Can i play PS2 games in PS3 console?if yes.. anything specific to be done?—by Prem NGM

Best Answer —by Bentley

The answer is not immediately obvious, and depends on where your PS3 is from, what model it is and when you bought it.Initial models in the US and Japan came in 20GB and 60GB versions. These all contained the PS2’s “Emotion Engine” and graphics processor. Therefore these are the best PS3 machines for playing PS2 games on.

When the PS3 was released in Europe in 60GB flavour, Sony took the decision to remove the “Emotion Engine” which was so important in PS2’s life, and instead to emulate PS2 gameplay with “software emulation”- meaning that rather than using PS2’s chip (now missing), PS3’s power would be put to pretending it was a PS2 to run the games. The PS2 graphics chip was still present, but now run by the software-emulated PS2 rather than a dedicated PS2 processor. This meant that while many games worked fine, there are plenty that run at a lower standard, and many that won’t run at all.

Sony Europe then made a further decision to scrap the 60GB model totally, and released only a 40GB model, which not only had the Emotion Engine removed, but also the graphics chip for PS2 compatibility. Meaning that 40GB European PS3s will not play PS2 games AT ALL.

Eventually, the US has seen a 80GB version which featured the graphics chip but no Emotion Engine (meaning PS2 compatibility as an emulator and not 100%; more titles have problems in this environment) and a cut-down 20GB version which was the equivalent of the EU 40GB version (no PS2 compatibility).

Therefore, we can compile a list from “most compatible” to “incompatible”:

60GB US Launch PS3: PS2 compatible (has PS2 graphics synthesizer & Emotion Engine; mostly compatible)
20GB US Launch PS3: PS2 compatible (has PS2 graphics synthesizer & Emotion Engine; mostly compatible)
60GB EU Launch PS3: Fairly compatible (no EE, but has has PS2 graphics synthesizer; software emulation only).
80GB US PS3: No Emotion Engine; but has PS2 graphics synthesizer ; software emulation only; as 60GB EU PS3.
40GB EU PS3: No compatibility

(Note: Japan have had pretty much the same PS3s as the US).

It is important to keep the “firmware” up-to-date on backwards-compatible PS3s, as many issues with PS2 games have been resolved as issues are ironed out. However, it is debatable as to whether Sony are still addressing issues with PS2 BC now that they have dropped it as a feature in the newer PS3s.

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