Three Speech, a Sony affiliated blog, posted an interview today with Sony's Phil Harrison about the backward compatibility issue of the new European Sony PS3 (and other PAL regions) that will launch on March 23rd.

As reported Sony announced last week that the PAL PS3 will not have the PS2 Emotion Engine chip and will emulate PS2 games via software. So far that would be ok. The issue is that Sony hinted that less PS2 games will be supported and that the list of compatible games is only to be revealed on launch day.

Harrison plays down the problem and says there will be at least 1,000 PS2 titles compatible on launch day with the PAL PS3.
He also questions the number of people who will actually play PS2 games on the PS3. As said in my original story, I am not one of them. I am still waiting for a PS3 game that blows me away.

Phil Harrison is still referring to the list that will be made available on the 23rd for details. If you are a retro gamer, the statements are most likely not satisfying to you. The removal of the hardware PS2 support could also help on a lower price for the PS3 in the future.
Read the full interview on the Three Speech site. Via PC Magazine.