PS2 Backwards Compatibility Coming To PS3 on 8/18?

There has been a lot of rumors flying around lately concerning Sony and their latest console the 'PlayStation 3'. The PS3 Slim is said to be ready to debut at the event on Aug 18th along with an announcement of a price drop of $100 which would bring the console down to a fairly decent price of $299.99. While Sony has not confirmed the reports there seems to be mounting evidence to support the theory.

For the past few months packaging pictures for the PS3 Slim have surfaced on numerous web sites around the world. Most recently there is even a pre-order that has shown up on Amazon.com Germany. Although the post was recently taken down there also was a curious video out of the Philippines that surfaced a few weeks back of a PS3 Slim for sale at an underground black market retailer. At this point in time it should be a safe bet that the PS3 Slim is real and is indeed on the way.

As for the rumors of a price drop there is not as much evidence to back the claims up. As always Sony will not comment on the subject. While it seems like common sense that there will be a price drop for the system soon, the jury is still out on whether or not it will be announced on Aug 18th or sometime closer to the busy holiday season.

However, there is one rumor that is being over-looked by many in the gaming press . A few months back there was a rumored to be a leak of a patent for making the PS3 backwards compatible with the PlayStation 2. The best part was the upgrade could be made possible through a Firmware update.

The news was over-looked by many as just a rumor. However in recent days there has been speculation the PS3 Slim would feature backwards compatibility. Also in the past few weeks there has been a lot of speculation about a new Firmware update for the system. Could it be that Sony is about to have the mother of all announcements in the works?

Imagine this scenario. Sony on Aug18th announces that the PS3 Slim will be released and is backwards compatible with the PlayStation 2. Sony then goes on to announce a price cut of $100 followed by an announcement that the PS3's next firmware update will include an upgrade that makes all PS3's backwards compatible with PlayStation 2. Then in usual Sony fashion they announce that it will be available for download later on that day.

Of course this is all just speculation. But it seems that if you put the pieces of the puzzle together that Sony really could be gearing up for their biggest announcement since the PS3 was revealed. Until then all of us will just have to wait and see.