First batch had complete hardware compability but even second batch had some PS2 chips in them. CPU was emulated by software but GPU still had hardware compability. Only in the last batch they removed last PS2 chpis. There never has been complete software emulation for PS2 in PS3.

Well, my understanding of Sony's gaming division is that they use the profit made from selling the ps2 and psp to off set the loss of selling the ps3. So, if they dropped the ps2, they would just find themselves suffering a lot of loss, especially if their increased focus increases sells which would then increase their loss.

I think the ps2 will be around until the ps3 makes enough money that it can sustain several price cuts and still be making money. I think this is also one of the reason's that Sony removed the BC, because they want people to keep buying ps2's. Jack Trentton even said the BC didn't cost all that much and by taking it out didn't really reduce the cost of making the sytem signifacantly. (He was refering the software emulation used in the first 80 gig models)

I think that would be a bad business decision. PS2 has the most market penetration, it can make money for them for several years. The last game published for PS1 was in 2007. Sony's plan is always 10 years so PS2 will have 10 years cycle as well (at least 2010 I think).

Dropping support for the PS2 would hurt Sony, not help them.

If a system is making profit, you don't sweep it behind the door and forget about it. You milk it for all it's worth.

Personally I think they should make a new PS2 that offers PSN content such as movie downloads, PS1 games, internet browser, etc.

I haven’t read this entire thread, but I would suppose the real question should have been, “Should third-party developers stop supporting the PS2”? Sony hasn’t published a first-party game since 2007 (correct?), so they really aren’t putting any energy into support the platform. Just because they re-release the PS2 slim model in various configurations or lower the price doesn’t mean they are investing any resources into the model, just harvesting profit of a product that’s at the end of it’s life cycle. If the product should have a particularly “long tail,” then all the better for Sony. Nothing wrong with making money.

The answer to the question I posed above is a resounding “NO!” Simply because the install base is ginormous and because the demographic that continues to game on the PS2 is completely different than those buying and playing the PS3. If the markets are separate, then developers and publishers should keep making games for the system until customers no longer want products for it. And it’s not like there’s a lot of publishers spending a huge amount of time on their PS2 games (except for NIS and Atlus). Most are taking their most popular brands and porting over new SKUs from the lead platforms (PS3 or X360) for those casual gamers who aren’t inclined to buy a PS3 until the price point is lowered into their casual gaming price bracket ($150 or less).

The only time you want to completely cut off support for an older model is when it would cannibalize the profitability of your newer model. Microsoft did this properly when the Xbox 360 came out because the customers for each system are the same (core gamers). However, the PS2 market is now dominated by the “casual gamer” customer type, who tend to NOT spend as much as the core gamer. Sony should milk out this market for as long as possible… even if it means butting up against the 8th generation systems.

They are not really "supporting" the PS2. They barely spend any marketing money on it and only a handful of games are coming out in the next few years. It just sits on the shelf and people pick it up as an extra little side console or for poor families who can't afford something next gen. Pretty much pure profit at this point. Shoot I just picked one up in December and it's killing my Wii as far as playtime goes. Keep it around for another year or 2 it costs you nothing.

fair enough - here i was thinking it was fully software emulation on the second batch of PS3s, and assumed that once the PS2 was officially discontinued they could just release a PS2 emulator on PSN store for something reasonable (30-40 bucks?)......i can hope right?

they need to come out with a downloadable emulater that allows all ps3s to have backwards compatibility first. then they could comfortably faze out the ps2 hardware over the next 2 years, imo

They should really be developing some sort of PS2 support for PS3, no matter how hard it is. But they should probably wait until PS2 pretty much completely dies before actually releasing it.