And Jack Tretton does it again:
This man has all the answersTo review: sales of PS3 games are lagging because people are playing their PS2 games on the console instead of buying new games, and that cutting off access to one of the largest game libraries in history by removing PS2 backwards compatibility from the 40GB PS3 will encourage gamers to instead by more PS3 games. He reasons that most people already have a PS2, so why would they need backwards compatibility in the PS3?
Here's why, Jack, pay close attention because this might get complicated: most people who own a PS2 are exited about upcoming PS3 games, games more than a year away. Stay with me here, now, if the PS3 can play PS2 games, then those people will go ahead and buy one in anticipation of those big games, and can use the machine to play their old library in the mean time. Still with me? Good. Now, and this is the important part, if these people cannot play their old games on the PS3, then they will wait on buying one until the good games come out, thus hampering PS3 hardware sales. The PS2's backwards compatibility with the PS1 did not hamper PS2 game sales, the same way the Wii's backwards compatibility with the Gamecube is not hurting it's game sales, and the XBOX360's backwards compatibility (and I use the term loosely) with the original XBOX is not hurting it's game sales.
All he's ensuring is PS2 owners are going to wait until either the price of the 80GB unit falls, or for some actual good games to come out that's worth buying the console for, and these are sales that Sony needs RIGHT NOW.