actually, initially you COULD play your PS2 game, after a year (next holiday season) they wised up and deactivated that.
Just like the bulky version could play files, literally you could take an image iso of a disk, put it on a usb and play it on the ps3 (many people didnt know that), then the slim came out and deactivated that.
Moral of the story, never upgrade with sony. Keep the first release, and make sure you read the software updates before doing it.
I have faaaar too many games on ps3 to just give up, so Im gonna have to pass on this console. I think once sales flop, they'll do some adjusting. There's too many gems on PS3 to just give up.