SONY intent to release all PS2 games for download

[blackwiggle]

SEGA had a meeting with SONY in August this year.

A leaked memo from that meeting tells of SONY's intent on releasing all PS2 titles for the PS3 for download via the PStore,as well as SEGA titles.

http://connectedconsoles.com/ps3-Sony%27s-leaked-plans-to-bring-all-PS2-games-to-PSN.cfm

And this from Objectif-SEGA a French site that has been translated.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.objectif-sega.com/%2BExclu%2B%2BStrategie%2Bde%2BSEGA%2B%2B%2Bl%2Bin croyable%2Bfuite%2B%2B-news-1637.htm&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

[Rapier Racer]

What? I thought you couldn't play them in most PS3s? Dreamcast games eh interesting.

[blackwiggle]

I suppose they might drop the PS2 console pretty soon if they go through with this.

It will solve the backward compatibility [lack of since they dropped it ] and keep new PS3 slim purchasers happy ,they will have plenty of HD space to keep these games on.
It will stop the PS forums being clogged up with "why won't my PS3 slim play my old games" posts.

[Lance]

So would making it play the old games. So would gamers buying a PS2.

[abukii]

This is actually pretty cool news. Id love to have PS2 games as downloadables.

[KIGO1987]

This is maybe why the PSP-Go might be a success as well,

PS3 and PSP units with a huge, no thats not the word, ****ing EPIC game collection :g

Theres some pretty sweet games out there from the PS2 and PSX era, having them all on a HDD is awesome, this is bound to increase sales immediatly,

Time to put a half a terabyte HDD in my PS3 now.

Smartest move SCEE has made yet :D

[Lance]

You are sUch a fanboi.

[djKyoto]

This is maybe why the PSP-Go might be a success as well

PSPgo will fail in my opnion tbh. Way, way over priced and can't transfer existing games onto it.

[KIGO1987]

Give it a quarter, and let the sales determine that,

I don't like it cause i cannot transfer my PSP UMD game collection over to it.

Other than that, it is a pretty funky unit.

I think the Go explores a newer niece market that the 3000 doesnt offer. But if you have a 16GB Duo stick in a Current PSP unit, then your fine i guess.

I want to see what the sales are like on this unit in a quarter period before im quick to throw any fixed opinions.

[Rapier Racer]

Oh well I've got my old old old fully functional fat PS2 from back in the day sat here and all my PS2 games on a shelf behind me so I won't be paying twice for the same games. I can't help but wonder if this was in the works all along.

[Darkdrium777]

Obviously not... They were planning to have BC in every single PS3 sold. Now this hasn't worked out because it was too expensive to implement.
Also you are not forced to pay twice for the same games... You say you still have your PS2 and your PS2 DVDs. If ever you want to play those, you can. Pretty sure everyone in the same situation as you can do just the same as they already have a PS2. Again this is for those who have never bought that particular game on PS2, and wish to do so now, or those who sold their games/system (In which case sell your PS2 DVD for money and buy off the store.)

Besides, to be honest with you, even though I have a 60GB NTSC PS3, I've probably put 3 PS2 DVDs in it over the last two and a half years...

[SaturnReturn]

I'll be glad if this happens. There are several PS2 games I missed out on that I'd love to play:
Devil May Cry 3, the God of War games, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Timesplitters:Future Perfect, the Ratchet & Clank games, MGS 3.

Then there's a load of classic Sega games I never played. I think this would be a good move - nostalgia's always in fashion.

[billychanxtr33m]

my ps3 is back compatable but having every ps2 game ever available for download would be pretty cool. though nothing comes to mind, im sure there is some obscure ps2 game that i would want to play and would be easier to get by dling.

as for dreamcast games i wouldnt care unless they added online functionality to stuff like powerstone ect...

*UPDATE*
after a touch of soul searching here are some ps2 games i would DL if cheaper than the ebay-
any of the non persona SMT games
dark cloud 1+2
dragon quest viii
makai kingdom
grimgrimoir

and thats just rpgs!

[Rapier Racer]

Sony also said the entire PS1 collection would be put on the store, so at the rate they seem to be going at the PS5 will be out before that happens or is this now a shelved idea? It appeared to turn into a bit of a pic n mix. I wonder how many PS2 games will appear before they get bored of that and move on.

[Lance]

I wonder when they're going to announce that all PS3 games will available for download.

[BulletWraith]

I think we'll get all PS3 downloads before we see all PS2 downloads

-Stevie

[Darkdrium777]

^^^
-Stevie

wat.

Aren't you usually signing off with "zer:donutshen"?

[BulletWraith]

the plot thickens

-Dave

[Lance]

And the PS4 will have no disc drive.

[Darkdrium777]

the plot thickens

-DaveLOL :lol

[blackwiggle]

I don't think all of the PS3 games would be as small in file size as HD ,so you have the problem of peoples download limits/connection speeds.
Plus you have the fact that I think the majority of people want a hard copy of a game.
I suppose SONY would love to have all titles download only thus cutting the cost of manufacture and creating a even bigger profit margin for themselves, but the fact that most big titles are cross platform I can't see that happening.

You also have the retail outlets to think of.
If you take the profits away from them from game sales by having the games download only,why would they bother stock your console for sale?

[BulletWraith]

to the release of all PS3 games on the PSN I didn't mean any time soon and I don't think all of them will, I just think that more of them will be released on the PSN than the amount of PS2 games

and I fully agree about the retailer thing, lots of places have boycotted the PSP Go as they won't get any money from game sales, I agree with that stance and have asked my favourite local online retailer to do the same.
I know the days of hanging out in the arcade with friends are almost gone here and in allot of places they are completely over, I don't want the same thing to happen with game retailers, I like going in and having a chat with the staff about what's coming out and what games they are playing
I don't want everything to be online, I love human interaction

-Steve

[IH8YOU]

Steve - I understand and appreciate your view there about the interaction. Unfortunately - in spite of protests - I see the game industry moving towards an iTunes-type model. It makes sense from Sony / PSN and most developer viewpoints.

Don't be mistaken - I STRONGLY favor tangible media over microscopic NS poles parked on my HD platter. You get the artwork, box design, and something you can fire up down the road for some back-in-time action.

My launch PS2 died - lucky for me, my games were able to be transported to the PS2 slim I had. And once again to my PS3 when I felt like playing said games with random bugs.

My launch PS3 just bit the dust, too. Yes, I got Wipeout on it via PSN - but down the road - what if Wipeout HD is pulled from the store - or what if (gasp) PSN ceases to be?

As for the interaction bit - I think I spend more time chatting with my friends via PSN chat rooms then I do on the phone these days. Sad, I know. But fun. :eek

[BulletWraith]

I agree with you man, I'm just trying to slow down the inevitable and enjoy the time I have left that's all :D
I think the PSP Go is a tool for Sony to learn about how to make a download only piece of hardware so their release of the PSP2 will go as smooth as possible, I expect a PSP 4000(with bluetooth) will still sporting UMD before a PSP2 comes out
and maybe thats a good reason to have all PS2 games on the PSN so they can be played on a PSP2 eventually

it's sad how things are, when I was a kid after school, we'd all go over to a mates(or my) place and play some 4 player split screen golden eye 007,
now days instead of after school being like 'lets all come over to mine for some games' it's probably like 'see you guys online'
it really irks me
not that I can talk, summers coming up and I'll be defiantly working on my playstation Tan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRarZ4rs1TI&feature=related)

-Stevie

[KIGO1987]

I think we'll get all PS3 downloads before we see all PS2 downloads

-Stevie

Was that you that sent me an email over hotmail to me? or was that stin??

[Rapier Racer]

and I fully agree about the retailer thing, lots of places have boycotted the PSP Go as they won't get any money from game sales, I agree with that stance and have asked my favourite local online retailer to do the same.

Yes I hear HMV are going to boycott MP3 players due to massive cuts in their profits thanks to lower CD sales.

[chri5]

as soon as Rez comes out on the ps3 I can finally ditch my 360.

[AG-wolf]

Why? 360 Rez is in HD and has extra content. Rez for DC/PS2 is still the same low-res (lol, get it) version we've known for years.

[KIGO1987]

Cause Chri5 is a smart man ;)

[BulletWraith]

*tear*
Wolf speakith the truth, how much did MS pay Sega to secure REZ HD and Virtua Fighter?, guess they have to sell their console in Japan somehow

@ KIGO
would have been Stin as it's just recently I've grown to love the non swearing, non all up in your grill KIGO


-Stevie

*edit*
a smart person who wanted the PS2 version would sell the 360 and buy a PS2 slim with a licensed wireless PS2 controller & place it under the PS3
(if your not going to be playing anything other than REZ you won't need to open it up again)

[KIGO1987]

My posts haven't change that much, you didn't see me go off at your Kiwi cousin for his dodgy team management skills;
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showpost.php?p=151307&postcount=66

Maybe im a little less exuberant these days,

One thing with my posts, you always get 100% direct honesty, been like that since May of last year.

[Darkdrium777]

When KIGO is pissed, you know he's pissed.

:D

(I am a bit like that too, unfortunately for others in the vicinity :()

[Lance]

Hardcopy rules.

[lunar]

it's sad how things are, when I was a kid after school, we'd all go over to a mates(or my) place and play some 4 player split screen golden eye 007,
now days instead of after school being like 'lets all come over to mine for some games' it's probably like 'see you guys online'


Yes it`s such a shame - games companies seem to want to atomise and seperate us and stop us playing in the same room. Maybe that way we spend more (money). I don`t know why it is. PGR2 on Xbox 1, for example, had four player split screen, as did Rallisport 2, and in the days before that split screen was standard stuff. PGR3, on better hardware, went down to 2 player split screen. Nowadays, despite all the so called amazing gaming hardware, the most we are likely to get is a grudging dual split screen add on at roughly 10 fps (naming no names). Wipeout 64 managed 4 players despite running on something with the relative processing power of a digital watch, or so we are told, but games like Need for Speed Shift, ideal for groups of players, don`t even have any nod to split screen at all. Why not just play PGR2 if you have any friends or family? It`s a real shame. I don`t know if it`s marketing or laziness. Are we better consumer units on our own? To be honest, I think more people would have fun with an Xbox and Rallisport 2 and PGR 2 than they would with some of the games that get released these days.

On topic, I`ll believe it when I see it. There is the PR issue that they would be charging people per game for back compatibility, the technical issues, and the issue that given the pace of Ps1 games hitting the virtual stores do we really believe they will ever get round to it or will mankind have invented real anti-gravity racing first.

[IH8YOU]

Even if AG racing becomes real, odds are good i will still play Wipeout. No way in hell i'd be able to afford my own Auricom. Hardly afford a PS3 and new controllers when i break them.

[KIGO1987]

ha XD, me too. I havent broke a DS3 since last year now,

Last time i had a tantrum, was when i was on MotorStorm Pacific Rift, and i pegged the controller on the ground, and it bounced up and took out on of the satellite speakers.

Still works though.

[q_dmc12]

Hmm, I might consider getting a ps3 when I get some real spending cash

[blackwiggle]

The gaming companies are at a crossroads ATM.

They don't have a business model for the technical possibilities.

Yoichi Wada from Square seems to think that it might even come down to downloading/renting a title for a set period of time.
He also expects a new console from Nintendo by 2011 similar to the PS3/Xbox with a new type of controller.

http://www.digitalbattle.com/2009/09/21/square-enixs-yoichi-wada-new-wii-in-2011-motion-controllers-for-xboxps3-not-a-big-deal/

You have two online games that are about to bite the dust.
Starwars Galaxies will shutdown 12 of it's 25 servers from Oct 15th and Dungeon Runners will be shutting down for good.

The more games that become playable online the more this will happen ,that's if people haven't already deserted a title because of lack of upkeep of the particular games servers,like we are seeing with HD/Fury and the leader board issues.

Gaming as we have known it is changing rapidly,but I don't like what I see happening ,it's become/ing disposable and by doing so cheapening itself .

The ideas for games generally have dried up ,they have just become yet another variation of a well worn theme,how many FPS do you need/want :brickwall plus you have the cost of producing a decent game these days.

That is the real major reason why these old games are being made available I think.

[Z_Zoquis]

hmm...it seems to me that back in the day split screen gaming was always sort of a "this is the best we can do for now" measure. I can remember playing games split screen in the 80's with my brother and talking about how cool it would be to be able to hook up on two seperate systems and play against each other instead of having to do this "crummy split screen" playing with its slower performance and shrunken screen size. Online multiplay was really a "holy grail" for gaming back then. Imagine being able to play games against people from all over the world. Awesome!

I don't think devs are trying to seperate gamers. Theres a wealth of party games around - Guitar Hero/Rock Band for instance. I think split screen is just seen as sort of a bygone necessity now that useable network gaming is readily available.

My kids still have their friends over to play games all the time.

[djKyoto]

you didn't see me go off at your Kiwi cousin for his dodgy team management skills

What, one weeks notice wasn't enough? :?

[Lance]

"I don't think devs are trying to seperate gamers."

It isn't devs are trying to separate gamers from each other, it's that console makers are trying to separate gamers from their money in ways that sell the same material multiple times, and that also give the makers all control and leave the gamers without any.

[Z_Zoquis]

I really don't think the inclusion/exclusion of split screen in games has more than an infinitesimal effect on overall sales. I can't think of very many instances over my better than 30 years of gaming when a friend or relative of mine who was also into videogames said "I'm not gonna buy that game. I'm just going to go over to my buddies and play split screen on his whenever I can." If console makers are trying to drum up more sales by not including split screen I doubt its working...

Anyway, as I said I've been playing videogames since the late seventies and I certainly don't feel like I have any less "control" than I ever did over the games. I'm not sure what that means even. Are you talking about online server space or dlc or something?

sorry...this is getting way OT now.

[Koleax]

*tear*
Wolf speakith the truth, how much did MS pay Sega to secure REZ HD
I heard zero. The developer considers vibration an inseparable part of the gameplay and, with the lack of a Dual Shock controller or other vibrating peripheral for the PS3 at the time, they held off development. They stated that making Rez HD for other systems is something they would consider with the appropriate hardware.

Rez HD is exceedingly beautiful and ought not be dismissed for its previous version, regardless of it appearing on a console that I really did not want to buy, but did for this game. Unlike the Dreamcast or PS2 version, it has 5.1 surround, which is a heavenly...

Alright, I've temporarily lost the ability to communicate due to trance. Give me a second.

Anyway, I'd be rather unsatisfied if they released PS2 games for download but did not find a way to run them in 720p, a la PCSX2.

[blackwiggle]

I think they will have to modify a few if not most PS2 titles if only to sort out the initial compatibility issues these games had with the PS3.

Even the first BC60g model PS3 had problems with some elements of these games not functioning.

You have to look on the spline of the PS2's games cover to see the code number and type it in at this site.

http://www.us.playstation.com/Support/CompatibleStatus

It tells you if there are issues,but the problem is/was that depending on the splines code number [place where the disc was made and batch number]these issues differ,and nearly all countries had multiple different codes of the same game depending when you bought the game.

It's just luck of the draw if you have a no problems copy.

For what it's worth I bought the download version of FFVII and it seems to me that they had bettered the graphics somewhat compared to the disc version,so they can do it for PS1 titles.

I can't say the same about the original Wipeout though,that is pretty much unplayable on a modern screen,extremely pixilated and playing the disc version of 2097 on a BC PS3 is not much better ,that's supposedly being released as a download pretty soon ,I wouldn't hope for much improvement with that though as Colin Berry said in a previous post that SL hadn't had anything to do with the porting of this to the PStore.

[BulletWraith]

I
Rez HD is exceedingly beautiful and ought not be dismissed for its previous version, regardless of it appearing on a console that I really did not want to buy, but did for this game. Unlike the Dreamcast or PS2 version, it has 5.1 surround, which is a heavenly...



hey Koleax
I'm not a massive Rez fan, but lucky enough to find myself an NTSC Trance Vibrator all the way down here in New Zealand, bummer it doesn't work with the PAL release,
I really thought it would have been MS securing a 360 release because a few old Sega games have come out for their console that haven't seen the light of day on the PS3, Virtual On *shakes Fist* being one I'm very sad not to see on the PSN

how do the spare Xbox controllers work as make shift trance vibrators??
when the 360 drops down to PS1 price I'll pick one up, no rush for me

@blackwiggle
I picked up a PS3 yesterday, 2nd game I tired in it(first was vib ribbon :D) was wipEout 3 SE, I think it looked okay, the smoothing thing the PS3 does to PS1 games helped quite a bit,but yeh I dread putting 2097/XL in gah it's going to look bad

-zer:donutshen

[Sausehuhn]

The reason why WO3 looks superior to WO1 and WO2097 is probably the fact that WO3 is one of the late PS1 games that supports the high-res mode (up to 640x480 pixels), whereas the previous games most likely run in low-res (320x240 pixels) :)

[Koleax]

how do the spare Xbox controllers work as make shift trance vibrators?
I actually turn off the vibration. It's sensory overload for me. Though, sometimes I rest my feet on the subwoofer, and that's quite nice.

[Lance]

The reason why WO3 looks superior to WO1 and WO2097 is probably the fact that WO3 is one of the late PS1 games that supports the high-res mode (up to 640x480 pixels), whereas the previous games most likely run in low-res (320x240 pixels) :)

I read back in the year 2000, when it was still a relatively recent release, that the only race mode that used hi-res was Time Trial, which didn't have to draw but one ship, but to me it looks pretty good in SR mode, too.

I guess that by 1999, the code optimisation they'd developed was good enough that using hi-res didn't overtax the system with the vector calculations.

[abukii]

...or SONY hardware is just superior;)

[Lance]

No. Just look at the original Ridge Racer, the original WipEout, WO2097/XL, and the original GT, then look at Ridge Racer 4 and W3O, and you'll see what a difference programming efficiency makes.

[KIGO1987]

Yes, good games you pointed out there too.

[abukii]

Lance-- Yes, but the hardware was capable all along to produce that quality. Game development doesnt come with a "how to" guide.
;)

[Lance]

:o I thought that's what I was saying. ;)

[abukii]

:D:D:D:D:+:+
Well then. Right on:cowboy