Sony's PlayStation 2 Reaches Sales Milestone

[malware]

Announced nine years ago back in 2000, Sony's PlayStation 2 is without a doubt a major success for the company. The console is so good in fact, that today Sony said it has sold 50 million PlayStation 2 units in North America alone, a new milestone. Sales of the iconic console still remain strong, although now we have new consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to the most recently available figures from the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. sales only, in November Americans bought 206,000 units of the PlayStation 2. These are some remarkable numbers. In comparison, Microsoft's original Xbox console sold a total of 14.5 million units and is already long gone. Nintendo's GameCube, another PS2 competitor, sold 12 million units in North America, not even close to PS2 numbers. Today PlayStation 2 costs roughly $130, down from its original $300 price tag from nine years ago, and still offers the latest game titles, emulation of some PS1 titles, video and audio DVD playback, and a numerous hacks that allow installing desktop hard drives, playing of DivX movies, running spare copies of games and so on.

Source: Associated Press

[1Kurgan1]

The PS2 is a amazing console, and without that padding Sony's pockets I just don't think they could have gone toe to toe in the newest console war. Hopefully they can give the PS3 this kind of longevity.

[happita]

Originally Posted by 1Kurgan1

The PS2 is a amazing console, and without that padding Sony's pockets I just don't think they could have gone toe to toe in the newest console war. Hopefully they can give the PS3 this kind of longevity.

To be honest, Im hoping PS4 will be out in like 2 yrs(maybe I'm expecting too much ). Although who wouldn't mind discovering REAL dx 10.1 or 11 kind of games when the next gen comes out, ahhh, I'm thinking dirty thoughts about it already

[mysticjon]

sony is really desperate for recognition to "make-up" for poor ps3 sales lol

[1Kurgan1]

I don't know about during the holiday season, but before that PS3 was outselling the 360, and the Ps2 was also outselling the 360. So I don't exactly see how that would count as poor sales?

[department76]

Originally Posted by 1Kurgan1

I don't know about during the holiday season, but before that PS3 was outselling the 360, and the Ps2 was also outselling the 360.

evidence please.

[1Kurgan1]

Originally Posted by department76

evidence please.

Game Informer had it in their magazine I believe around September. I have all my magazines at work for something to read on lunch break, so I'll post up the exact numbers then.

I wouldn't say it's much of a suprise. When 360 released I had 3 friends who bought one and swore by it. PS3 released I got one and no one else really did. Then 2 friends got them after I got mine, and now those 3 with 360's picked up PS3's and don't use the 360's much. Free online gaming and blu-ray support, can't go wrong. The only advantage 360 has is the red ring of death (Game Informer said at E3 they only ran across 1 person who had never replaced their 360 was in the same article) and the fact that they sell a 20GB version (worthless). But that 20gb pulls people in.

**EDIT** Just found you a source, check out vgchartz.com. The sales chart shows PS3 outselling 360 by quiet a bit until the summer 360 took a mild leap, then PS3 was back ahead till september, the holiday season 360 trounced PS3. So really 8 out of the 12 months the PS3 was sales leader, I don't see that as getting "poor sales".

[Deimos]

According to your source you're horribly wrong. PS2 sales were below PS3 sales all year accept for one little spike in March.

[Nemesis881]

ps2 and my pc are the only things I game on.

I heard somewhere that the ps2 "slims" have a little bit faster processor than the original. Is this true? I still have the original and would love to see GTA: San Andreas run a little smoother .
If not, is there a way to overclock or put in some different parts?

[1Kurgan1]

Originally Posted by Deimos

According to your source you're horribly wrong. PS2 sales were below PS3 sales all year accept for one little spike in March.

Good point, this wasn't my original source though, just wanted to find something to show now. I'll have to get the numbers from my GI when I go back to work on thursday. either way though, PS3 is doing fine in sales, granted it felt the hurt during the holiday season.

[Dixxhead]

PS2 300$ at launch? Over here in Europe we should've paid (italy) 899.000 Lire, which equals to around a bit more than 450€... Now that's quite the difference. I kind of can't think that as correct... Wasn't it more in the 400$ region?

[Triprift]

I still play my ps2 to this day admittidly not as much as i used to but i still crank it out occasionally.

[Swansen]

Yeah, i still have like 5 games i have yet to beat, and there are a couple games i still want to get for the PS2. Seriously though, how may amazing titles came out on the PS2, it was definitely the system to have.

[Lordbollo]

Originally Posted by Triprift

I still play my ps2 to this day admittidly not as much as i used to but i still crank it out occasionally.

Um I think you mean my ps2 as you still have not paid me for it after 5 years. Was only $100 I charged you for it when they were like $500 brand new.

[hat]

I have one of the old model 5 or model 6 PS2s. The big bulky one with the fan and expansion bay. I never got the network adaptor for it. But I still rock on the PS2 to this day. I bought a component cable (3 video feeds) for it instead of using composite (one video feed) and I think it looks fantastic except for the lack of antialaising. It's nice to play Killzone on it while my GPU is crunching those work units. I'm using F@H as a stability test for my pc, heh. So far my 9800gt is sitting well at 750/2100/1875

[Triprift]

Originally Posted by Lordbollo

Um I think you mean my ps2 as you still have not paid me for it after 5 years. Was only $100 I charged you for it when they were like $500 brand new.

Lol yeah well its like this im kinda short of dosh lol hey good to see ya back mate.

[department76]

Originally Posted by 1Kurgan1

I wouldn't say it's much of a suprise. When 360 released I had 3 friends who bought one and swore by it. PS3 released I got one and no one else really did. Then 2 friends got them after I got mine, and now those 3 with 360's picked up PS3's and don't use the 360's much. Free online gaming and blu-ray support, can't go wrong. The only advantage 360 has is the red ring of death (Game Informer said at E3 they only ran across 1 person who had never replaced their 360 was in the same article) and the fact that they sell a 20GB version (worthless). But that 20gb pulls people in.

the 20gb version was the "pro" model that came out with the original 360 launch. that was replaced last year with 60gb. also, there have been a couple hardware revisions, including addition of hdmi. the original release is also the only one to have had red ring of death problems and has long since been fixed. free online gaming by ps3? ok that is cool but sorry, the $4.16/month ($50/year) for xbox live really isn't a big deal to me.

i also remember reading that the red ring of death was caused by hardware defect from the manufacturing level... for the record. that and microsoft was servicing and replacing 360s for free speaks pretty highly of thier service IMO.

i do like how sony continues support for ps2, especially how they came out with that slim model. reminds me of the late model tiny little SNES that nintendo made :-)