It was hoped that Sony might be able to reinstate PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility in the new PlayStation 3 Slim, after removing it from the original machine. It won't."Backwards compatibility is off the table," Sony America marketing man John Koller said.
People buy a PlayStation 3 to play PlayStation 3 games, he went on to argue. "Now that we're at a point where we're three years into the lifecycle of the PlayStation 3, there are so many PlayStation 3 disc-based games that are available that we think - and noticed this from our research - that most consumers that are purchasing the PlayStation 3 cite PlayStation 3 games as a reason.
"And it's not just like 50 or 60 percent. It's well into the 80 or 90 percent range... Most of those are consumers who have not utilized their PS2 for a little while and they're ready to jump into the PlayStation 3."
Koller also said that he expects the Slim PlayStation 3 to replace the fat one - no longer in production - at retail in fairly short order. 80GB units would disappear next month, he said, although 160GB PlayStation 3 might stay on shop shelves a little longer.
He also revealed that the PlayStation 3 Slim no longer has a rear power switch, so environmentally-conscious gamers not wanting to leave it on standby all the time - which would pretty much negate its reduced power consumption - will need to turn it off at the mains.
Full spec and pricing for new console here on gamezplay.org...