Sony: backwards compatability is "important to us"
According to this, the latest issue of EGM carries an interview with Sony US's SVP of marketing, in which he says, backward compatibility is "important to us". In the same piece, PlayStation Network director Eric Lempell said that PS2 games may yet be offered over PSN for PS3: "We haven't talked about that yet, but there are possibilities through technology and software emulation to make that possibles."
Backwards compatability was removed from PlayStation 3 last year.