more importantly get a Japanese Playstation store account and you could download all those japanese games that were never released outside of Japan :)

I don't see PS2 BC returning until SCE is ready to begin selling PS2 games via PSN.

At that point, it will make good sense to use those R&D resources so that PS2 classics can be sold again to a new audience (and the niche who tends to buy their favorite games multiple times).

As it's been pointed out before, the most likely time for this to happen would be immediately after hardware production of the PS2 ceases.

It was wrong to get rid of the B/c in the first place. They destroyed a LOT of value for the PS3. I am not a tech-freak, but does the xbox360 have such chip? I mean, I can play about 200 Xbox games on my Xbox360. Is this just with the help of software?

With no region coding?

AWESOME!

Though I don't see a link to the patent anywhere in that article... those pictures could be faked.

It's questionable, I'd say.

It's legit.  here's a link ot the patent:

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22Emotion+Engine%22&s2=Cell&OS=%22Emotion+Engine%22+AND+Cell&RS=%22Emotion+Engine%22+AND+Cell

And here's a link to another patent filed just a couple of months earlier abotu emulation enhancement taht surfaced on neogaf:

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22Emotion+Engine%22&s2=Cell&OS=%22Emotion+Engine%22+AND+Cell

which contains tidbits like this:

In-game XMB usable with BC? This could lead to some cool things.

sooo PS3 having the largest gaming library ever confirmed? :O

Hmmmmm.

The patent is assigned to Sony, yes. It's invented by some guy named Stewart Sargaison (who, according to IMDB, did 3D visual effects for The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black).

Filed: December 9th 2008.

So, quite a while ago. Are they saving it for 3.0?

the orif EU ps3`s had software backward compat and it worked well for most games, some better than others.

what this sounds like is a total emulation of emotion engine, and if this comes with slim i will buy a slim ps3 and keep the current ps3 for upstairs use.

excellent news.

Xbox was almost direct copy from PC so it is a lot simplier to emulate than PS2 which had its very unique technology.

It'd be great! And the bring PS2 games to the PSN store.