PlayStation 3 does downloads

Sony is expected to offer a select number of PSone and PS2 games for download over PS3's online hub, echoing Nintendo's planned back-catalogue digital distribution service for Revolution.

To download the games you'll obviously need a hard disc drive, but though PS3 will support a hard drive it probably won't be packaged with one, much like Xbox 360's Core packs.

360's Xbox Live Arcade downloads have been popular with owners, and it's unsurprising to see Sony embracing online features after the success of Microsoft's well designed Live service.

But one concern that leaps to our minds is backwards compatibility. Will downloading games be the only way to play PS2 titles on your next-gen console? A real strength of PS2 was the ability to use PSone titles with the hardware.

Sony is expected to finally make an official announcement on PS3's price and launch tomorrow and, with any luck, it will clear up the confusion over support for old-gen consoles at the same time.

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Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of 12DOVE. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.