It really does seem that Sony are out to piss everyone off. If it isn’t enough that the rest of the world are getting a delayed, more expensive console, now it’s been confirmed that they’ll be shipping… less… of a console.

Remember the ground-breaking “Emotion Engine” chip in the Playstation 2? Maybe not, but it was a pretty big deal back in the day. It’s basically the CPU for the Playstation 2, something that is also included in the Playstation 3 for 98% backwards compatibility support. Unfortunately, that does not seem necessary in Sony’s eyes for anyone outside of the US or Japan. The console to go around the world will instead be using a software emulation system, which limits the amount of titles compatible.

To quote SCEE president David Reeds,

“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system. Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay, and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”

What a load of crap. If this is the case, why do the US/Japan get the chipset? Sony have promised (hah) regular firmware updates to increase title support. Maybe those updates will be released late 2006, after we get the PS3 here. Oh wait.

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