PlayStation 3 Unable to Play Some of Sony’s Earlier Games - New York Times
TOKYO, Wednesday, Nov. 15 (AP) — Sony’s new PlayStation 3 cannot play some of the games designed for previous generations of the popular console, the latest misstep for the company as it faces off in a crucial three-way war with Nintendo and Microsoft.
Sony, which has fallen behind in crucial products like flat-panel TVs and digital music players, badly needs a best seller in the PlayStation 3. The console went on sale here to hordes of eager fans over the weekend, ahead of its release on Friday in the United States.
On Tuesday, the company acknowledged the console would not run some of the 8,000 titles designed for previous PlayStations — even though the PlayStation 3 was billed as being fully compatible with older-generation games.
For instance, the console might not play background music to the popular Tekken 5 combat game, and some scenes from the Gran Tourismo racing game might freeze, Sony said. The game Suikoden III cannot read data from a first-generation PlayStation, while a virtual gun in one of the Biohazard games will not fire properly.
Some older games will not run on the console at all, said a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment, Satoshi Fukuoka. Online upgrades of the PlayStation 3 software will be offered, but it is unlikely that all the problems will ever get fixed, he said.
Mr. Fukuoka insisted that the company anticipated the incompatibilities and outlined them on its Japanese Web site on Nov. 11, when the console hit stores here. The Microsoft Xbox 360, which made its debut last year, has had similar problems with older games.
The compatibility problem is the latest in a series of setbacks for the console, which will compete with Nintendo’s Wii and the Xbox 360. The Wii goes on sale Sunday in the United States.
PlayStation 3 was initially promised for worldwide sales for spring this year, but was postponed in March to November, and the European sales date has been delayed by another four months.
Sony, which has fallen behind in crucial products like flat-panel TVs and digital music players, badly needs a best seller in the PlayStation 3. The console went on sale here to hordes of eager fans over the weekend, ahead of its release on Friday in the United States.
On Tuesday, the company acknowledged the console would not run some of the 8,000 titles designed for previous PlayStations — even though the PlayStation 3 was billed as being fully compatible with older-generation games.
For instance, the console might not play background music to the popular Tekken 5 combat game, and some scenes from the Gran Tourismo racing game might freeze, Sony said. The game Suikoden III cannot read data from a first-generation PlayStation, while a virtual gun in one of the Biohazard games will not fire properly.
Some older games will not run on the console at all, said a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment, Satoshi Fukuoka. Online upgrades of the PlayStation 3 software will be offered, but it is unlikely that all the problems will ever get fixed, he said.
Mr. Fukuoka insisted that the company anticipated the incompatibilities and outlined them on its Japanese Web site on Nov. 11, when the console hit stores here. The Microsoft Xbox 360, which made its debut last year, has had similar problems with older games.
The compatibility problem is the latest in a series of setbacks for the console, which will compete with Nintendo’s Wii and the Xbox 360. The Wii goes on sale Sunday in the United States.
PlayStation 3 was initially promised for worldwide sales for spring this year, but was postponed in March to November, and the European sales date has been delayed by another four months.
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