What do u think they did in Europe? Its stupid, yes, i know, but this is Sony we are talking about and they havent really been on form in the past year or so...

Personally, i think it is a very distinct possibility that they will cut out BC altogether, even though the move is incredibly stupid on Sonys behalf, 

The thing is. Although BC is very important for a vast majority of users and potential users of the PS3 at the moment. Once the system has been out for a couple of years and the list of great games grows, then wanting to play PS2 games on your PS3 will be a thought of the past.

Yes, people will want to play classic games in a year or two, but generally speaking when you want to do that now, you just pull out your old system and plug it in and play.

If this is true, it would be very confusing to the customer to have all these skus come and go. If the 80gb model is discontinued, wouldn't that only leave the 40gb without the backwards compatibility? Seems like another incredibly bad decision by Sony.

maybe Sony's programmers are coming up with a software emulator for PS2 games. They are hiring programmers to do that.

the only ps3 type available here, in every single shop is the 40gb one, so i think they won't keep up the 80gb, not sure about the 60gb.... i'm from europe

Sony since the launch of the PS3 wanted pure software emulation of PS2 games so if this article is true, then I have a feeling that Sony is getting ready to release an update with software BC that will allow all 40GB PS3 to play PS2 games, now that would be one awesome update.

Okay, lets look at the basic figures:

PS2 has sold 100+ million worldwide, and is still selling, at roughly $100

PS2 has possibly one of the largest libraries of games available = SOFTWARE EMULATION JUST AIN'T GONNA HACK IT

PS3 40GB - $399

PS3 80GB - $499

PS2 + PS3 40GB = PS3 80GB

All Sony really has to do is allow support for USB drives and the PS3 80GB model becomes pointless.

 Why not?

The 60gb PS3 in Europe used software emulation... not the emotion chip... And they scraped the 60gb PS3 now. All we ahve is a 40gb PS3 with no BC. Why would they get rid of BC then bring it back again?
It wouldnt surprise me if in America sony mimicked what ti did over here...

 the 60GB wasn't pure software emulation it still had the GS chip on the PS3 motherboard, so removing all physical PS2 hardware and then introducing it via a firmware update for pure software emultion would be a smart idea save money, and why wouldn't they introduce it back, it would be just another bonus to owning a PS3 especially to those that got the 40GB version.