Hi, I’m Snake from the PS2. Want to play with me on your PS3? Well too bad.

First off, lets recap the situation for those that are just joining us. Yesterday we (along with many sites) reported that a user (NiTiz) of the popular N4G gaming site posted an image on their forum. The image was supposedly a snapshot of a PS3 interface screen highlighting PS2 download capability.

The user on the N4G forum went on to say that the image was sent to him from an unnamed source within Sony and that his source told him the PS2 download feature would be announced for the PS3 at this years E3. Sony then came out and denied it stating that the screen was fake and that they had no plans for such a service.

Many sites (including ours) reported the Sony was denying the PS2 download rumor, but were also quick to add that this may be another case of corporate double talk on the part of Sony. The company did this a few months ago when rumors circulated regarding a price cut. They claimed to have no plans for it only to have the price cut take effect a few days later.

So we have one side screaming fake and the other side claiming to have an inside source within company. Who is telling the truth? I could have just waited for E3 to find out, but unfortunately I am not that patient.

I have been using Photoshop for over ten years as a web designer, so when I saw the screenshot in discussion I decided to take a closer look to see if I could sort through all the talk on both sides and find something tangible that we could all use as proof to end the speculation once and for all.

At first glance, the image looks pretty good and being that an image like this (if fake) would be created in an application such as Photoshop and then displayed onto a television, it would be nearly impossible to find evidence of tampering unless the individual made a glaring mistake. So with that in mind, any Photoshop detective work is pretty much thrown out the window.

At this point, it’s easy to see how many sites could be fooled by it, but as I was about to give up on the image I noticed something I thought was suspicious and decided to run a Google search against it. Once I found what I was looking for, it was obvious to me that this image was a fake.

Below is a magnified portion of the description text below Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the game that has been cued up for download in the screenshot. It clearly reads “radical new take on Hideo Kojima’s best-selling tale of stealth, heroism and double-crossing.”

This seemed odd to me, so I ran a search on Google for the words “Metal Gear Solid 2 is a radical new take” and clicked into the first result that popped up. Oddly enough, it was a link that pointed to Konami’s Official European website. I say “oddly” because N4G has a very large European following. The description, as you can see below, is nothing more than a modified version of the listed summary for Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance.

Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance is a radical new take on Hideo Kojima’s best-selling tale of stealth, heroism and double-crossing. Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance retains the ground breaking stealth-based action of its predecessor, with players guiding a series of characters through key terrorist situations.

Top-secret weapons technology is being mysteriously transported under cover of an oil tanker to an unknown destination. It’s up to Snake to infiltrate the transport and keep this deadly weapon of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands! Snake is back - are you ready?

So why would the person take all this time to fake this screen and then use the wrong description? Well, probably because it is not that easy to find the original description of MGS2 floating around on the web since most Google searches bring up the Substance version. The game description for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, according to Konami’s Official US site, reads:

Snake returns in the highly anticipated action title, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system. Players take on the role of a one-man army determined to stop a deadly high-tech weapon from falling into the hands of a highly elite resistance group called Dead Cell. Players must utilize their skills in stealth, weaponry and counter-terrorism to fight off the competing powers and destroy the gigantic war machine, Metal Gear Ray.

Hope this helps to put the rumor to bed for good — although I doubt it will, and by pointing this out I have the sneaky suspicion I have just motivated attention hungry Photoshop fakers to up their game. Skeptics will argue that there is still a chance the screen is some early concept on the part of Sony, but frankly I doubt that is the case.

Update: I decided to change the headline of this story based on feedback recieved from readers. I also want to be clear that I am not claiming the PS3 console will never get the ability to download PS2 titles — I am however questioning the validity of the image.

Tags: attention hungry, fake, Konami, Metal Gear Solid 2, photoshop, PS2 downloads, PSN

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