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Sony needs to start finding ways to save money on manufacturing PlayStation 3s, but most assumed that would come from cheaper chips became and more affordable Blu-ray production. Not so for Europe, however, as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced today they're actually removing the chips that allow for hardware-based backwards compatibility. They're going the Xbox 360 route and attempting software emulation for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game libraries.

We've contacted both SCEE and SCEA for comment on the issue. What's to stop Sony from instituting the same policy on future revisions of American hardware?

SCEE's rationale is a bit reaching. The company claims the change means to generate a focus on PlayStation 3 software, rather than the old 'n broken machines. Does someone want to remind Sony that PS2 actually outsold PS3 in America last month? Clearly, the best response would be to start ignoring that hardware base. SCEE president David Reeves explains:

"Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. 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."

read the rest of the article HERE/SOURCE

Wow, that's the last big market that they can make an impact with and this is not looking good. I would be pissed if I waited that long for the system and then they did something like this. It'll be interesting to see how much the price will be different if at all.

Well, it seems the Wii is the only one with the best backwards compatability!

i guess so, but if you think about it, having a PS2 chip within a PS3 really doesn't make sense. Sony should have had emulation from the beginning to not only save money, but to simply be practical.

Whats that? I may have just decided to ship over an American PS3 so say "Screw you" to SONY Europe.

There's plenty in stores now not going anywhere

Good, I'll just grab myself one of those.

I despise the European heads of gaming, that goes for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

wow. Sony just keeps shooting itself in the foot over and over again.

I'd be careful of that. As it's been stated before, right now the games aren't region locked, but don't hold your breath on that one. I'd had to see you spend $600+ on an American PS3 and then within a year half a tough time playing region locked games.

They'd have to hell to pay if they did that. Anything is possible but I don't see that happening. That would almost be as bad as the guy who bought the 2 PS3s to sell on eBay and couldn't sell them.

Actually I think that buying a foreign PS3 only to have the games be region locked is worse than the guy who bought the two PS3s, because at least he can get most, if not all of his money back.

If Sony lock their consoles then they'll lose one of the things they hold over Nintendo and Microsoft. And they MUST realise that.

Region free consoles are awesome.

I think you assume too much out of them. I honestly have no doubt that they'll be region locking things very soon.

Oh well, there will go their final useful advantage over Nintendo then.

Because the graphics don't mean sh*t to me.

Adios Sony, come back next gen.

Remember the rumors about the PS4 already being worked on. Maybe they realized how much of a bust the PS3 was going to be and decided they better get to work.

I think every game company has already started on what they think the Next Gen system will be. Remember though, Sony specifically said that the PS3 would be a 10 year system.

PS3 could still be a 10 year system.

But at the rate its going at the moment its looking less likely.

10 years?

Doubtful.

If the PS3 is still pumping out games in 2017, I will be mightily impressed.

Claiming that the PS3 will last 10 years on the gaming market sounds like more Sony lies and an excuse for the outrageous price of the console.

I don't think it will be a 10 year system. Sony engineers can't even tell game publishers how to properly program for the cell processor. So everyone, including Sony, has to call IBM in order to use the PS3's power properly? What a disaster and quite frankly an embarassment for Sony.

Sony..."I'm sorry, but you'll have to call IBM, we don't know how to utilize our systems processor."

*fixed*