Wow, Mark. Seems like you're pretty fired up about this!

While I'm no fan of console gaming in general (though the distinction seems to be getting thinner everyday), I am also a (rash, perhaps) defender of a new platform being NON-backwards compatible. At the very least, backwards compatibility ought to require some type of add-on or dongle rather than come pre-installed and ready. However, I think it's often better just to burn one's bridges. People that really want to play PS2 or PS1 games will own those consoles.

I think that worrying too much about BC has negative consequences. For one thing, if the new platform is similar enough to the old to make it easy, I'm wondering--why bother with the new platform? Isn't it just the old one with a few more bells and whistles? I have much more respect for something like the Wii or the DS, which really does seem like an attempt to break away from the old model. There's a big difference between the DS and the GBA, for instance. The PS3 just seems like an updated PS2. They might as well have called it the PS2.1. ;-)

I know a lot of Amiga owners were devastated at first that they were leaving their C-64s behind (BC was possible but took some effort). Later on, though, we had plenty enough of our own games. Most of the best C64 games got remade or cloned eventually, and they were quite often the better for it.

Besides, I now would never sell one platform to buy another. You're much better off keeping the old one and just waiting until you can afford the new one. I always regretted getting rid of "old systems" and wish I hadn't.