New owners of a European PS3 will need to install the latest firmware upgrade in order to play the PS2 titles listed on the website.

Households should have no trouble getting the upgrade, as it will be available from the online PlayStation Network, the official PlayStation website or, for those unable to access the internet, on a disc obtained from local customer services.

"Our engineers have been working overtime, and have succeeded in delivering a significant number of playable PS2 titles for the European launch", said David Reeves, President of SCEE.

However, Sony’s statement did once again suggest that not all games would be included in the upgrade.

"We will be adding additional titles to this list in future firmware upgrades, but as we have made clear before, in the future our resources will be increasingly focused on developing new services and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, rather than on delivering PS2 backwards compatibility.”

The latest system software upgrade, Version 1.60, will add features such as background downloading of content from the PlayStation Store, support for Bluetooth keyboards and mice, and an optional full QWERTY on-screen keyboard for text entry.

The update will also allow access to Stanford University’s Folding @ Home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and many cancers.

The upgrade will be available at launch from midnight on 22nd March.