On March 23rd gamers will be picking up a PS3 with a Cell processor, 60GB hard drive, Blu-ray disc player, built in Wi-Fi and a SIXAXIS controller on March 23rd – though the machine's backwards compatibility functionality has undergone some changes since the console's US and Japanese launch.

SCEE has released a statement this morning outlining the final retail package, with ‘a broad range’ of PSOne titles and a ‘limited’ selection of PS2 titles backwards compatible out of the box. More games will become compatible with every firmware update and through PS3 games discs.

“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system,” said David Reeves, president of SCEE. “Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games."

"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”