Sony promises 1000 backwards compatible games for PS3 launch

Sony's president of worldwide studios Phil Harrison has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will support over 1000 PS2 titles when it's launched on March 23.

The comments follow the announcement that the next-gen console would only offer backwards compatibility for a 'limited range' of PlayStation 2 titles.

"The situation is changing everyday, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1000 PS2 titles," revealed Harrison, in an interview on Sony's semi-official blog ThreeSpeech.

Sony has sent out mixed messages regarding backwards compatibility. While it has noted that consumers expect backwards compatibility as a standard feature, the company has also stated it believes that early adopters will buy the console for the next-gen gaming experience.

With the PS2's emotion engine - the CPU - taken out of the PlayStation 3, Sony is relying on in-built emulation to play PlayStation 2 games on the console, and it's confident regular updates will mean a steady stream of classic titles for the machine.

"We're working to introduce a resource to the Web to detail which titles will have backwards compatibility. And as we make firmware upgrades, we will be able to add to that list," said Harrison.