NOT AGAIN! Sony Caps Euro Five-Month Delay with PlayStation 3 Backward Compatibility Shaft in Effort to Cut Production Costs

As if Sony can't stop shooting holes in it's left foot, this weekend brings yet another bomb for Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) that ups the damage factor even further than before.

Yet this time, the damage control means screwing Europe -- and the rest of the PAL-standardized electronics markets -- with less-capable videogame hardware than that already released in the United States and Japan, five months after already having to wait for their launch day in the first place.

That's because today, Sony has announced officially that the PAL-format PlayStation 3 models, of which there already is only the more-expensive 60GB SKU (and not the cheaper, less-capable 20GB one), will be limited even further in capabilities, specifically in regard to backward-compatibility features.

The result: a complete hardware redesign that also shifts hardware-based emulation technology to more of a software-based solution, which also has the unfortunate side-effect of reducing compatibility with certain titles for the previous hardware platform -- specificially in regard to the PS2, but also the PS1 as well (albeit to a much-smaller extent). The effects of the change are similar to that of Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 hardware in its software-based playback of titles for the original Xbox console.

In a statement issued Friday morning, Sony's European office -- specifically Sony Computer Entertainment Europe -- has admitted that Euro PlayStation 3's will embody "a new combination of hardware and software emulation", meaning the console will still play most PSone games - but far fewer PlayStation 2 games than its overseas counterparts, at least initially.

Problem is, the news seems in fact to only add to Sony's recent woes, which originally started with battery recalls and the failures of portable device products and media formats has exploded into a series of horrors for the company as a whole. Indeed, the loss of portable music leadership to Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod, combined with the uphill battle against both portable DVD players and Nintendo Co.'s (Pink Sheets: NTDOY) DS and Game Boy devices for both videodiscs and videogames concerning the company's PSP handheld. Even Nintendo beating the competition in the fixed-point console-for-in-home-gaming market, where the other Japanese videogame giant of the "big three" practically had its larger, more diversified electronics competitor completely "pwn'd" for five whole weeks with almost double the sales of its innovative Wii console compared to Sony's PS3, despite the latter being more powerful. Meanwhile, Sony could only get its newest videogame hardware out on time in the U.S. and Japan (albeit with extremely limited quantities), while the rest of the world was forced to wait for initial delivery to hit five months later.

Worse still is a report from IGN UK, which asks that "before our overseas cousins start getting too comfortable, it's worth highlighting that the news will likely have a knock-on effect, with any changes made to UK PS3s incorporated into future US and Japanese models." However, Sony is currently "saying nothing, but if it's trying to cut costs it's likely the hardware changes will eventually be made across the globe."

Similar to "Microsoft's Xbox 360 backward-compatibility strategy," according to IGN, "Sony plans to release a series of firmware updates, via the PlayStation Network, that will increase the backwards compatibility of European consoles. Currently, Japanese and American PS3s can handle around 98 per cent of the PS2s catalogue but it's not known what per cent we can expect to see in Europe."

IGN also reports, "David Reeves, president of SCEE, said Sony should not be concentrating on PS2 backwards compatibility, instead saying that 'company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.'"

The conclusion: According to IGN, "Although one could argue that consumers will buy a PS3 to play PS3 games on, rather than going back to their PS2 collection, there's no overlooking the fact that once again it seems like Europeans are getting the rough end of the deal." So true, yet so disappointing: although there is yet a statement to be made about what games are likely to be affected by this recent change, SCEE is promising to make a list available of just which games will work on or after the March 23 launch date.

Nevertheless, with Sony's latest shaft move, by then it may well be too late.

Source materials for this article can be found at the following URL:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/767/767128p1.html