With the mighty hulk's launch only a month away, Sony has revealed that the PlayStation 3 that is sold in Europe won't be the one that has been launched in the US and Japan. The company has reduced its costs by producing a new version with much worse compatibility with PlayStation 2 games.
This is a bit of a pity considering the general lack of appeal of the PS3 launch titles.
According to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's president David Reeves (or so a press release claims): "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." Yeah, right.
Perhaps he's worried by direct comparisons like the one done by Gamespot, which found that "The Xbox 360 had better graphics in almost all the games we examined" and "generally offered better framerates too. "
According to another press release from Datamonitor, the European version of the PS3 "removes the Emotion Engine chip and replaces it with software". (Update: The press release is quoted extensively in a Reuters story.)
You have to wonder if, given the horrendous financial losses Sony is making on every box, removing one chip really makes all that much difference. Which makes it sound like desperation....
Either way, bear in mind that whatever you know about the PS3's appearance and performance based on the US and Japanese launches may no longer be true.
More details could appear today from UK journalists who went to a press launch yesterday evening. So far, I've only seen a hostile blog post at PC Advisor, headed Sony's PlayStation 3 is an eyesore. It says:
I've seen Sony's PlayStation 3 games console. It's too big and blocky, and it looks like a cheap and ancient VHS video recorder. Now, looks aren't everything, as my old mum always tells me, but if I'm to shell out the GDP of a small country on the last word in gaming chic, I don't want it to bring down property prices and stink out my living room with its tacky, fat visage.
No doubt more PlayStation 3-oriented publications will have a different view.
