I’ve disliked the way the Playstation 3 has been handled by Sony for a long, long time. It’s one of the main reasons why, unlike my fellow writers, I’ve been standing firm on not getting one (although God of War III will be my personal tipping point). One of my major gripes was that Europe got shafted as a whole when it came to the SKUs, as they went against the marking strategy that won the previous generation over: backward compatibility. Only a “limited selection” of PS2 games are playable on the current PS3s.
The Emotion Chip was what brought backwards compatibility of the entire PS2 library to the PS3, allowing us to play our old titles on the console. But alas, only Japan and America managed to get their hands on these; Europe was, as I said before, shafted. These backwards compatible consoles were soon phased out in the $100 price drop (also known as the Sony Switcheroo), leaving all the others with software, pot-shot-luck emulation that was often worse than the original. However, with Sony getting into it’s groove and picking up pace, the PS3 could have a solution to this problem.
Sony have patented a technology that will allow the Cell Processor to Emulate the Emotion Chip, therefore allowing it to play the PS2 games that we have without requiring the Emotion Engine being part of the hardware. For those just getting into gaming this generation, this isn’t a big deal. In these money-conscious times where the second-hand console market is thriving, people want to sell their consoles (as well as parents buying them for less-than-careful children.) This technology will allow everyone who buys a PS3 with the Emulation code loaded onto it, to play their entire library of PS2 games.
Whether this will be a firmware update, or whether it will be embedded in the inevitable PS3 slim, is anyone’s guess. If Sony is smart, they will do both. And the way things are looking, they are wising up.
If you wish to look at the technical specifications and schematics, take a look at Siliconera.
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