The PlayStation 3 is one of the most powerful consoles currently on the market but, since it didn't have a terrific start because of too few games and a very high price, it is now trailing its other two rivals, Microsoft and Nintendo.

One of the more interesting features that the console revealed when it was launched was the fact that it had backward compatibility, meaning that it could play old PlayStation 2 games, possibly opening the way to a huge library of quality titles right from the start. While North American and Japanese versions had a PS2 chip inside the box, thus emulating the old console on a hardware level, the PAL ones used a software emulation in order to play older titles.

But sadly the feature was pulled in a short amount of time, thus making the PS3 even less attractive for a lot of people. As we learned a few months ago though, there might soon be a possibility to play old PS2 games, like the first and second God of War titles, straight from a Blu-ray disc on the PS3.

Now, Siliconera has discovered that the Japanese company filed a patent at the end of last year, which pertains to a method for the Cell chip inside every PS3 console to translate and run code made for the original PS2. This means complete translation, making any title made for the old but still popular console playable on the new one.

Whether or not this will mean that Sony will implement this new patent as soon as possible and couple it with a digital download service filled with old PS2 titles is still anybody's guess. Hopefully, the Japanese corporation will still allow old PS2 discs to be played by the console and give long-time owners of the old console a valid reason for shifting to the new platform.

Expect more news reports on this interesting feature in the weeks to come.