I was looking at a comparison chart between the various systems (And variations of those systems) sold in stores, and this kind of struck me a bit odd. Let me know if this is correct.

OK, the $499 PS3 w/60gb hard drive has hardware emulation for ps1/ps2 games and backwards compatibility with most games.

The $499 PS3 w/80gb hard drive has limited ps1/ps2 backwards compatability, through software emulation (a la xbox 360.)

The $399 PS3 w/40gb hard drive has no ps1/ps2 backwards compatability.

Not looking at price specifically, but by release date alone, it looks like Sony is trying to take backwards compatibility out completely. The first had almost complete compatibility, the 2nd had some compatibility, and the third had none.

What about people who want the 80gb version and more backwards compatibility? Is the 60gb version not being sold any more? Are there hard drive upgrades for the 60gb version?

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From the start video game upgrades, I had a vision to see each new system play all of the old system's games. It would have been great if the snes played the nes games and the n64 played SNES and NES games and the gamecube played NES, SNES, N64 games, and the wii would play all of them.

Sega was another one that would have been great for. SMS and gamegear on genesis. Genesis, Gamegear, 32x, sega cd, SMS on saturn, and all of them on the dreamcast, etc.

We had the 7800 which played the 2600 games. We've had several atari computers that had some compatibility with other atari computers, and even some commodore 64 and 128 compatibilities.

We've even seen the GB to GBC, GB/GBC to GBA, and while the DS is compatible with GBA games, they've dropped GB/GBC support.

Now, PS1 games on PS2, PS1 and PS2 games on some PS3s, limited on some, and none on others. Xbox on 360s, yet microsoft at some point(s) in time has wanted to stop working on backwards compatibility.

What makes companies want to drop backwards compatibility? Both Nintendo and Sega could have been in a better financial state during the saturn, dreamcast, and n64 eras if they would have done it, IMO. After all, Genesis, Sega CD, 32x, Saturns, NES, SNES, etc systems would all eventually quit working. Anything with lasers, spinning motors, and gears just doesn't last forever. It would also give people that may not have had a chance to buy previous gen systems a chance to play last-gen games. They wouldn't have had to start from scratch, looking for those old systems at flea markets and swap shops.

Hell, I've even wanted to see multi-company systems... Neo geo, neo geo cd, saturn, turbo duo, all rolled up into one system. There would obviously be licensing issues with a system like that, but it's possible that some one will create a multi-format system one day.