Ddrak wrote:Was actually the first I'd heard of it too. I got no clue why Sony is removing stuff that really isn't that expensive. Emotion Engine, sure. That's gonna be a $50 saving or so, but USB ports? Firmware that's already written? None of that is a real expense at all.
Agreed on the media center stuff.
Dd
Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. The 80gb/40gb PS3's are able to play PS2 games via software emulation. Now, if that's software emulation, doesn't that just mean that the firmware bios on those drives is flashed to read PS2 discs? Wouldn't that, in theory, be able to be added back in with a system update? Sony, much like Microsoft, releases console updates usually every few weeks to add new stuff to the playstation store/xbox marketplace, and they can improve on the system's capability by unlocking previously untapped resources in the hardware, if I am interpreting this correctly.
I also don't understand why they removed the two of the four usb ports. That is essentially pennies of cost they are saving, unless they did it to reduce power consumption, which I know is what they did by downclocking the cell processor. Since the older PS3's can support up to 8 controllers (I think it supports 4 by bluetooth and 4 wired), I'm kind of confused as to which direction they are planning on going by removing certain things. Maybe they realized it's rare 6-8 people would want to play a game at the same time? I'm pretty sure the 360 can only support 4 controllers, either all wireless or 2 wireless/wired. The card readers, I can totally understand why they scrapped those. I've never once plugged a card into it, though it's nice knowing the option is there if I wish to utilize it.
