IGN posted a report based on information that has appeared in Japan’s Ultra One tech magazine, that suggests that for the initial run of PS3 consoles, backwards compatibility will be achieved through actual hardware on board, rather than software emulation. The Playstation 2, of course, achieved its extremely high level of backward compatibility with original Playstation titles through the benefits of including the full Playstation chipset onboard to handle some input functionality. The Playstation 2 could offer this feature at a relatively low cost for Sony because the original Playstation chipsets had been integrated and refined to the point where economics of scale and size took over. Including the Playstation 2 hardware is more problematic for Sony, as the more complicated PS2 hardware, including the Emotion Engine, still costs a fair bit to produce. It is suggested in the article that including the hardware is a stopgap measure until software emulation can be perfected.

Other speculation in the article revolves around the patching system that will be utilized for games, which is going to be another concern for console gamers that will only increase, given that a few high profile patches have already shipped for Xbox 360 games. Ultra One also believe there will be multiple SKUS of the Playstation 3, above and beyond what they see as the “basic system.”

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