Why Sony Cut Backwards Compatibility

[HappySqurriel]

NJ5 said:

HappySqurriel, I think that the difference in cost is bigger than $20:

- the PS2 GS chip
- card readers
- 2 USB ports
- 65 nm CPU?
- smaller motherboard

In fact, I had predicted that they'd reduce the size of the PS3, which would be a good move for Japan. Turns out they reduced the motherboard but kept the same casing, maybe for R&D cost reasons?

But as they said, they're not forecasting hardware profits in the next fiscal year.

$20 was a 'random' number, but the 65nm process and smaller motherboard will (probably) be used by the 80GB model, so I wouldn't imagine that they would save much money by removing some of the least expensive components and downsizing their hard-drive.