Recently leaked SEGA documents suggest that Sony is planning to port all PS2 and Dreamcast titles to the PSN network, effectively making the entire back catalogue available to PS3 owners.
During an August meeting between SEGA America and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA,) the company documented confidential plans to emulate PS2 titles for the PS3. In official meeting notes Sony revealed that it “wants to sell all PS2 titles on PSN (GTA Vice City/Sonic/etc)”.
It is currently unknown whether Sony plans to port the games on a case to case basis or if the company is generating a PS2 emulator which will work on all titles. This may be a welcome chance for Sony executives to sidestep previous comments that backwards compatibility would not be coming to the PS3.
In August Sony’s Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller revealed that backwards compatibility would not be returning to the PS3, despite the rumours.
“It’s not coming back, it’s not as big as a purchase intent driver as you may be hearing.” He said, adding that the PS3 had a strong enough title list to support the console.
“We’ve got such a substantial line up 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.”
Although porting PS2 and Dreamcast classics to PSN would not be backwards compatibility in the truest sense it does support the rumours that Sony has been working on something PS2 related for the current console.
This would be the most commercially viable way for Sony to provide PS2 titles on the PS3 without altering the console hardware. It is no secret that consumers are currently benefitting from a price war between Microsoft and Sony as to which manufacturer can sell the cheapest console.
If Sony’s plans to make all PS2 and Dreamcast titles available for download on PSN prove true it might be another factor which sway buyers away from the Xbox 360.
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