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Sony finally decided to announce an 80GB version of the PS3, which is awesome. It gives some people the opportunity to hold an extra 20GB of content, while others see the 60GB model as affordable enough to consider for the first time. However, that new 80GB PS3 might not be quite the machine you hoped it would be.
The machine should be identical to its smaller 60GB brother, right? On the outside it may look the same, but one component is missing on the inside: the Emotion Engine chip. If you’re not familiar, the Emotion Engine chip offers backwards compatibility via a hardware solution. Without it, the machine is forced to use software to run older games.
They haven’t announced any plans to drop the Emotion Engine chip from the 60GB model, but it is always possible that in the future they could cut it out completely.
New 80GB PS3 eliminates “emotion engine” chip [via gamesindustry]
eu ps3’s dont have the chip, backwards compatibility works fine.