NOT AGAIN! Sony Caps Euro Five-Month Delay with PlayStation 3 Backward Compatibility Shaft in Effort to Cut Production Costs

As if Sony can't stop shooting holes in it's left foot, this weekend brings yet another bomb for Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) that ups the damage factor even further than before.

Yet this time, the damage control means screwing Europe -- and the rest of the PAL-standardized electronics markets -- with less-capable videogame hardware than that already released in the United States and Japan, five months after already having to wait for their launch day in the first place.

That's because today, Sony has announced officially that the PAL-format PlayStation 3 models, of which there already is only the more-expensive 60GB SKU (and not the cheaper, less-capable 20GB one), will be limited even further in capabilities, specifically in regard to backward-compatibility features.

The result: a complete hardware redesign that also shifts hardware-based emulation technology to more of a software-based solution, which also has the unfortunate side-effect of reducing compatibility with certain titles for the previous hardware platform -- specificially in regard to the PS2, but also the PS1 as well (albeit to a much-smaller extent). The effects of the change are similar to that of Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 hardware in its software-based playback of titles for the original Xbox console.

In a statement issued Friday morning, Sony's European office -- specifically Sony Computer Entertainment Europe -- has admitted that Euro PlayStation 3's will embody "a new combination of hardware and software emulation", meaning the console will still play most PSone games - but far fewer PlayStation 2 games than its overseas counterparts, at least initially.