The ability to play PlayStation 2 games on a PlayStation 3--supported in the first iterations of the hardware but removed in later revisions--will not be coming back, Sony hardware marketing director John Koller has definitively stated.

"[Backwards compatibility] won't be returning," Koller told Ars Technica while discussing the PlayStation 3 hardware, which just received a lower price point and a redesigned, slimmer aesthetic. "It's not coming back, so let me put that on the table."

"It's not as big as a purchase intent driver as you may be hearing," he explained. "We've got such a substantial lineup of titles on the PS3; most people are buying the PS3 for PS3 games. They've buying it for PS3 games and Blu-ray movies."

In a separate chat with Kotaku, Koller added that "most consumers that are purchasing the PS3 cite PS3 games as a primary [reason]...it's well into the 80 or 90 percentile range who are purchasing it for PS3 [games]. We do know that there are next gen consumers wanting to come over the the PS3. Most of those are consumers who have not utilized their PS2 for a little while and they're ready to jump into the PlayStation 3."

However, those with an early model of the PlayStation 3 can breathe a sigh of relief, as Sony has previously said that it will not retroactively remove or revoke the backwards compatibility functionality from those models with a firmware or system update.