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PS3's Smart Back-Compat, PS4 Doesn't Play Discs
Good news for Sony fans looking forward to the PS3. Eurogamer reports that the system will feature backwards compatibility with memory cards as well as games. From the article: "An update to Sony's PlayStation 3 website has revealed that you will be able to use older PlayStation memory cards with PlayStation 3 - providing you buy an adapter. An entry in the official PS3 FAQ states: 'To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 memory card, you must copy the data onto a virtual memory card within the hard disk.'" Microsoft could have really used something like that for the Xbox/360 switchover. Relatedly, Sony is looking ahead ... way ahead, even to their next console. Wired has a piece looking at the future of downloads in the games industry. From that article: "Microsoft is releasing an HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360. Both companies are even touting the ability of these new discs to play movies in even higher hi-def. That struggle, however, is ultimately meaningless. 'I'd be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive,' [Sony's Phil] Harrison says."
If it wasn't for the £500 ($800) price tag, I might consider getting one; I've had good use out of my brothers PS2, and a feature like this sounds great. I hope that Nintendo and Microsoft are watching as I havn't bought a Next-Gen console yet, and this can only be good for compitition.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
I doubt the PS4 will exist if Sony doesn't concentrate more on making the PS3 more appealing.
But what's this going to do for retail support? EB, Gamestop, Best Buy, WalMart, etc. They make nothing on consoles, and make their money on the games. Just like the Console manufacturers themselves often do. What's the incentive for retailers to carry a product they make no money on, that gives them no future rev stream either?
None whatsoever. So the manufacturers will have to give them higher margins.
I am a twenty year old console gamer. I actually prefer having a physical medium on which the game code resides. I have had too many problems with hard drive failures, damaged systems, etc. to trust the system to hold all of my games. And what if I like to share? I do not want to have to lug my PS4 to my friend's house and hook it up just because my copy of Tony Hawk: Ripping it up in the Nursing Home is bound to my system's serial number. I smell DRM in this, and I do not like it.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Did you mean "you've also got a PS2", or did you mean "you've also got a working PS2"? Remember that Sony consoles tend to break down more often than Nintendo consoles, especially in the first twelve months after launch of a console.
Because I bought a PS3 to replace my broken PS2 (and to play PS3 games).
"they are the only console maker to really make their next generation console capable of playing previous generations"
-except for Atari, and Nintendo's Gameboys, and Sega Genesis powerconverter...
Man, I was on the fence about Steam for quite a while. I bought HL2, I played it, I played a little CS:Source. Now? I'll occasionally consider installing HL2 to give it another play-through, but then I always decide that it's just not worth the time that my computer will be occupied downloading and decrypting shit.
Worse for Valve? I'd like to play Episode I, but I've put off buying it, because I've got unpleasant memories of large downloads and inconveniently-timed, seemingly-pointless Steam updates. At this rate, if I ever play it, it'll probably be a spur-of-the-moment Bittorrent download of some pirated version that'll sit in BitComet for a day or two while I go on with my other gaming and computing tasks (since it's not doing decrypting bullshit like Steam does, eating processor cycles) until I remember that I had it downloading, check, see that it's done, play it, then delete it.
If I didn't have to dick around with Steam, I'd very likely have given up the $20 they want for the box at stores within a couple weeks of it coming out. Now? I doubt they'll ever get my money. It's not an ideological thing, it's just that Steam is too damn annoying.
Yeah, kind of offtopic. Sorry.
You forgot that a lot of us have games we go back and play from time to time - also a number of PS2 games have looked for saved files from older games and upgraded some features in a newer game if you had specific items in the old one.
Lastly, the PS2 could slightly enhance graphics in PS1 games. If a simialr feature is offered for PS2 support it could be kind of nice to revisit some parts of older games.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sony has stated before they want the console to last ten years, so you'll not see a new console with a new format before then.
The PSone lasted ten years in the sense that they were still selling it (and are still selling it?) 10 years after the 1st Playstation became available and at the same time that the PS2 was also in stores. I'm sure that the PS2 err PStwo will still be selling 5 years from now in stores and that when the PS4 comes out, they will still be selling the PSthree.
The PS3 may be "futureproof" but I promise you that it's not futureproof enough to compete with whatever Nintendo and Microsoft will build and release 4-7 years from now.
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
This, coming from the Beta/MD/etc. et al company? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.