14 DAY TRIAL // It was a reason of sadness for most of the PS3 fans when they found out that they were going to be unable to play PlayStation 2 classic games on their next-gen consoles. This backwards compatibility was dropped with the introduction of the 40GB PlayStation 3 and, since then, nobody thought that Sony could change their mind... again. But it seems that there still might be a possibility to enjoy some PS2 classics in the near future (hopefully).
In the most recent issue of EGM, PlayStation Network director Eric Lempell has admitted that it is practically possible to offer PS2 games as downloadable software via PSN. Of course, even though it is possible and everybody would like to have at least that option, Sony has "no specific plans at this point". I smell online petitions that will probably have no results, anyway.
Still, as an idea, or as an upcoming project, it sounds pretty exciting. There are already rumors surfacing the world wide web that the releases of games such as GTA and GTA II are already planned for the PSN, as well as more pessimist voices who "know" that such an option will never be offered by Sony.
With the 60GB version of the PlayStation 3, things were quite simple: you had a software emulation that allowed you to play PS2 games. Still, this procedure was removed to cut the production prices, so a rebirth of the software as downloadable content would not have much sense either. Probably the success had by the Microsoft rivals with their Xbox Classics is a strong enough reason to make Sony give this situation a second thought.
However, there are still questions to be answered if such a feature is taken into consideration. The most important of them is, by far: How would this actually work? Will people have to purchase for a smaller sum the PS2 games that they probably have already as physical discs or everything will be free? Uhm... sorry, I got a little carried away with this. There is no such thing as "Free", everybody knows that!