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makingmusic476 on 08 March 2009
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kowenicki said:

or alternatively...

It saved them... if they had remained at the high price point and kept backward compat then there is a reasonable chance the PS3 wouldnt exist now, sales before the price drop were truly awful, so i agree with darth.

To assume that those people buying a PS2 right now would buy a PS3 instead if it had backwards compatibility is a little silly. Presumably they are buying it, in the main, because they are on a budget.

 

A lack of BC wasn't the reason for a price drop.  That's just when they decided to implement the removal of BC.

At that time, BC was entirely done by software emulation outside of the PS2's GPU, which barely cost over $10 to make.

Sony even admitted that the main reason for removing BC was to get people to "buy more ps3 games."

To quote the Wall Street Journal on the matter:

Mr. Tretton conceded that removing that capability, along with a few other features, isn't dramatically reducing Sony's cost of manufacturing the console but will instead encourage buyers of the entry-level PlayStation 3 to purchase more games designed specifically for the new system.

Mr. Tretton said the company's research showed that compatibility with PlayStation 2 games isn't likely to be missed by customers, who most likely already own the older system.

But, surprisingly (not really), it looks like most of the article has been removed.  Most likely at the bequest of Sony because of this self-damning comment Tretton made.  Here's more proof of what was said:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200326

And I even mentioned all of this in my last pararaph (though it was rather rushed, I'll admit), and it was one of the main reasonings behind my post.

Sony didn't remove BC to allow a price drop.  That was done with the drop to 65nm Cell, plus they just ate the cost.  They just used the "new low price" to justify the removal of BC.  And, like I said in the OP, sales of the more expensive BC SKU still took 60% of the sales back when the ps3 was at the top of its game back in June and July.

And I never said the ps1 owners might've bought a ps3.  I said that as owners of a ps2, they might be interested in buying a ps3 down the road if it had BC.  You basically missed my entire point if you didn't see that.