They're leaving out the Emotion Engine to cut back on costs, right... then whack said ammount off the price tag as well... simple as that... and if firmware updates will fix the lack of backwards compatibility, then there's still hope.

Correyov31 I'm so tired of everyone saying it should cost less if this one part is missing. You are already getting a bargain with the hardware. No one is thinking about that. They are doing the smart thing and trying to pull in a profit. Backwards compatibility isn't going to make or break a system. Remeber the 360? ---------------------------------------- Lemme give you an example. Say I sell a guy a VCR/DVD system. He pays a certain ammount. Next guy comes along and I sell him the same system, only I have removed the VCR... and I charge him more. I don't care what the cost of living is... hell, they should at least whack off (heh, I said whack off) $50 or so...

As a PS3 owner, I say, if you give them less... charge them less... it makes no sense whatsoever that they have to pay MORE for an inferior version of a console that cost a first born child to begin with. Is backwards compatibility important... what an asinine question. Didn't Microsoft ask that same question? They learned quick, didn't they. Paying $600 for a console to play a handful of games while you wait out the new release drought... Of all my console purchases, backwards compatibility has always been a key factor. Happens when you amass a huge collection of games and you don't want to stop playing them. And with the Europeans paying more for their systems, they deserve that much...

Sure... as long as you don't care about HD DVD support... then you won't have to upgrade it... ... which I heard would make the thing as expensive as a PS3... hmmmm........