Sony to offer PS2 game downloads via PSN to replace backwards compatibility?

With backwards compatibility unceremoniously dropped from the PS3 with the introduction of the 40GB console, in the latest issue of EGM, Playstation Network director Eric Lempell admitted that there are "possibilities" that Sony will allow gamers to purchase and download PS2 titles via the PSN.

[mighty_douche]

Make it happen Sony! But release good titles GoW and stuff.

[mikeslemonade]

Their first games that they will release will be 1st party just like most of the PS1 games, so God of War is pretty much guranteed to be there.

[Ghoul]

I would be in Heaven if that would be true.
now alter the gamecode alil and enable 1080p res for ps2 games

[ReconHope]

for the psone classic release of silent hill and final fantast 7 but hey this sounds good.

[calis]

How was this not considered in the first place?

[PumPum]

...then there must be a way to play/emulate your current ps2 titles on your 40gb.
I have a 40gb and i would be pretty pissed if i have to pay for all those classics (that i have nicely stacked on the shelf) if i want enjoy them upscaled.

=( Hope they make it possible by a firmware update.

[mighty_douche]

probably is, but Sony would obviously prefer you to re-buy the games off the PSN.

[Ilinx]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure backwards compatibility was axed to reduce production costs, not just for the sheer sake of removing it. That means some fundamental part of the backwards compatibility hardware must have been removed - so I can't see how even a firmware upgrade would bring it back.

[Rama26285]

Us unfortunate Europeans never had BC through hardware (well apart from PS1 games) but all through software. My 60GB PS3 gives me BC to PS2 games via software, so in theory Sony could include this software in a future firmware update.

Now obviously, I don't know the ins and outs of how Sony does it's BC, but this is the information I've always read around the net.

[Gorgon]

RAMA:

the software compatibility on the 60GB PS3 only emulates one of the chips in the original PS2, the other chip (I don't remember is it it the Emotion engine or the other one) is included on the 60GB version. The 40GB has NONE of the ps2 chips, which means that its not as easy to simply make a firmware update.

I believe that instead they will probably thinker with the original game code of the PS2 games to make them run on the new hardware.

[Rama26285]

Cheers for that Gorgon, it's good to know that. I didn't realise that the software wasn't doing all the work and that there is still some hardware doing the BC.

I guess it wouldn't be a simple firmware update like I thought! I'm sure they can come up with a way of running them on the new hardware like you said though.

[Ilinx]

Nice one Gorgon - just spent ages trying to work that out as I was sure that was the case but couldn't find any evidence of it. I bow before your mighty knowledge.

[Ju]

@Gorgon, either that (patching PS2 games) or they have some form of SW emulation running but need to pre-select the games which run and which one don't. Means, they have better control over it then the full DVD portfolio.

[Gorgon]

No problem, glad I could help. Of course, the original US 60GB had both chips (CPU and GPU). The 60GB with only one chip and runing through "partial" emulation were the european 60GB. The 40GB have no chips and no PS2 compatibility.

JU:
yep, MAYBE some games could run totally through software emulation, but I pretty much doubt that. It would be extremely taxing on the system.
I think they will just re-release modified PS2 games through PSN (modified so they run on the PS3 hardware) and charge you for it. Great for people like me who never owned a console (although I DO have a copy of Shadow of the Colossus AND a 40GB PS3 !!!) and would like to play some old stuff, but lousy for people who already own those games. They are probably thinking that if you want to play them so badly then just get a cheap downloadable version (probably upscaled for higher rez) or else buy a cheap PS2 for 125 euros/USD...

[Electricear]

the problem is that with the elimination of the two chips that handled the PS2 backwards compatibility now their would be a fairly large amount of games that simply would not work with out an enormous amount of debugging time spent on the task. So Sony opted to drop BC instead which ultimately saves them money. This also has the side effect that if they do port ps2 games to the PS3 they can quality control the stuff released to a greater degree, and it give them a way to make profit off them as a PSN down load. Dose it suck... well yeah to a degree, but if they want to do that it's their prerogatived. This would be beneficial for people who never owned a ps2 as it gives them a way to play some of those games on their ps3. Sadly it does mean owners of PS2's would still have to use their ps2 or hope that some third party group comes out with an emulator. I seem to recall Sony saying they weren't against letting some one else write and emulator if they wanted.

[Kaz Hirai]

Sony Soldiers, you didn't honestly think I would disappoint you, right?
It's a shame the PIGGISH Nazisoft stole the idea from us, but try not to think about those SWINE!

MWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!

[Skerj]

Didn't someone call this a few days ago with the larger hard drive PS3 sku rumors? If that is true then that means software emu is working. If that's the case then the smart thing for them to do is to offer the games on the PSN and the software to play it on the 40gb for people who own the discs. Of course, if the offerings are as paltry as they have been for the PS1 games, then it's probably better to just leave it alone and fix the stuff that's broken right now.

[Bebedora]

Either are the emu working, like you say, or they have modified some to make it work on the PS3 its self. Maybe most likely a combination of, or you could have popped in your PS2 game there already.

[Sayai jin]

I remember when the PS2 came out the big plus for the system is that it had full BC. It was a big plus when Sony originally stated the PS3 would be 100% BC. It turned out to be false. The 360 tried to be BC, but instead used emulation which many shunned. I think they got to around 20 to 30% compatible and now they are putting original Xbox games on XBL. I think both companies know they will make more money if you go and download them again. I personally will not waist my time paying and downloading a game I already have just to play it on a next-gen system.

[she00win99]

the ps3 60 gb version was 100% bc

[Gorgon]

The 60GB was 100% compatible on the US, not Europe. In Europe it uses emulation for one of the PS2 chips, which means that there are stuff that doesn't work.

[cow moolester]

Your right because its so cool that I have to pay to download games I already own just so I can play them?

[Iamback]

buy 60gb or 80gb, if you choose 40gb, than shut up! That was your choice. And besides no one is making you to buy those games. You fail/owned

[GodsHand]

Or you could use your PS2 to play them. If you own a PS2, if you don't they why did you buy PS2 games.

[mugoldeneagle03]

So this article comes as no surprise.

The thing that I question is HDD space, and whether or not the rumors were true that Sony plans on introducing a new 120-160GB sku. If this article turns out to be true, I think they'd be left with no other option

[OC Shock Value]

Outstanding News

[anh_duong]

if ps2 games are playable via psn but not playable in disk form then sony are making us pay for games we could already possibly own.. i hope they make original ps2 disk games playable too if this story turns out to be real.

[therealwillie]

most people have no problem buying the psone games that we may or may not have had before, i know i owned crash bandicoot but screw it, i bought it again... and if metal gear ever came out then hell yes i'd buy that again. i don't see this news as being any different from that of being able to download psone games except that this particular article puts it in a negative light when theres no need to be negative about it, but if you guys really feel like that then perhaps we should all write e-mails to sony telling them not to bother... if that would make everyone happy

[anh_duong]

i am all for them adding ps2 backward compatibility but i would like them to consider two things:

1. add this to original disk games too

else if bc not possible on original games,

2. this is a big maybe but if you got the original game then you can download the same game from psn and so long as you got the original disk in the ps3 you can play the psn version. this isn't that hard to implement since this is how most pc games work i.e. install full game on hard drive but have original in disk drive to prove ownership.

[GodsHand]

So what's to prevent you from downloading the PS2 game, just using a rented PS2 game to say you own the original disc. These games dont have a serial number that get hardcoded to the system.

[anh_duong]

you need an original disk every time you want to play. this is just how pc games work. hence rental makes no sense.

you can't just use backups - backups don't work on ps3 since the ps3 must have a system to detect backups. you can't just put a rip game into the ps3 and expect it to treat it as an original.

[Zhuk]

Sony is yet again screwing their consumers over with their lies and deceit, while laughing all the way to the bank yet again with the money they make off of the ignorant Sony fanboys

- mod edit: Leave your fanboism for the OZ -

[Skerj]

Until I can play Otogi I&II, Everything or Nothing, and Stranger's Wrath on the 360 they're in the same boat!! They need to hurry up with that, I wanna put the old Xbox up already because it takes up too much room.

[anh_duong]

but in your profile it says you own a ps3? who is more ignorant i wonder? someone who hates sony so much (spends his whole life to hating sony) yet buys their product.. no offence but doesn't this make you more ignorant than any sony fanboy here?

[Rama26285]

How has my comments been deleted yet Zhuk's is still there? I merely copied and quoted part of his comment and said that it was unwelcomed and it should be in the Open Zone. Nothing wrong with that is there? :::confused:::

[CrazedFiend]

HA! You STILL here Zhuk!?

I thought the moderators would have kicked you outta here a long time ago!

[cow moolester]

your right...just because I don't agree with paying for games I already own that must mean I fail. I bought a 60gb but sorry Sony gimped us in Europe by taking out the emotion engine

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

that allowed B/C?

[riksweeney]

Sony: Don't just release the good titles, release the rare titles too, like Katamari Damacy.

Not only will this allow people to enjoy these hard to find titles, but it'll also really annoy the eBay sellers :)

[Siesser]

Those darn Ebayers. I'm hoping DLC can give me cheaper access to Bust A Groove and Tomba! 2 and Silent Bomber.

[rogimusprime]

that sony is removing BC from all the SKU's. Maybe they are just getting wiser and clearing the old hardware first without announcing the second SKU. This would be a contrast to when they first dropped the price on the 60 gig and simultaneously announced the 80 gig/ motorstorm bundle. Now personally, I can't stand motorstorm, so I was waiting for a new SKU anyway.

It seems like a smart business decision to not release any info about a new sku until you see your "old" inventory diminished.

I can't understand why people are getting their panties in a bunch about Sony's Sku's. If you WANT A PS3 with BC, THEN GO BUY ONE NOW AND STOP COMPLAINING.

I can't stand people sitting back and whining all day about Sony when they are just going off rumours. If they came out and said "hey, 40 gig spiderman SKU is the ONLY sku from now on"......

then you would have a right to be pissed!

[Ilinx]

"If you WANT A PS3 with BC, THEN GO BUY ONE NOW AND STOP COMPLAINING. "

Unfortunately that's no longer an option for the UK - we only have non-BC compatible 40GBs now.

[GodsHand]

The UK, don't allow imports?

[Gorgon]

With the PS2 still in production and with a cost of 125 euros/USD, Sony will probably just put PS2 games on PSN and make you pay for them. After all, new people to the PS will download and play something they never played, and those that want to play their already owned copies will play in their PS2 or buy a new one.

I don't know if this is whats gonna happen, but I wound't be surprised. Ofcourse, its gonna piss off a lot of people if it turns out that way.

Lets see.

[CrazedFiend]

What about the 50+ games I already own?

[TheExecutive]

do you have a ps2 to go along with those 50+ games?

[The Dark Knight]

YAY now i can get God of war 1 & 2 :D :O AND MAYBE TWISTED METAL BLACK!

ohh this is cool:)

[g4me_he4d]

Adding ps2 games that are no longer compatible with the newer ps3 models on the psn can only compensate for any inconvenience. Perhaps by doing this most of those ps2 titles can be converted into HD. I know most ps3 owners with ps2 titles will not approve but what about other people's opinions, some will welcome the idea while others will hate it is just a natural trend in gaming evolution

[Skerj]

Hah actually makes no difference to me, so I agree with you. I still have my PS2 and the original 60gb PS3. If they start putting games up I never got around to getting (not sure which right now) then I might partake in it too. It'd be even more awesome if it worked with remote play.

[avacadosnorkel]

PS2 is still being sold

[RecSpec]

That's why they would do it. They want people buying PS3s instead of PS2s.

[killer_trap]

well i hope the prices will be close to the sony's greatest hits offers.
if that'll be the case then there's a whole lot of games i didn't get on ps2 that I'd be willing to buy now. none of that $40 crap sony, please.

[GodsHand]

I doubt it, PS2 greatest hits cost $20, so I expect the PS2 games on the PSN to be $9.99. Thatassumption is based off the PS1 games being $5.99

[solidt12]

This is great!!. I rather have the game on my hard drive and not on a disc. It is so convenient to just select a game from a list instead of getting up to change a disc. I have a 250 gig hard drive so space is no problem. I want the original GoW, Time Splitters, and Shadows of the Colossus.

[RecSpec]

Japan will get all the good titles while we will get one good one every month.

[dalibor]

This would be great if sony did indeed plan on doing this. Nowadays its harder to find ps2 games because of the new systems. Even though you can buy the ps2 you cant always find all the ps2's game library. As the years go buy it will no doubt be harder to find ps2 games. Another thing with the ps3 you could just get a bigger hard drive. Man i cant wait for this. There are def. great ps2 games out there. Sony could even put japan games that never came out in america on the american psn too, the possibility is there. Make this happen sony. I def would get some ps2 games from the psn thats for sure even though i have the 60gig ps3, this is more of an convenience than anything really.

[kewlkat007]

and now with PS2 downloads, hopefully they offer much bigger drives.

This seems to be a shoddy work around, so some people will download a game they already own. I won't be doing it.

60 Gig PS3, is still out there for some.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

it's good business.. but i don't like this idea... same way I don't like xbox originals in the xbox live marketplace.. i don't want to "re-buy" games that I already own

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

Sony isn't saying you should rebuy your games it is just for the people who don't own them. So if you don't have a PlayStation 2 anymore you can just buy it over the PLAYSTATION Network.

[BloodySinner]

So what happens if you come across a PS2 title you already own?

[chasuk08]

dont buy it and play the game on your 60-80gb ps3, or if you got 40gb then your stuffed, if you wanna play it then you have to buy it.

[BloodySinner]

I love disagrees. =)

[dalibor]

BloodySinner then dont buy it bro. Remember though that you could technically split the price of a ps2 game by sharing it with friends. Thats what i did w/ps1 games bro. I think 5 people could share one game it was except for warhawk. Another note, if you have a lot of ps2 games it would be wise to get the ps3 models that are capable of playing them aka 60gig(if you can find one) or 80gig.

[Killjoy3000]

metal gear solid 2
metal gear solid 3
ratchet and clank 1,2,3
jak 1,2,3
sly 1,2,3
gta 3
socom 1,2
atv offroad fury
ico
shadow of the colossus
devil may cry 1
both god of wars

bring em on sony

[ceedubya9]

There are a lot of older PS2 RPGs that I'd love to take a crack at, as well as some action adventure titles i wouldn't mind going back to for nostalgia. But if they do this, they need to do it right. The PS1 downloads they have right now are just mind-numbingly dissapointing. With the large catalog of PS1 games they have, it seems as though they picked some of the most ho-hum games they could find, and left off most of the big titles that put them in the industry leading position they are in now. I know that the main PS3 business is most important, but there is no need to do something if you're only going to do it halfway.

[Killjoy3000]

luckily i have my 60 gb unit with the emotion chip so no worries in the BC department for me. but even if i have metal gear on disk i prefer metaol gear in digital format just because its easier and more accessible. i think you guys are just too cheap.

[AngryHippo]

....please make resident evil 1 - 4 downloadable on the PSN and i will absolutely stoked.

[PSWe60]

that'd be very cool if Sony manages to pull that off, make it happen Sony

[Enigma_2099]

I knew it... I just knew it... THAT'S the real reason they took BC away isn't it... they just want to sell you those games all over again over PSN, don't they...

[J@D]

That's a awesome idea and with a future firmware update Sony could allow emulation of PS2 game into the 40GB user. Now, We need bigger Hard Disk 500 GB or 1 Tera anyone? lol j/k

[DethWish]

I HOOOPPEEEE!!!! But I wonder what'll be of my current collection of ps2 games.. will I in some way get them for free..?

[NiteWarrior]

Wow that would be a good and bad thing at the same time! The only ps2 game i would rebuy is NFL street, loved it till street 2 came out and nobody played the orginal. =(

[NiteWarrior]

Wait a minute i have the 60gb and i can already play ps2 games lmao, well in that case i would be any good ps2 title that i missed =D.

[Scottama]

I'm from the UK and we can almost unquestionably take the title of the most scammed people when it comes to video games. The launch PS3 (with no games) cost £425. That is $850 for those who are unaware of conversion rates. $850! However, I am perfectly happy with my launch console. It's not broken, and it's never stopped me from doing anything I wanted to. I played God of War on it for about half an hour once, but I have not touched a PS2 game since. Admittedly, I did want to play God of War II, but the fact that a GAME attendant told me that it WOULD work on my PS3 made me doubt it :D

(On 25/03/07, I was in town and bought the US import of Oblivion. I traded Genji in at Gamestation and was told that my US import would not work on my PAL PS3. Liar, or an idiot?! Either way, it's bad...)

[Kleptic]

its the PAL territory stuff that complicates Europe though...while Europe and the UK are major territories for sales, they are the only territories (including Australia) that have radically different electronic standards...

that is what led to the PS3 launch delay (after the diode fiasco, they were forced to chose 2 out of the 3 territories, and being that production for the Japanese and NA models would have been more uniform...it made sense to delay Europe)...

just pointing out that its not Sony, or anyone else blatantly screwing the PAL territories...its just localization and different govt. protocols makes it completely different than NTSC standards...that is what results in most of the issues with your territory...although someone does need to bash some heads around at SCEE occasionally, they don't see to have the efficiency of the other divisions of SCE...

Don't feel to bad...you get scammed on games...but you have by far the greatest cars in the world (if you include Europe with that as well)

[ScottEFresh]

I'm all for it. As long as we get good titles and they arn't like $19.99 because that would be the ultimate LAME.

[Big Jim]

Why could a 40 gig PS3 play a downloaded PS2 game, but not a PS2 game on a disk? The 40 gig doesn't have the emotion engine needed to play PS2 games, so why would it be able to play those games just because they've been downloaded and not on a dvd?

[sephy 9 2 5]

gamesblow was right again....

[SlaughterMeister]

What about the games I OWN!!???

MORONS!

[Big Jim]

Keep your PS2, or buy a 60 gig PS3, or buy a 40 gig PS3 and a PS2 for the same price as a 60 gig PS3, or, better yet, play new next generation games with better graphics in high definition, instead of 4 year old games that you have already played thousands of times and should be bored with by now. Backward compatibility is not necessary at all. How many times are you going to pass final fantasy x? 100? 1000?

[avacadosnorkel]

Just because XBOX wants to re-release games doesn't mean that's cool.

Stick with the ORIGINAL games on PSN.

[Bleucrunch]

maybe they can make you put in the serial number for those games to verify that you already have it and that way you can download them for free.

[Superiorrior]

If I could play Okami/God of War 1-2/Shadow of the Colossus on my 40gig, I will sh*t a brick because that is downright amazing, please make it happen Sony, make it happen.

[daghost1125]

this should be a given since live already does this with xbox games

[Figboy]

er, last i checked, Sony was offering "Playstation Classics" via the PSN since the *BEGINNING, what with those, you know, classic Playstation 1 titles being released over the PSN. and Nintendo was doing their classics also.

it was a no-brainer that at some point Sony would start pushing PS2 titles, but honestly, there are a *LOT of classic PS1 titles that deserve the PSN treatment first (personally, i wouldn't mind seeing Vandal Hearts, Suikoden, Alundra, etc, available via the PSN, to name only a few. Chrono Trigger would be nice; and minus the obnoxious FF: Chronicles load times for *EVERYTHING).

Psychonauts would be a great game for X Box Classics and the PSN to offer for sale. it's such a great game, and of course, nobody bought it.

Beyond Good and Evil would be another great one (even though i own it already).

Ico and Klonoa and Klonoa 2 would be my first candidates for PSN release, though, and with an HD update.

[Killjoy3000]

it seems everyone forgot about the klonoa games.