Backward Compatibility

Playstation ® 3 backward compatibility (or lack thereof) is a lot more complicated than I would have thought. After some rather interesting research I’ve come to the following understanding.

Since its initial release, there have been 8 different models of the Playstation ® 3. Only one ever came in more than one colour, only two ever had more than 2 USB ports and only three were ever backward compatible with Playstation ® 2 games. None of these are in production at the moment.

The two currently in production are the 80 and 160 GB in Piano Black with 2 USB ports and no backward compatibility (model numbers CECHL01 and CECHP01 respectively).

So, to cut a long story short, it does not seem like you can buy a new Playstation ® 3 that can play Playstation ® 2 games.

Perhaps if you are lucky enough to get an older model but even then, with the exception of the first model, backward compatibility is achieved through software emulation which is apparently not nearly as reliable as simply playing the Playstation ® 2 game on a Playstation ® 2.

I may stand to be corrected but this seems to be the gist of it. Bottom line, I’m not going to get around hooking two consoles up to my television.

-Aki