European Playstation 3 compatibility list

Europeans get a weaker software emulation of Playstation 2 and Playstation 1 titles compared to the hardware emulation that Japanese and American Playstation 3 owners enjoyed. It was not known - until now - how good, or shall I say bad, the software emulation worked and how many games could be played at all. Sony wants to cut down on manufacturing costs and Europeans are the first to witness the ill effects. The Playstation 3 costs more and plays less, would not call that a bargain but the crazy Brits will surely buy the PS3 nevertheless.

Back to the compatibility issues. As I said Sony published a Playstation 3 compatibility list rating games with 1 to 3 squares with 3 squares meaning that the game will most likely play fine and 1 square meaning it has noticable issues. I did a quick check on the first four letters in the alphabet and came up with 284 working games, 46 games with minor issues and 93 games with noticable issues.

That means about 30% of the games in question have issues and will not play correctly in a European Playstation 3. To make things worse some of the most important PS2 titles are not working currently. This includes Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. Gran Tourismo 3 and 4 Prologue have minor problems and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas major ones.

I could go on and post more games that are not working correctly but I guess you figured it out by yourself by now. Software emulation is not a perfect solution. It might become one in the long run, Sony promised to update the emulator to increase compatibility.