection compared to the 360 library, and the alienation of people who love their PS2 games (come on, who else here loves to go back and play games like Kingdom Hearts?).

    Sure, the 360 has the failure rate crap but still, complete backwards compatibility, sweet amount of exclusives that continue to grow, and Xbox Live is a sweet service that keeps getting better and better. I do love my PS3, but Sony is making things harder and harder on themselves.
    • 2
      Bale Fire Aug 23, 09
      The 360 certainly doesn't have 100% backwards compacity, my brothers machine won't play half his old games.
      • 2
        Play ISDF Aug 23, 09
        I was under the impression all the old games had been updated at this point. If he can connect to Xbox Live all the time and still not play, then I guess not. Still, some backwards compat is better than none whatsoever.
        • 0
          TurMoiL911* Aug 23, 09
          Microsoft stopped updating the 360 for backwards compatibility a while ago. There's a list on Xbox.com that shows all the current backwards-compatible games and that hasn't been updated in years.
      • 0
        Star of Spurs Aug 23, 09
        The majority of the famous games (Halo, PGR, Fahrenheit etc.) have compatability.

        And Barbie Horse Adventures.
        • 1
          RabidChinaGirl Aug 24, 09
          And the KotOR games. Music's a little funky on the 360 though. To be honest, aside from Halo and KotOR (I loved II so much I bought the PC version AFTER beating the Xbox one for cut content / mods), I have little interest in Xbox originals. If I see one I wanna try, I can get it via Xbox LIVE arcade, and I won't feel bad about it because I don't own the games on disc.

          I wouldn't mind having a PS3 at all, as it has some interesting exclusives. But because most blockbuster games these days are multiplat, I have little reason to get a PS3 with a 360 in my possession already. That's why BC is so important for someone like me. I have a ton of PSone and even more PS2 games on disc, and buying them AGAIN on PSN just feels really *bleep*ing WRONG to me.
  • 0
    MikeyGrea Aug 23, 09
    I'd love to see it implented still. I know it won't be but how awsome would it be.


    I lol'ed at that image as well.
  • 0
    black doom Aug 23, 09
    No backwards compatibility? Doesn't that wreck their library? I mean I know people have got Wii's and Xbox360's and got them mainly because they wanted access to the games from the respect last generation consoles which they never had.
  • 3
    Star of Spurs Aug 23, 09
    See, people call Microsoft money grabbing, but this just reaches new heights.

    I'd like to see someone defend this. Really.

    The Wii, as much as I hate the console, still has the capability of playing GameCube games. So can the 360. So, they've effectively slashed the library in half. There's probably 4 PS3 exclusive games I want out RIGHT NOW. The rest are potential games, and 2 years after launch, there should be more than just 4 games that I'm interested in for a console.
    • 0
      Red 9 Aug 23, 09
      Yes yes, because the masses have the same interests as you and everyone only wants four games...think about it. Just because you want only 4 games doesn't mean everyone else does. Hell, I can only think of maybe five games on 360 I'd be remotely interested in playing, but I don't fault Microsoft for that; I attribute that to my own tastes in gaming.
      • 0
        Gamesta100 Aug 23, 09
        To be honest, both consoles don't have much great exclusives for my tastes.


        360 has the Gears series and later on Alan Wake.

        PS3 has Uncharted, Resistance and LBP.


        No I haven't forgot Killzone 2 or inFamous, I have no interest in those two games.
      • 0
        Star of Spurs Aug 24, 09
        InFamous, LittleBigPlanet and maybe Uncharted interest me. I've seen so many games similair to Killzone and Resistance that it doesn't interest me any more. The point is, the PS3 had, what, two major releases in the year of release? Did they expect us to play those for 12 months?

        It should have backwards compatability. And that's not supposed to be a L4D2 boycotting moment, where I'm having a hissy fit because it doesn't fit my plans - it's because they could very easily have had BC. But they didn't, because they think that we should buy them again because they don't give a *bleep* about the fans. I don't mind that they favour profits over the fans, every company should. The 360 offers games on demand for an expensive fee, but they also let you buy them for £2 from Cash Convertors or Gamestation and let you play them, rather than buying a digital download for £10.
    • 1
      Gamesta100 Aug 23, 09
      Sadly there are uite a lot of people deffending this.They think that us PS3 owners that want or are glad to have BC are crazy because we don't play PS2 games on oour PS2's.


      I have a PS2 still but I hate playing PS2 games on my PS2 now because of the 60GB's BC.


      I've listed a few times why I don't like playing PS2 games on my PS2 on neo so I won't be posting them again here.
  • 3
    FinalFantasyFanaticc Aug 23, 09
    This is basically Sony saying to people who've been with them for a while "We know you have alot of PS2 games still but you know what? *bleep* YOU, NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU ANYMORE"
    • 0
      Red 9 Aug 23, 09
      Yes because Sony has absolutely no interest in their consumers. They're just making consoles to look pretty on the shelves. They may seem like apathetic bastards, but they make their products FOR the consumers, so they can't NOT care about the consumers.
      • 5
        FinalFantasyFanaticc Aug 24, 09
        Haha, right so they care about the consumers? Damn that's just given me a big laugh. Considering possibly 70%+ of PS3 owners still have PS2/PS Games they would still like to play, Sony are giving a big F U to their consumers by doing this, saying they care is like saying someone cares when they take a walking stick off a OAP who can only walk with the stick.
        • 0
          Red 9 Aug 24, 09
          Regardless, it still doesn't mean they hate you. They're just trying to divert attention to the PS3. Because heaven knows it needs that kind of support.
      • 3
        Gamesta100 Aug 24, 09
        quote Red 9
        They may seem like apathetic bastards, but they make their products FOR the consumers, so they can't NOT care about the consumers.

        If that was 100% true, they wouldn't have removed the BC.
      • 3
        Star of Spurs Aug 24, 09
        Some companies make chainsaws and axes. Do you really think they care what people do with them?
  • 0
    phowell23 Aug 24, 09
    I dont really see why having it would be a negative so im a little confused at their logic. I have it on mine and absolutely love it. I guess they just want people to quit playing ps1/2's and go ahead and focus on buying/supporting the ps3 but thats a big kick to the groin of people who have those products and are their customers.
  • 2
    Seeker X Aug 24, 09
    Quite frankly, a lot of you guys are acting like a bunch of *bleep*ing kids. "Oh Sony just wants to purposely bone you", "OMG NO BC!" "OMG IM GONNA DIE WITHOUT IT". Hey, asswipes, none of you actually gave two shits until this article came out, aye? Aye. Let's TRY to grow up and put some sensible comments.

    quote
    If that was 100% true, they wouldn't have removed the BC.
    This is reasonable.

    quote
    Some companies make chainsaws and axes. Do you really think they care what people do with them?
    This is rtarded, k?

    One of the reasons why this site pisses me off sometimes.
    • 0
      Star of Spurs Aug 24, 09
      I've been saying I want Backward Compatability since the PS3 came out. It pisses me off that they can't do a simple thing for their fans, the majority of which would probably want to play PS2 games.
  • 0
    Roke Aug 29, 09
    The only reason they don't want backwards compatibility is so that it forces people to continue to buy the old PS2's. However Microsoft can't do this since they've discontinued the original Xbox's.

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