PS2 discontinued

[Yora]

I was just checking when the PS2 slim was introduced, when I happend to spot a small line on Wikipedia that production of the PS2 was discontinued yesterday.

After more than 12 years in production and about 160 million units sold!

That's enough to get one for every household in the EU.
I still love that little thing that is barely larger than the DVD cases of its games. So much more convenient than the much bulkier current generation consoles. And not only are they cheap and even much cheaper if bought second hand, the games are even cheaper and there is a massive number of them. Many extremely good ones.
I am almost considering buying a new one and storing it away in an air sealed container, to have a backup when my current one will finally break down at some part in the future.

[The Grue]

I wonder if this means Sony is planning on building backwards compatibility back into the PS3.

...

Of course to do that Sony would have to first build a clue.

[Yora]

I would certainly hope so.

As far as I can tell, Backward compatibility was removed from the PS3 only after Sony realized there is still a market for new PS2 and that step would significantly reduce the availability of used PS2s.

Would be great if I could play PS2 games on a PS3, but I think I would keep my PS2 anyway because it's so portable.

[Grif]

I would certainly hope so.

As far as I can tell, Backward compatibility was removed from the PS3 only after Sony realized there is still a market for new PS2 and that step would significantly reduce the availability of used PS2s.

Would be great if I could play PS2 games on a PS3, but I think I would keep my PS2 anyway because it's so portable.

Actually, they were removed to reduce the cost of manufacturing PS3s, since providing backward compatibility required them to literally manufacture PS3 with PS2 components, since emulation would be almost impossible even with current PS3 specs. (Even on high end computers at the time struggled with PS2 emulation, something attributed to the unique GPU that the PS2 utilised, as far as I can tell.)

I was sad when I found out my "Fat" PS3 was one of the later batch that did not have backward compatibility.

[KillianHawkeye]

I have to say I am surprised that PS2s were even still being produced.

[oblivion6]

They were still being produced. Wow. I did not know that.

Glad I still have mine. Just about to go order a couple games for it actually. Expensive but worth it..

[Yora]

Expensive how? Compared to games for current generation systems, PS2 games are dirt cheap.

[oblivion6]

Expensive how? Compared to games for current generation systems, PS2 games are dirt cheap.

Well apparently not the ones i'm getting:smalltongue:

On average the games I ordered were about $80 for a new copy.

[Triaxx]

What are you getting? A one-time limited release of something? I know there's a few like that, Metroid Prime Trilogy for example is enormously expensive. I'm just curious. Unless it's an early copy of San Andreas. :smallwink:

---

I just picked up a PS2 this summer (I'm primarily a PC gamer, so Nintendo aside, I'm a generation or two behind). Had tons of fun with Ratchett and Clank and I'm waiting on an Amazon Gift Card to arrive so I can get the rest of them.

[Ogremindes]

Had to happen eventually. Y'know, dropping the backwards compatibility is what tipped the scales in the 360's favour when I came to pick a console. And they're never gonna put it back in, not when they can sell the PS2 games to you again via PSN.

[KillianHawkeye]

And they're never gonna put it back in, not when they can sell the PS2 games to you again via PSN.

I agree. They're not going to go back to being backwards compatible. Especially since they've trained people not to expect it.

[BobVosh]

Which is lame, as I loved that feature in my PS2 for PS1 games.

[Corlindale]

Sad to hear it. I still love my PS2 dearly. It's also proved extremely durable - I think it's about 10 years old now, still never had any problems with it despite using it frequently both as gaming console and DVD player.

But maybe I should think about getting another one now, just for when it finally breaks down - there are just so many great games I'd hate to lose access to.