Sony today launched the website that will allow prospective PlayStation 3 owners to see which of their PlayStation 2 titles are playable on the new European PS3 following the removal of the Emotion chip from European models.

"Our engineers have been working overtime, and have succeeded in delivering a significant number of playable PS2 titles for the European launch", said David Reeves, President of SCEE. "We will be adding additional titles to this list in future firmware upgrades, but as we have made clear before, in the future our resources will be increasingly focused on developing new services and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, rather than on delivering PS2 backwards compatibility.”

New owners of a European PS3 will need to install the latest firmware upgrade to play the PS2 titles listed on the website. The upgrade will be available at launch from midnight on 22nd March through the PlayStation Network, from www.PlayStation.com or, for those unable to access the Internet, on a disc obtained from local Customer Services.

The latest system software upgrade already available in Japan (Version 1.60) will add the Folding@home software, background downloading of content from the PlayStation Store, support for Bluetooth keyboards and mice, and an optional full QWERTY on-screen keyboard for text entry.

The Folding@home project allows PS3 owners to connect to Stanford University’s Folding@home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and many cancers. When the PS3 system is left on and reaches idle mode, it will automatically begin a simulation and, once completed, send information back to a central computer.

Firmware Version 1.60 also allows for downloading content to the PS3 from the PlayStation Store. Up to six pieces of content from the PlayStation store can be queued up for download while the user is playing games.

>> Link - PS2 titles playable on PS3