Can I play Playstation 2 games on my Playstation 3?

Can I play Playstation 2 games on my Playstation 3?

Bill Kunkel (Editor-in-Chief, "Tips & Tricks" Magazine) gives expert video advice on: What is the "Sony Playstation 3" (PS3)?; What are the general graphic capabilities of the Sony Playstation 3?; What type of controls does the Playstation 3 use? and more...

As for compatibility with the Playstation 2 to the Playstation 3, it appears to still be in doubt as to which games are going to be playable. The same problem exists with the Xbox and the Xbox 360. I think everyone sort of assumed that the Xbox 360 would play all Xbox games, but it doesn't. The problem is connected to the engine of the game. The engine is what drives the game. You could play five different games and they're all using the same engine; they're just using different graphic overlays, because it's so expensive to build an engine for a game. So, if the game uses an engine that's already been translated to make it playable on both systems, then any game that uses that engine will be translated over. However, some of the games, a lot of the games, fall through the cracks on both systems, and as far as I know, they are not all playable. Maybe, over the course of time, we'll be able to download them, or they'll eventually find complete compatibility and some way to do it, but as of right now, the systems are not completely compatible. Just because you have a Playstation 2 game it may or may not, just as an XBox game may or may not, play on your Xbox 360.