It's funny how far things have fallen in less than a year...

"Backwards compatibility, as you know from PlayStation One and PlayStation 2, is a core value of what we believe we should offer. And access to the library of content people have created, bought for themselves, and accumulated over the years is necessary to create a format. PlayStation is a format meaning that it transcends many devices - PSOne, PS2, and now PS3."

(Phil Harrison, Game Pro Magazine, http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=55108).

If there was one thing that I respected about Sony before they launched the PS3 it was that they had standards. And even though those standards were set a little high for some people to accept, there was a certain experience that Sony was determined to offer, regardless of not conforming to what it's competitors were charging for their consoles.They were confident in their product.

Fast forward to a year later and it iscompletly a different story.In there first year alone,the PS3hashad more SKU and pricing changes than any other console in the history of gaming. And this is coming from a companythat has stated that they will not beconfusing customers with too many sku's.

And on top of all of this, their newest (and lowest priced) SKU DOES NOT include backwards compatibility...which completly abandonsarguably one of the greatest console game line-upsof all time. In the first quote I posted, PhilHarison makes it a point to use the word "core" when describing the importance of backwards compatibility.So withSonyabandoning bc, they haveessentially abandoned the ps3's core value. Now ask yourself: What would make a company that was once SO confident in their productdecide to abandon the "core" of what they believe they should offer? For this reason, I believe Sony is desperate.Every move they have made so far has been done under desperation. They were desperate to sell consoles, so they cut the priceand introduced lower priced SKU's in less than a year following launch. They were desperate when MS wasstealing away exclusivity, so they strike up a deal with Rockstarand make an announcement that future games will be exclusive even those those games haven't even been named yet. They were desperate when they couldn't include rumble with their controllers, so they lied about it not being "compatible" with motion sensing until they could finally strike up a deal.

My point is simple: yes the 40gb is great for the consumers...but it doesn't matter if Sony is offering the ps3 for$400, $300, or even $5. If they want to stop having to act in desperation all the time than they are going go have toregain the confidancein their product thatthey had before launch. Lair and 6-hour Heavenly Sword is not going to do it for them.

I think abandoning bc is a bad idea. For people who own a PS2 and have a good catalogue of games, it will make them less likely to transition to the PS3, because they will have to abandon their games or have two consoles. For people who didn't own a PS2 (like myself) backwards compatibility is a major plus becuase you have a HUGE catalogue of games that you haven't played to choose form at really low prices, as well as the new PS3 titles.

Sony's biggest asset coming into this generation was the number of people who had a PS2, and they are really making it difficult for those people to upgrade.