1000 PS2 games playable at PAL PS3 launch

Sony's Phil Harrison has told European gamers that they can expect over 1000 PS2 titles to be backwards compatible from March 23.

Speaking to semi-official blog Three Speech, Harrison said, "The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles." Not bad, eh? "We can't give any information about specific titles but, clearly, that would be our policy."

Losing a chip from PS3 will obviously save Sony some cash in making the machine but when will that affect the SRP of PS3? "Price reductions are something that we wouldn't comment on specifically. But you know the business model very well - we strive to get the cost of manufacturing down as soon as possible, and as soon as we can pass cost savings onto the consumers, we will."

And how important is this whole backwards compatibility issue anyway? "I think the reasons why people buy PS3s are the new games that it offers, and the HD content experiences provided by games and movies, the opportunity to access the PlayStation Network, and titles like MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man - leading-edge examples of what next-generation games are all about."

March 1, 2007