Kaz Hirai, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), has raised some interesting questions regarding his company's strategy regarding PS3 backward compatibility and the future of PS2 gaming.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Hirai said, "We want to promote games only available for PlayStation 3. The introduction of the 40-gigabyte model is in line with that strategy".

This stays very much on-message with statements made late last year by Sony Computer Entertainment (UK) managing director Ray Maguire who told SPOnG, "When we launched, we said we would focus on forward production than backwards-compatibility, but there was more of a need for backwards-compatibility six months ago. So, from here on in, there are no plans for backwards-compatibility in PlayStation products."

Before the crashing tedium of fanboy ranting begins elsewhere, let's analyse the statement:

Hirai did not say, "We only want to promote games available for PlayStation 3".

So, don't read this as "We won't promote non-exclusives". It would be insane for Sony not to co-promote non-exclusives such as Assassin's Creed or Smackdown vs Raw, which would help sell hardware.

What this re-statement of intent is more likely to mean is that days of the PlayStation 2 are well and truly numbered.

At this point, we'd like to remind you of Kaz's assertion that, "The introduction of the 40-gigabyte model is in line with that strategy.''

One of the most notable missing features of the 40GB PS3 is its lack of backwards compatibility. Doesn't it appear counter-intuitive to drop backwards compatibility and also pull support from PS2 itself?
Not if Sony plans to shift its focus with regard to PS2 games towards making them available over the PlayStation Network as legacy titles, or 'PlayStation Originals'?

That is, of course, a bit of a stretch - but it remains a possibility nonetheless. A possibility that could be supported by a recently spotted job vacancy for someone to work on PS3 backwards compatibility, in spite of the fact that Sony's most prevalent PS3 model has none.

Let us know your thoughts in the Forum.

^{Source: Bloomberg}