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SONY Computer Entertainment Europe today launched the website
 that
will allow prospective PLAYSTATION3 owners to see which of their
PlayStation2 titles are playable on the new European PLAYSTATION3
hardware model.
The website at
http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc lists those titles from the
portfolio of PlayStation2 titles available in the SCEE PAL
territories that are playable on PLAYSTATION3.
"Our engineers have been working overtime, and have succeeded in
delivering a significant number of playable PS2 titles for the
European launch", said David Reeves, President of SONY Computer
Entertainment Europe. "We will be adding additional titles to this
list in future firmware upgrades, but as we have made clear before,
in the future our resources will be increasingly focused on
developing new services and entertainment features exclusively for
PS3, rather than on delivering PS2 backwards compatibility.”
New owners of a European PLAYSTATION3 will need to install the
latest firmware upgrade to play the PlayStation2 titles listed on
the website. The upgrade will be available at launch from midnight
on 22nd March through the PLAYSTATION Network, from www.
PlayStation.com or, for those unable to access the internet, on a
disc obtained from local Customer Services.
The latest system software upgrade (Version 1.60) will deliver
features such as Folding@home connectivity, background downloading
of content from the PLAYSTATION Store, support for Bluetooth
keyboards and mice, and an optional full QWERTY on-screen keyboard
for text entry.
The Folding@home project allows PLAYSTATION3 owners to connect to
Stanford University’s Folding@home program, a distributed computing
project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding, and
related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and many
cancers. Using the power of the Cell Broadband Engine, PLAYSTATION3
system can perform computer simulations for the Folding@home program
ten times faster than your average home PC. Once a PLAYSTATION3
system is updated to version 1.60, users can easily sign-up to join
the Folding@home program by clicking on the appropriate logo on the
XrossMediaBar under the Network icon. Then, when the PLAYSTATION3
system is left on and reaches idle mode, it will automatically begin
a simulation and, once completed, send information back to a central
computer. Additional details about Folding@home are available at
http://www.scei.co.jp/folding/en/.
Firmware Version 1.60 also delivers a more convenient process for
downloading content to the PLAYSTATION3 from the PLAYSTATION Store.
Up to six pieces of content from the PlayStation Store can be
 queued-up
for download while the user enjoys other functions of the
PLAYSTATION3 system, including playing games, browsing the web,
using media functions including photo browsing, video and music
playback. Progress of downloads can be easily tracked under a new
Download Management Menu under the XrossMediaBar’s Network icon.
Firmware 1.60 also provides support for keyboards and mice enabled
with Bluetooth wireless technology. Text entry is further expanded
with the option to use a full QWERTY on-screen keyboard, in addition
to the existing single tap keyboard. PLAYSTATION3’s built-in Web
Browser is also enhanced with the ability to zoom-in to the optimal
viewing size for the selected area of a Web page at the press of a
button, as well as an optional tool for reducing flicker when the
PLAYSTATION3 system is using Interlaced Video-Out (480i or 1080i). |
