Maybe ...

Back in "Tha Day" I knew several people who upgraded from their Playstation to a PS2 because their original Playstation had died and they wanted to continue playing their existing games; early adopters often forget that the majority of the public do not upgrade simply for the sake of upgrading.

Maybe I don't see things as you see them, but I have a very hard time seeing how the 40gb PS3 will appeal to folks who still have several PS1 and PS2 in their library. With the lack of AAA titles on the system, and the high cost of Blu Ray disks, at least being able to play your PS1 and PS2 games until something worthy drops would be nice. Without that, and considering how awesome sales are for the system with all of that, the joke will be on them that fall for this hot mess ...

Seriously NO-ONE and I mean NO-ONE knows yet if it will have software emulation or not. Stop spreading FUD!

It should do ok......but most people out there want the 360. The reason being that when the walk into the store the 360 section is huge and the PS3 not so much. XMas + PS3 should do well but not as well as the other systems. Only thing PS has going for it (realistically) is R&C. The games that are going to move systems are already established. XBOX has Halo, Wii has Mario, PS3 has R&C and while not being a weak series it is the weakest of the established games. You reel people in with established games (GTA/Metal Gear/FF/ ect) and from there people will establish new games as classics. The cut will do them well when MGS & GTA come out.

If Socom Confrontation comes out for the Holiday 07 season, I know that I'll be a very happy camper. When I heard that it was expected to be finished this year (maybe early next year) I knew I had to have a PS3 just for that game alone.

It's still not at the sweet spot of $200. At least in NA, that's the price people will pay for gaming consoles without thinking twice. The Wii is $50 too high, but Demand >>>>>>>>>>>> Supply, so whatever.

Assuming the $400 model is real (until Sony says so it's a rumor. Sorry) and they release it, it will barely keep them alive and not move much. The X360 has claimed the $400 bracket and Sony won't get much of that.

Nevermind that they are (almost) feature equivalent. Basically, you're buying the PS3 for its unique games, a strategy that didn't help Nintendo during the N64 or Gamecube era, even though they were competitively priced (much cheaper for the Gamecube, actually) and hovering around the sweet spot of $200.

LOL @ the gypsies. Everyone is an analyst these days.

Every PAL PS3 has no EE chip and is solely software emulation.

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=38393

It almost makes sense that the rumor is true that one of the firmware updates(1.8?) may have disabled the NTSC EE chip in favor of Software emulation as all firmware updates are globally the same.

The BC is still far and above what the 360 does for xbox games. Something close to 80% of PS2 games are BC.

Seriously people, google is your friend.

On topic:
The $399 PS3 should be a big deal this holiday season because it is cheaper than the Elite and INCLUDES a high def player and wi-fi.
Bottom line though is that ALL consoles will have a great holiday season regardless of your fanboy base.

Sorry, but even after writing so much pretentious crap, you're still wrong. Sony disagrees:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2099538,00.asp

Q: Does this mean that the PS2 hardware chips have been removed completely and replaced with software-only emulation?

A: The original PS3 used the Emotion Engine/Graphics Synthesizer to emulate PS2 titles. With the latest European specification we have removed the Emotion Engine, retaining the graphics chip.

I'm now pretty sure the 40 GB PS3 will not be compatible with PS2 games. There's too much smoke for there not to be any fire!