Why cant' a PS3 game work on a PS2?

Answer 1

The PS3 model with 4 USB ports can play many PS2 titles.

When the PS3 first came out there were not very many games that would work on the PS3 and they tried to make a PS3 that would play PS2 games. The Console cost over $800 to make and only sold for $599.99 and they had to reduce costs even though they still would make money from video game sales. In spite of the high Production cost of the first PS3 it still not could play every PS2 game. Because of games designs and region codes the PS3 needed to be changed before the European release so that it could play the differently designed European games. (see related link.) When a PS3 game does not work properly on the PS3 the game designer must correct the game, however when a PS3 can not play a PS2 title that works correctly on the PS2 game console Sony needed the help and approval to develop the software to insure that the games would work on the PS3. They were not always interested in having the game work on the PS3 and sometimes the company that developed the game had been sold or merged with another company. Meanwhile the number of PS3 titles continued to increase and many of the more popular titles already had new PS3 versions of the games. Sony found many difficult problems that prevented full Backward compatibility for every PS2 game and therefore new PS3s were no longer made to be Backward compatible starting with the Third generation of the PS3 that has only 2 USB ports. see related links

Answer 2

Because the PS3 is Blu-ray and the PS2 is DVD and even if they were not the systems are not the same. the games disc stores the Game program which must be read and played by the Console, PC, or Game device for which it has been designed. Just because the information is stored on similar looking discs does not mean that they can be interchanged.