The European PS3 will lack the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer (EE+GS) chip necessary to provide hardware-based backwards compatibility for previous-generation titles. Instead, Sony plans to accomplish compatibility with older games through software emulation—a trickier and more fickle feat than simply including and utilizing PS2 processors.
“The Emotion Engine has been removed and that function has been replaced with software,” said Nick Sharples, a spokesman for Sony in London. That has a “slightly detrimental effect” on compatibility, he said to the IDG News Service.
“The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models,” another Sony spokesman said to Reuters.
European Sony PS3 has no Emotion Engine, less backwards compatibility
Posted on Monday, February 26 2007 @ 15:33 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck