Hi everyone, the last time you heard from me, I talked about the huge milestone that PlayStation 2 achieved – reaching 50 million units sold in North America. Today I’m excited to talk about another milestone in PlayStation 2’s lifespan. For the first time ever, PlayStation 2 will be offered at a price point under $100 (that’s $99.99 MSRP, to be exact), starting April 1!
Why is this so significant? Well most importantly, this new price means that more people than ever will be able to join in on the fun that so many of you PlayStation 2 owners have been enjoying for years, which means new families will become part of the platform’s record-breaking install base. With this new price, we intend to introduce a new generation of consumers – some of whom weren’t even alive when the system was first introduced in 2000 – to the immense entertainment value offered by PlayStation 2.
In the gaming industry, the typical lifecycle for a console is around five years, but because we build each of our platforms for a large and diverse consumer base, we design our platforms differently. With the original PlayStation and now PlayStation 2, we’ve proven that consumers can rely on our platforms for their gaming and entertainment needs for at least a decade. This speaks to the technology and features that were packed into PlayStation 2 from the beginning, as well as to the ongoing support the platform enjoys from the publishing and retail communities and, well, all of you fans.
PlayStation 2’s unmatched gaming library will grow to nearly 1,900 titles from both our first-party studios and publishing partners this year, with a particular focus on the social and sports genres that are so popular with the emerging family demographic. This will include games such as MLB ’09, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Guitar Hero Metallica and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge…not to mention the 250 titles that have achieved “Greatest Hits” status. With all of that content, PlayStation 2 is a great option for families looking for ways to share their entertainment experiences together; they can rock out to Rock Band, test their trivia knowledge with Buzz!, or simply use the PlayStation 2 as their DVD or CD player.
So to everyone who’s enjoyed PlayStation 2 over the years, thanks for your continued support. And to those who will now be joining the PlayStation family, welcome!
Nice! My playstation 2 still works after years of gaming, but now I want another one lol.
Sony plz. Just cut PS3 and PSP prices, give us more informations about firmware 2.70 and add PS2 backward compatibility to PS3 eventually!
Here’s news that PS3 owners might actually care about:
http://www.ps3trophies.org/game/singstar/trophies/
Singstar trophy list.
Better than this news.
You guys are reading too many fanboy blogs…SONY never said it would be a earth shattering announcement…blogs did. SONY never said a PS3 drop (in fact they went out of their way to say it would’nt be a PS3 drop)…I guess by giving hits to unprofessional blogs you are keeping the economy going or something but truly your ‘anger’ should be directed at the blogs you visit for making stuff up rather than at SONY.
Congrats SONY on the milestone. I will indeed by another PS2 for the new TV area in my home. Question…will this include the silver and white or just the black?
the ps2 is a great system, and under a $100, its a good deal. As long as there are still great games being made for it, AND marketing lets people know about the system’s price drop, then its as good as gold.
Here’s an idea: Re-release the ps2’s greatest hits library, cuz there are some old Fantastic ps2 games people just cant buy anymore, unless they Buy Used, which would mean no money back to sony.
This is the “big” news???
Forget the PS2 altogether. Just put Final Fantasy VII back on shelves and we’ll just all go on our merry way.
I thought it was already 99.99.
This must be a mistake! You should drop the PS3-price not the PS2-price!
Please tell me this isn’t the huge announcement..
great… well anyone who hasn’t come aboard the sony train yet, jump on. No promises though, as the PS2 has gotta die soon.
Too bad no one cares about the PS2 anymore.
Although this is great news for the Playstation 2, the Playstation 3 is long and I mean LONG overdue for a price cut and I hope it gets one by E3 or later this year. Developers have even asked for it. Is this ever coming? Please SONY do the right thing and price cut the PS3!
People in here are nuts. Sony never said anything about a BIG PS3 announcment. Only some stupid gaming blogs were. You people were fooled by those sites, not by Sony.
And I think its really nice that after all those years the PS2 is still alive. Take that XBOX! :)
Your hear that ringing sound, sony? That is the sound of cash registers opening for people buying xb360’s instead of your console. Give me a break.
Sony, now how about bring backwards compatibility back into the PS3 and then gradually cutting the MSRP of it?
The PS2 is great, but many of us want to play the awesomeness that PS3 is (including myself).
Chill the **** out people, it was the gmaing community (you people) that hyped this up, all Sony said was that they where making a Global announcement.
@Calendaros, PS2 is my all time favorite console. Bought in total 4 PS2 consoles (Fat European, died only 6 months ago after 7 years, fat Japanese, died, Slim European since a few months and Slim American since a few weeks. Plus I’m planning to get a Slim Japanese and in the future another European / American as reserve when Sony plans to discontinue the PS2. So I very much still care about the PS2, I’m just disappointed as the news has entirely not related with the PS3 and it ain’t such a big news as every said it would be.
So the rumors that were spread out a few days ago were true after all.
Sure neat with a price drop, you’ve just forgotten which generation needs it the most.
Cheap move Sony.
Damn my post doesn’t make sense at all :-?
Just never take those stupid websites ever again too serious, that’s for sure. Sorry Sony, it ain’t your fault ;-)
For those of you wanting a PS3 price cut…Sam’s club is offering $50 off 80GB and $100 off 160GB this week. There…now can we talk about PS2 now since SONY sells multiple consoles and not just the PS3?
This was the “big announcement?!” what a major disappointment. How about fixing backwards compatibility for 80GBs instead. Yakuza 1 still doesn’t full work when the BC list says that all problems were resolved when they really aren’t. There is a game breaking bug in the BC. Instead of dropping the price of the PS2 you should be fixing the 80GB’s backwards compatibility (i’m talking about the old 80GBs for the clueless). It’s like people supporting the PS3 early on always get screwed over. Things like this get me hyped up more for the next Xbox than it does the next Playstation.
Why is it when Capcom, Square-Enix, & Sony say that they have a “big announcement” it’s ALWAYS disappointing?
In “honor” of this WONDERFUL ANNOUNCEMENT (caps = sarcasm) I won’t even bother playing my PS3 today. I’ve turned it completely off and will be playing the Xbox 360 all day today.
uh… so this is the big announcement you guys were getting everyone hyped for? hahaha i had a feeling we couldnt be as lucky as to receive a nice firmware upgrade with features worth using unlike the photo crap you guys shoved down our throats. i have owned my ps2 for 10 years… and i think its amazing you guys have come so far with a console.. but you should really really really focus on this whole ‘ps3’ thing you got going on.
Nice – I’m going to pick one up this afternoon!
If this is the big global announcement, Sony really are out of touch. Good for the PS2 and the tiny number of people buying them, but does anyone really care about an aging console at Death’s door? Ths $100 price-point was expected last December.
Give us something interesting like the PSP2, or letting the PS3 do full disc installs so we don’t have to keep swapping discs (which would be very useful in family usage).
Tomorrow is April 1.
Here’s hoping this is part of a joke: Announce something big will happen on March 31st, announce something that your entire audience finds lame, announce awesome things the next day and watch the confusion.
I’m going to be very disappointed if this is all Sony has to say. I’ve been planning on getting a new gaming setup, with a PS3 as the centerpiece, alongside a shiny new TV. If this is all Sony can come up with, I suppose I’ll have to just wait.
Sony, please, just answer us, is this “the big announcement” that you contacted kotaku.com about?
Congrats on the milestone. Still, I think the best move would be to include the ability to play the ps2 games on the ps3 for people who are upgrading and offer ps1 games for free. Of course, I’ve sold all of my old ps2 games now, though.
JpaQ, um haven’t you followed the GDC? Sony is already planning to re-release, or remake as they call it several big PS2 titles for on the PS2.
And on April 2 find out the ‘Even BIGGER announcement’ was a ruse?
I think Sony’s image has become a big enough joke year ’round.
this is supposed to be the big news haha you save $29 thats sad i waited a week for this iv had a ps2 now for a few years and i paid $20 canadian and it still works oh and you mean to tell me that the ps3 never got any cheaper with its card readers and 4 usb ports ps2 play back you are starting to suck $ony and no video store for canada you suck $ony so if you got the ba!!s $ony get back to me cuz atleast you owe me that
This is good news for South America… where Sony has potential to grow the market massively. However, I do not believe that here in the States that will increase sale by any significant amount. It’s good news nonetheless but everyone is waiting on Sony for PS3 price drop.
It should be a 2 step price drop… $50 some time in April or May… and then another $50 in August… and hopefully that will slingshot PS3 sales through the holidays with big numbers.
Sony get your act together. PS2 is the last platform in need of a price cut. It’s not like sales will increase dramatically anyway at this point (you should have done this in October)and by the way it’s a dead platform.
You should focus on delivering what the market is looking for, a price cut for PS3 and PSP.
Gave my PS2 to my brother several months ago. I am with everybody else lets hope there is more news to come out of Sony today.
That’s nice but, I would very much enjoy it if you guys worked more on the PS2 games that have backwards compatability problems. I know you’re busy with all the PS3 games, but don’t forget there are many good PS2 games that can be played on PS3 that have backwards compatability problems that need to be fixed.
@Febaen, may I ask why you wait? The PS3 may look expensive, but I assure you, its worth every single penny, dollar cent, Euro cent whatever.
OH DEAR SONY
I have a PS3 and a PSP now, and still i find myself eyeing at the PS2 for a while now, this announcement might even get me to buy one after all…
I hear loads of people saying the PS2 is dead, but from where I stand PS2 is still a platform with a great potential and a very potent wii-competitor, however I do think SONY should put a little effort in keeping it up-to-date.
I think something like an XMB-menu and a Playstation Store would give the PS2 a helluva lot of added value.
Yeah I hear you all yelling: “no way XMB AND playstation store AND downloaded content would fit onto my memory card!”, but would it really be so hard to store all that on a MagicGate-encrypted USB-flashdrive? After all, PS2 does support USB, and older models will even accept a harddrive.
I guess it’s all just wishful thinking… sorry to bother you with this.
oh wow at this announcement!
and now can we have a discount on the walkman too??? oh pleasepleaseplease!
Sony you should be focusing on the ps3 side of things, New firmware updates WITH FEATURES WE WANT,
We don’t care about the ps2 anymore (I have BC 60gb)
Hey folks why get mad?
How many times has sony said “WE ARE FOCUSED ON PROFITABILITY”
“WE HAVE NO PLANS FOR A PS3 PRICE DROP”
Are ya’ll hard of hearing or something? The PS2 makes Sony profit so by dropping the price, real casuals will most likely go for the PS2 over the Wii simply because of the price, which is a good move.
Why would Sony drop the PS3 price by $100 and now they are LOSING more money on he PS3?
People please use the muscle that counts, the one between your ears.
@87
Truth be told the Walkman line of mp3 players provide better sound than any other at their price points and you should buy one.
Awesome. I will buy another one at this price.
As a side note, why are people who,supposedly, own PS3s complaining about not getting a PS3 pricecut? And then they go and talk about how they will go play their 360, because their PS3 is… what?
360 fanboys troll here much?
@ comment 84, agreed
I JUST bought a PS2… Great. And I had to buy a LEGO bundle, and then trade the stupid game in, just so I could have a black PS2 to match my PS3. Only place in town that had a black PS2 of any sort.
Oh well, whatever.
Is this the announcement? Give us a break!
Where’s the features for the PS3 that most people who read this blog are clamoring for?
@90, thanks but no thanks. i was being wholly sarcastic.
and to you folks whining about the folks whining about a ps3 price cut: hey, you know a game announcement would have been nice too… some of us are disappointed by that. or really the lack of anything ps3-centric. boooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!
Sony never said it was going to be a big announcement. Here is the Kotaku announcement of the fact that there would be an announcement:
“Sony dropped Kotaku a line to let us know that something is going down on Tuesday, March 31st.”
That’s it. Then Kotaku goes on to speculate what it could be, even suggesting that it’s probably a 99 dollar PS2.
The way I see it, if you had your hopes up for anything else you were a bit delusional.
Bring back PS2 playback on the PS3 PLEASE ;)
Bring back PS2 playback on the PS3 PLEASE ;)
Bring back PS2 playback on the PS3 PLEASE ;)
Bring back PS2 playback on the PS3 PLEASE ;)
Who cares? Like others have said “This better not be the big announcement” This might have been big 3 years ago when the PS3 was still in development.