40 GB PS3: Will No PS2 Backwards Compatibilty Hinder Sales?

It was officially announced yesterday that a new low priced 40GB PS3 would be hitting overseas next week. A U.S. announcement has not been made at this time. See HERE for RDG's thoughts on that. The only complaint about this new model seems to be the lack of backwards compatibility with the PS2 game library. So lets take a look at whether this would truly hinder many sales.

With this model it seems as Sony is going primarily for PS2 owners who have not chosen to purchase the PS3 yet, whether it be due to price or due to the PS3 game library. With over 120 million PS2 owners out there why wouldn't they target this demographic?

Will the loss of b. c. be a big reason for people opting not to purchase this lower priced model? RDG does not think so and here is why.

The most obvious one is well PS2 owners own a PS2. So when they see that this model does not have b. c. with their existing library the next thought that will go through their mind will be whether or not they want to have 2 consoles in their entertainment system. Having both consoles to play your gaming library really isn't going to matter to the majority of people out there. Parents doing holiday shopping that are aware of the lack of b. c. are going to think, well "little johnny" has a PS2 for his PS2 games anyway or "little johnny" wants a PS3 to play PS3 games. Also note that this new PS3 sku can play PS1 games.

Now RDG has taken into consideration those PS2 owners that want to trade in their PS2 towards a PS3 in order to save more money. Well i have some bad news for those people. If you go through GameStop the trade in value for the "big PS2" is only $20 and the "slim PS2" is only $30 so as you can see someone wanting to go that route would only be saving a maximum of $30 towards the PS3 anyway.

So PS2 owners that can afford this new sku at the lower price will have really one decision to make and thats if they are alright with having two consoles to play their games. I think its safe to say that this is an easy decision and that the majority will go ahead with the purchase.

Now for the non PS2 owners that want a PS3, RDG thinks that we can all agree that if they are going to purchase a PS3 then they are doing it to play PS3 games and aren't worried about PS2 games or they would have purchased a PS2 by now.

The demographic that this lower priced PS3 will really appeal to is those wanting it for its blu-ray and media capabilities. The only complaint we can see about this is the 40GB hard drive but thanks to the PS3 this is easily solved by upgrading to a larger hard drive which Sony has made an easy option for the PS3.

Now their have been people saying that this can also be solved by Sony releasing a firmware update in the future which could be possible but one major thing that people also forget is the PlayStation Store and though it has been awhile since Sony has released a PS1 or PS2 game on the store this option is still available. Sony could begin to release their PS2 library through the PlayStation Store more aggressively if the lack of b. c. becomes an issue. As we've seen the price of these releases have been affordable but those not wanting to pay again can just play it on their PS2 or pay a fee to have a disc less upscaled version.

So as you can see for the most part lack of b. c. should not hinder many sales and that Sony does have the option to improve this by releasing a firmware update or tapping into the extensive PS2 library and releasing them over the PlayStation Store. The only people we can see not purchasing this lower priced model are those that still can not afford it at this price so to those we say "start saving your money now" because with the holiday lineup looking great and next years looking even better with Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, Final Fantasy XIII, and more your not going to want to miss out!

For those that can not live without the b. c. in the new PS3 you still do have the option of the 20GB, 60GB, or 80GB version.