Sony's backwards comparability was nearer to the "include the old chips in the new system" approach that a hypothetical next Amiga would probably have to use, a

Sony's backwards comparability was nearer to the "include the old chips in the new system" approach that a hypothetical next Amiga would probably have to use, at least for the immediate previous generation (PS1 on PS3 is emulation AFAIK[1]). It's not a good sign for that approach that the PS2 chips (and compatibility) were dropped pretty much immediately once Sony realised they needed to get PS3 costs down. [1] I think some download games use a PS2 emulator on PS3, but that's not available in a general purpose "put any disc in console" mode.