Speaking to Weekly Famitsu in Japan (as reported by 1UP), Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO, Kaz Hirai, talked about a number of topics related to Sony's PlayStation business.

Regarding Sony's Home virtual world service for the PlayStation 3, which was officially delayed to Spring 2008 (the service remains in beta), Hirai noted that he's actually not very happy with its current state and he wants to make sure Home makes a big impact when it finally does make its debut.

"...we believe the delay would have a positive effect. I personally am not satisfied with the current version of Home," he said. "This is a very big project for the PS3 and we want to make sure that we deliver to our hearts content. We hope everyone will look forward to its spring release next year."

Hirai also explained the thinking behind removing backwards compatibility with PS2 on the newer PS3 models. "We have gone through many discussions but we concluded that it is only one of many features of the PS3. What is more important is for the users to play PS3 games on the PS3, so our top priority is for them to be playing Blu-ray games and downloadable content. There are users who probably want to play PS3 games but feel it is too expensive. By removing backwards compatibility and be able to sell at a lower price point is just another strategy of ours," he said.

Interestingly, Hirai let Famitsu know that Sony would still provide the 20GB and 60GB PS3 models (in Japan only, we'd assume).

"When there are more games on the console and the unit itself has also shipped a fair number, one trend is that we are able to reduce the costs. When games of different genres have been released, some of these will appeal to the masses and this is when we have to consider a pricing which would appeal to these types of audiences. This is a common trend so the PS3 doesn't need to go against such trends. By keeping the 20GB and 60GB, we are leaving as many options as possible for the consumers to choose from," he said.