Sony announced some time ago that the PS3 would be backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games but, we've personally had our doubts.

Sony revealed that the PlayStation 3 will be backwards compatible with only those games that pass their TRC (Technical Requirements Criteria). Around the time of Sony's first announcement of this function, the estimate for the amount of backwards compatible games to have passed this criteria was approximately 50-85%.

Even back in October, whilst speaking to IDG News service, a Sony spokesperson named Reiko Sakamoto said, "It's hard to say the PlayStation 3 will be 100 per cent backwards compatible. But as we said earlier this year, we aim to make it so as much as possible."

So, at this stage there were no claims of 100% backwards compatibliity for the PS2.

With E3 approaching, Sony changed their tact by informing us that the PS3 would be 100% backwards compatible - IGN reported this news straight from the PS3 conference.

It now appears that Sony are on target to achieveing this goal. The software to enable this compatibility is being developed at Sony's UK studios. A programmer working on the project revealed to GameIndustry.biz that there are a surprising number of PS2 games already working on the PS3, he said that the "software emulation system is progressing well and may indeed meet that lofty goal."

It's crucial that Sony succeed in making the PS3 compatible, not only to keep the millions of PS2 fans happy, but also to gain the edge over Microsoft, who notoriously didn't deliver on backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360.