Firmware update v2.40 for the PS3, which is available today, may have delivered a bit more than it said on the tin. It may have increased the console's backwards compatibility.

GameTrailers forum poster Slade reports, "While doing some tests on the new 2.40 on my 80GB model of the PS3, I found that it was actually playing a PS2 game it wasn't previously.

"The title is Mana Khemia and it was previously unplayable in the other firmwares. It just wouldn't load up at all and now, it just happens to work perfectly."

What this could mean for UK versions of the PS3 is unclear. No comment was available from Sony at the time of press.

The 80GB PS3 has backwards compatibility enabled by what Sony called a "software solution for backwards compatibility, similar to that currently found in the PAL model." The PS3 model "currently" available in Europe at the time of that statement was the 60GB SKU, which is no longer on sale.

If Sony has indeed enhanced the backwards compatibility of any of its PS3 SKUs, the move could be seen as at odds with the rumoured PS2 store supposedly heading to the PSN. Making more PS2 titles playable on the PS3 would hardly encourage gamers to spend their cash on PS2 downloads, would it?

Firmware update v2.40 brought with it in-game XMB and the trophy system. You can find out more here and here.

Have you installed 2.40 yet? Tell us about your experience of it on the Forum.

^{Source: GameTrailers.com}