Did MS/Customer Reaction to PS3 Screw Up Sony's Schedule?

[rocketpig]

My friend and I have been forming a hypothesis over the past few weeks... One that involves the initial reaction to Sony, MS's 2007, and the 40GB PS3.

IMO, since the PS3 went through so many changes pre-launch, I think Sony was forced to initially include hardware BC when they may not have wanted to do so. After all, given the power discrepency between the PS2 & 3, software emulation is definitely possible. And given some of the things that were rushed at launch (namely XMB), it wouldn't surprise me one bit if some features were forced out of the launch window entirely.

Now, the 40GB model... Am I the only one who was surprised at how quickly this thing popped out of nowhere? A new motherboard, new 65nm processor, no hardware BC whatsoever. Strange, IMO. A pretty quick turnaround for a major hardware redesign.

My theory is that Sony always planned to move to software emulation in an attempt to cut costs later in the PS3 lifecycle. I think the pressure from MS, poor sales, and outrage over the launch price forced their hand, making them release models long before software emulation was available, forcing them to cut BC entirely. Not the prettiest of situations but they may have felt that the lower price was worth the short term risk of a reduced feature set.

I still believe that software emulation is on its way and ultimately, all PS3s will play PS2 games. This is all wild speculation on my part, but it seems to make sense. A few points:

- Why would Sony want to keep PS2 hardware in the PS3 forever? That's expensive.

- How would they transition away from the hardware? Software emulation is a lot better than cutting BC entirely.

- How were the 80GB & 40GB models designed, tested, and put into the retail channel so quickly?

- Why would Sony now appear to be attempting to eliminate all models with hardware BC?

Dunno, just a few thoughts I had rattling through my brain the past few weeks. What do you guys think? I believe that what we're seeing right now is a knee-jerk reaction by Sony to right the ship in hopes that it will carry them into the era when software BC is available for all PS3s and people aren't being forced to buy PS3s with reduced feature sets. And, given the sales, it seems as if it might be working.