No Emotion Engine Chip in 80GB PS3 - PS3

In a rather disappointing move, Sony has confirmed that the Emotion Engine chip will be removed from the new 80GB PlayStation3.

For those who are unaware, the Emotion Engine chip is a piece of hardware that handles the PS2 backward compatibility functionality. This particular chip was removed in all PAL versions of the PS3, leaving PS2 functionality in the hands of a software emulator. It looks like this will be the case for the brand new 80GB model.

Clearly Sony are doing this to cut costs and to make up for the huge margin of loss on every PS3 sold, particularly with the newly announced price cuts. While the 60GB model will still contain the chip, it'll probably only be a matter of time until it's removed from subsequent hardware revisions of the PS3.