An anonymous Sony spokesperson has told Web site Three Speech that the difference in the new models of the PlayStation 3--which will be sold in Europe, Australasia, Africa, and the Middle East--is that the Emotion Engine has been removed.

　　The Emotion Engine/Graphics Emulator was used in the original PS3s, which went on sale in the US and Japan in November, to emulate PlayStation 2 titles. The graphics chip has been retained in the European version of the console, but the Emotion Engine has been removed.

　　The spokesperson said, "This has an impact on the number of PS2 titles that will be backwards compatible." The spokesperson added that the company would be continuing to "assess" the compatibility of PS2 titles before the launch date of March 23. The spokesperson also reiterated the previous statement to say that, "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."

　　However, it is still unclear as to what percentage of PS2 games will be affected or to what extent Sony intends to make extra games compatible via updates. The company has previously said that, "The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the US and Japan models," and that the new style system will only play a limited range of PS2 titles.

　　The company also confirmed that the quality of images of PS2 games on the PS3 had been fixed and that the necessary updates would be incorporated into the European launch models.