Euro PlayStation 3 Manufactured with New Chasis - PS3

An independent analysis firm, Datamonitor, has revealed that the Euro PlayStation 3 (and we can assume the Aussie one too) are being manufactured under different specifications to the US and Japan counter-parts.

What does this mean exactly? Going by their exact words, it means that "Sony has at a stroke removed one of the barriers to future price reductions, and providing it can make enough units available, Datamonitor believes there will be sustained growth in PS3 ownership as new users seek to benefit from the PS3’s enhanced features and functionality".

However, it's not all smiles: Sony have confirmed that the backwards compatibility feature of the PlayStation 3 is "not going to be as good as in the US and Japanese models". Apparently, this downgrade in functionality has come about because of the hardware changes, although that's yet to be fully confirmed.

Sony will publish a list of compatible titles when the system launchs on the 23rd, also adding that more titles will become compatible with future downloads on the PlayStation Network.

The Slice: I'm gonna guess that the new hardware specs are the reason why the PAL regions are getting such a huge influx of units come launch day. Let's hope nothing else has been sacrificied for us PAL gamers.