European PS3 to have reduced backwards-compatibility
Ironically, straight after suggesting that there's finally a good reason for buying a PS3 comes the news that European gamers wanting to play their back-catalogue of PlayStation 2 games might do better waiting until after the launch. Sony has just released a statement where they attempt to justify removing the dedicated emulation chip (which allows US and Japanese variants of the console to play up to 98 percent of PS2 games) made by Datamonitor and replacing it with a less-effective software emulator:
"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology" David Reeves, President, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Customers are likely to be unimpressed by paying considerably more than their US and Japanese counterparts for a console that is tangibly inferior. Not a great move, Sony!