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Xbox 360 Spring Backward Compatibility Update Now Live

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Xbox, Xbox 360

Panzer Dragoon OrtaXbox 360 owners looking for a backward compatibility update have been getting antsy over the couple of weeks, wondering if Microsoft had abandoned their efforts in improving the emulation for older Xbox titles. Now, though, a new update has been published online, with quite a few long anticipated additions to the list. Some great titles are now playable on the Xbox 360, including Panzer Dragoon Orta, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, and Jet Set Radio Future. Mech Assault 2 is now playable, and Soul Calibur 2 received a mysterious compatibility update. Of course, no update would be complete without at least some questionable games that just happened to work because of other bug fixes, like Reservoir Dogs and NFL Fever 2004.

The full list of updated titles continues below.

Click to continue reading Xbox 360 Spring Backward Compatibility Update Now Live

Read More | Xbox.com

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Europe PS3 Backward Compatibility Database Online

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3

PS2 DiscSony’s backward compatibility database has gone online, and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that out of the door, Sony is listing 1,782 titles as compatible with the 1.60 firmware update. The bad news is that there are many high profile games not on the list, and many that are on the list are listed as having “noticeable issues.” God of War 2 is listed as having no known issues, along with most of the games in the Grand Theft Auto series. Unfortunately, San Andreas is listed as having noticeable issues, as are Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. Final Fantasy XII has minor issues, but Final Fantasy XI is nowhere to be found. Gran Turismo 4 Prologue is on the list, but the full game is not. The Metal Gear series looks to be compatible, though. And for those wondering, like the Xbox 360, Barbie Horse Adventures is fully compatible with the PlayStation 3. The full list is online here.

Read More | GamesIndustry.biz

Phil Harrison Talks PS3 Backward Compatibility Numbers

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3

Backward Compatibility The “still unofficially sort of official” Three Speech blog spoke with Phil Harrison at Sony about the recent backward compatibility controversy with the Playstation 3 in Europe. Harrison estimates that there will be roughly 1,000 Playstation 2 titles supported on the Playstation 3 at launch, with more potentially coming in future firmware updates. Now, with an estimated 8,000 Playstation 2 titles released during the PS2’s (continuing) lifetime, the distribution of those 1,000 backward compatible games will be important. Still, 1,000 is a fair chunk of games; Microsoft so far has managed around 300 for their emulation solution. Percentage-wise, though, Sony is hitting roughly 25 percent of their past catalog, while Microsoft is around 30 percent. So, while things might not be as bad as some assumed, Sony again seems to be flailing around somewhat trying to get a clear message out about their flagship console.

Read More | Three Speech

SCEE On Backward Compatibility Changes

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3

Playstation 3 Backward Compatibility After Sony Computer Entertainment Europe dropped the bombshell that backwards compatibility for the Playstation 3 in Europe and Australia would be limited compared to the US and Japanese hardware, the company talked with Three Speech to try and justify their decision. As stated before, the company is changing the hardware to reduce costs. SCEE confirmed that the relatively expensive Emotion Engine/Graphics Synthesizer would be removed and replaced with just the graphics hardware, and Playstation 1 and 2 compatibility would be provided through a purely software emulation solution. Microsoft has taken basically the same approach with the Xbox 360, and while Microsoft supports a great number of titles, there are a number of popular titles left out. Sony still hasn’t made any announcements regarding the number of titles supported when the console launches on March 23. Sony promises nearly all PS1 titles, but PS2 title compatibility is still up in the air. A strong software compatibility list would do much to help Sony’s reputation in the territory, but one has to feel that if the emulation story was a strong one, Sony wouldn’t have raised a warning flag before launch.

Read More | Three Speech

Updated Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility List Leaked

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Xbox 360, Xbox Live

PsychonautsAn updated backwards-compatibility list briefly appeared online on the Xbox.com site for Great Britain today. Some bloggers online were able to capture the list with some interesting titles getting support. Some of the better titles on the list included Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dead Or Alive Ultimate, Shenmue II and the much anticipated Psychonauts. If the date on the list was to be believed, Xbox 360 gamers can hope to get support for these titles some time in December. However, since the list was pulled, there may still be changes for the update, when and if it comes. Still, gamers have to be excited knowing they are possibly weeks away from being able to play Shark Tale again.

Read More | James Woodcock's Blog

GameSpot Tries Out PS3 Backward Compatibility

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3

Playstation 3 Backwards CompatibilityGameSpot was recently able to take advantage of some extra time with the Playstation 3 and look into the console’s backward compatibility options. GameSpot wasn’t able to look at a lot of games, but they had enough time to look at a Playstation game, a Playstation 2 game, and a Playstation 2 game from a different region. The Playstation game tested was Battle Arena Toshinden 3, which seemed to work fine. Gran Turismo 4 also appeared to work normally on the Playstation 3, while the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts 2 was locked out because of region restrictions. None of the games were enhanced in any way by the PS3, as expected. While the tests are interesting, they still don’t detail how Sony is achieving backward compatibility, and there is still no official list of incompatible games.

Read More | GameSpot

Sony Announces Japanese PS3 Accessory Prices

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Accessories, Hardware, PlayStation 3

PS2-PS3 AdapterSony Computer Entertainment of Japan announced today the pricing and availability of some of the accessories for the PS3 in that territory. On launch day, November 11th, gamers will be able to purchase additional wireless SIXAXIS controllers for 5000 Yen, roughly $42 US. Gamers looking to play their old Playstation 2 games on their new console will also want to pick up a memory card adapter, listed at 1500 Yen ($13 US), also available on launch day. The memory card adapter is a USB device that allows users to copy their PS1 and PS2 saves to the internal hard drive of the Playstation 3. Finally, the BD-ROM remote will ship on December 7th, for 3600 Yen ($31 US).  Since the PS3 controllers are wireless, there is less of a pressing demand for a fully functioning BD-ROM remote, but it would have been nice to see the device on launch day.

Read More | Playstation.com

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