One of my favorite consoles, though I wish they had stuck to their guns on backwards compatibility. I’m many ways it was my last console, no dedicated console since has taken its place in terms of number of games purchased. And the UI, good gravy, was I a fan of that simple and responsive UI.
I guess they had to remove backwards compatibility at some point considering the solution was to shove an entire PS2 CPU and GPU onto the motherboard, massively driving up the already stratospheric production cost that they lost money on even with the high launch prices. Still, it is unfortunate it went away, as it ensured that PS2 games would play perfectly and as intended on PS3 with a proper HDMI output too. Plus, since it went away early, it means all the models with backwards compatibility have the defective GPUs that can cause a yellow light of death. A PS3 Slim with PS2 compatibility would have been amazing. I agree so much with XMB being peak UI design as well, almost every console following has in my opinion a worse UI, other than maybe the Switch, but that’s because the Switch barely has much beyond a game selector.
One of my favorite consoles, though I wish they had stuck to their guns on backwards compatibility. I’m many ways it was my last console, no dedicated console since has taken its place in terms of number of games purchased. And the UI, good gravy, was I a fan of that simple and responsive UI.
I guess they had to remove backwards compatibility at some point considering the solution was to shove an entire PS2 CPU and GPU onto the motherboard, massively driving up the already stratospheric production cost that they lost money on even with the high launch prices. Still, it is unfortunate it went away, as it ensured that PS2 games would play perfectly and as intended on PS3 with a proper HDMI output too. Plus, since it went away early, it means all the models with backwards compatibility have the defective GPUs that can cause a yellow light of death. A PS3 Slim with PS2 compatibility would have been amazing. I agree so much with XMB being peak UI design as well, almost every console following has in my opinion a worse UI, other than maybe the Switch, but that’s because the Switch barely has much beyond a game selector.