I found this article over at Kotaku the other day, where, after announcing the PS3 Slim, Sony explains why they don't offer PS2 backwards compatibility.

"Now that we're at a point where we're three years into the lifecycle of the PS3," he told us earlier today, "there are so many PS3 disc-based games that are available that we think — and noticed this from our research — that most consumers that are purchasing the PS3 cite PS3 games as a primary [reason]".

"And it's not just like 50 or 60 percent. It's well into the 80 or 90 percentile range who are purchasing it for PS3 [games]. We do know that there are next gen consumers wanting to come over the the PS3. Most of those are consumers who have not utilized their PS2 for a little while and they're ready to jump into the PlayStation 3."

Really?  Then why does Sony continue releasing PlayStation 1 games (which Playstation 3 is backwards compatible with) on the PlayStation Network Store?  Because if people are only buying the PS3 for PS3 games...they are wasting money because very few, if anyone are buying the old games.

Also, what "research" have you done?  Of course people aren't buying it for PS2 games, but that doesn't mean they don't want to play their old games.  I didn't buy my PS3 so I could keep going into GameStop and picking up the latest PS2 releases.  But I would like to play Final Fantasy 12, which I haven't completed yet and is still sitting on a shelf waiting for me.

And I don't want to hear crap about how hard it is to emulate a PS2.   Try googling PlayStation 2 emulators....see how many hits you get.  If people are getting emulation running on their home computers (and have been for the last couple of years) don't tell me the "all powerful" PlayStation 3 doesn't have the power to do it.  Come on....