And the slow motion car crash continues.

Gah!

It's been announced that the PAL PS3 won't have the Emotion Engine chip included like the Japanese and American crop of consoles. This means it does backwards compatability via software, not hardware, an inferior method. But wait - there's more. The number of PS2 games supported is going to be limited. Sony will provide regular updates to expand the list of playable games. This means there is a very great danger of less popular titles being ignored, and that owners will have to wait until Sony feel like letting them play a particular game on their PS3. While the Emotion Engine equipped PS3s play about 98% of PS2 titles out of the box, no similar stat has yet been given about the PAL PS3. That information will be released on launch day.

Sony say the chip is out to cut the costs of the console. Are they passing that saving along to their European fans? Course not; at £424 the console is still going to cost £115 more than it does in America, and £165 more than in Japan. And no word of if and when we can expect to see the cheaper 'regular' bundle that was available alongside the expensive 'ultra' bundle at launch in Japan and America; we're still limited to the most expensive edition only.

Disgraceful!