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!
@95…you JUST had GDC for SONY announcements…do they need a new announcement every day to satiate your thirst?
@Adolson…maybe if you didn’t live in the hicks…
:P
This should’ve happened back at E3, where I could SWEAR some Sony shmuck said the PS2 was $100, but it was actually still $130.
This is WAY overdue, anyway, but not very exciting news. I’m sad to see several PS3 owners talking about getting PS2’s and it’s all because the PS3’s aren’t BC anymore! That, above ALL else, is what Sony needs to fix.
@89 yeah, so is my thinking as well, dropping the price for the PS2 is more as that console provides with profit, PS3 simply isn’t… yet. Since PS2 hardware sales are declining a bit, its wise to drop the price to give it perhaps a final big boost.
Wish you would redesign the ps2 for 40 2.5 inch sata drive so i can install FF11 on it. The prebuilt network adapter is great though. Thank you for the okay news nothing overally special and straight to the point.
Those that thought it was about 2.7 get a clue and stop reading the fan sites and making those assumptions.
Whoopee freaking doo Sony. Look guys…I love almost everything you guys do and put out. But this was WAAAAAY more hyped than most of us care about.
Yeah yeah I know that the PS2 is still doing well and selling great and it is a great machine. But most of us have moved past that and are focusing on the PS3 now. Please dont abuse the hype machine for old stuff in the future. What we really wanted to hear was either a price drop on the PS3 or great info about the firmware update for it. NOT a price drop on a system we either already own or have a BC PS3 that plays those games.
We love you Sony but get with it.
not complaining this is a HUGE thing for ps2 but is this really your big announcement?
@99 no, of course not. but it was sony, not me, spreading the word of an announcement across the net~ naturally building up speculation and anticipation…and for what? for a throw-away announcement that should have come at gdc anyway, and still would have landed with a colossal thud. oh boy, a walkman discount next please sony????
Sony you suck with “Big announcements”
Why did SmartHouse in Australia receive a tip to allow them to write the following?
Sony Computer Entertainment is set to make a global announcement this week regarding the PS3 which has witnessed three months of declining sales with Tuesday, March 31 which is Wednesday in Australia set to be the big day.
If the PS2 price cut in the US is all that this is about you have let your loyal customer base down big time.
This announcement is sad. The ratings of a 2.89 don’t depict the epic disappointment that this announcement is. If I could give this announcement a 0, I would.
Anyone that wanted a PS2 has one now. If someone is looking to buy one now they’d be better off getting one used for half of Sony’s new price.
I don’t know why Sony even bothered to hint any website that they’re going to make an announcement? Just make it when the day comes and that’s it. They knew that this announcement warning would get huge feedback.
And no pricecut for UK. There’s nothing GLOBAL about this announcement.
Onna: Because if I’m going to spending hundreds of dollars on cables and furniture, a new TV, a sound system, and games and movies to enjoy on it, every little bit helps. Add to that that I’m not a big fan of the current PS3 hardware (BC, shape and size, heat, etc.). And besides, if whatever Sony is going to do is big enough that they’re going to wait until E3, I can wait too.
I have four or five games to play through as it is, and half a dozen games that are out or that will be out soon to buy on top of that– and that’s on consoles I already own. There’s only one game on PS3 that has insta-buy status for me; and most of the other games I’m looking at will probably drop in price soon enough anyway. And the PS3’s library is only getting larger; I don’t see any games I’m interested in becoming impossible to find. Given that Sony has already removed backwards compatibility, I really have nothing to lose by waiting, and so much to gain with hardware revisions and marketing changes.
why are people talking about walkman here this is ps2 talk and psp,ps3 not mp3 players two differnt companys and plus go get an ipod not the crap walkman there battery life sucks
There seem to be alot of upper management/advertising execs that read and comment here.
This just goes to prove the Internet is filled with complete tards and morons. Sony didn’t release any press releases about a big announcement, the only ones to blame are yourselves. In future don’t draw conclusions from the website hit baiting sensationalism of sites like Loltaku. Oh and Smarthouse should close down, what a sad joke of a site.
In fact, all you whiners need to drink a big cup of shut the @$%& up.
@113, um, sony contacted kotaku. get your facts straight.
If you haven’t been able to afford a PS2 by now, I don’t know what to tell you.
@114 and when they did they didn’t say it was PS3 related nor did they say it was ‘big’. Neither did Kotaku for that matter…but as more and more sites ran the story it got further and further from the original statement.
@ gaming pal 116, we don’t know what sony said. other sites claimed to have their own tips too.
face it, it’s a poor announcement. the three people who don’t have ps2s already must be thrilled. i’m not sure how into video games they are if they don’t have a ps2 yet, and thirty bucks was such a big issue to ’em, but whatever…….why wasn’t this revealed at the gdc? not that anyone would care anyway, it just seems like an odd, irrelevant, thing to postpone…
How about we celebrate the success of the PS2 by RETURNING PS2 BC TO THE PS3?!! Big anouncement my foot…..
Incompetence
According to EEDAR:
Sony’s decision to cut the price of the PlayStation 2 to USD 99.99 will initially boost sales and lessen the platform’s long-term declining market share, according to the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research group.
The research firm reports that PS2 titles accounted for 21 per cent of all home console software sales in the last quarter of 2008, and 19 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. Today’s USD 30 price cut will boost hardware sales by 30 per cent from the previous quarter and 10 per cent year-over-year.
“Before the announcement of the price cut, we expected PS2 software sales, a good measure of a console’s health, to decline to 16 per cent April through July,” the firm explained in a statement.
“We now expect PS2 software to maintain an 18 per cent market share among home console unit sales for quarter two.
That is why this is an important announcement for SONY.
Cheers.
“As we have stated previously, we do not have plans for a PS3 price drop, and any rumors to that effect are false and are the result of speculation,” De Leon wrote. “SCEA remains focused on the long-term momentum of PS3. With the industry’s best software lineup this year, combined with our most aggressive marketing campaign to date, we remain confident in our approach and the value we’re delivering with PS3.”
Looks like they’re focused on the long-term momentum of PS2 instead of PS3 :D
@114: have your actually read what kotaku posted? No one to blame but yourself. And those [DELETED] gaming blogs who hyped this.
Excuse me mr. koller but with all due respect who gives a **** at this point. I know pleanty of people who want a PS3 but won’t budge because of two main reasons: No BC anymore and $$$. Focus there. I LOVED my PS2, but that was years ago. The last PS2 game I played was Odin Sphere and after that I haven’t even really looked at PS2 games (except Persona 4 which I didn’t buy because I don’t like starting a series in the middle).
Hopefully you have more up your sleeve for today because THIS sir is the definition of EPIC FAIL
Wha? This was the big global announcement?
http://www.pacdudegames.com/fail/ sums it up.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!! Is this some kind of a joke? April’s fool came early this year, can’t believe you Sony, you should have lowered PS3’s price instead! Or is this your way of “adding backward compatibility” ? Gimme a break!
What? Your kidding right? Where is the price cut for the PS3?
Yeah that’s the problem with all these websites. I didn’t read it from Kotaku but read it on several Dutch sites and VGchartz. If you posted to Kotaku that you’ll bring an announcement, let it be a lesson better to stay quiet until the very last minute. I’d rather have you deny things and then bring it “poof” in the wild all of the sudden, than all these speculations which circulates around the digital globe with one story even more ridiculously big than the other and in the end they’re all false. Brings nothing but disappointments.
This is the same as nothing, you see, in Europe, the price was already in €99 since the last hardware revision..
If this was the so called “Big Announcement”, you guys failed once again..
The PS2 is dead.. Get that into your thick skull!
I hope this wasn’t the big announcement.
This is your last chance to help out the PS3!!!!!!!!!!!
SONY really…??? I Mean really??? this is the HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT???
This is pathetic. It really is. I didn’t expect a PS3 price cut at all… But maybe confirming FW 2.7 or something…
but a PS2 price cut… that’s just…. I mean, I don’t know what to call it. You had just about every was so excited for this and you let people down.
This is beyond the joke, I was expecting some kind of big announcement concerning the PS3 not the PS2, what a complete farce! The PS2 is in the past, I really wish you’d start focusing on what’s important and that’s the PS3 and PSP. What about firmware 2.7 – this should be the big announcement and not some stupid PS2 price cut.
@127…it accounts for 18% of all software currently sold for consoles…not exactly ‘dead’
Sony if you wish to boost your sales with PS2 price cut, please announce it somewhere else. Like craigslist or something. 95% of this blog readers already have a console and could give a damn about this price cut.
LOL!
Look at all the retards crying because they were stupid enough to listen to Xbox fanboy sites like Kotaku.
Way to go morons!
Amazing job Sony. The PS2 will most likely hit 160+ million worldwide over the last couple years of its life.
If this is the big announcement……..lmao!!!!
WOW THATS IT??? That’s ur big announcment??? Sony u suck… So much hype for nothing!!!
@DMA, for my personal record, I never read Kotaku as I find that one of the biggest anti Sony websites. I read it from non official PlayStation blogs / sites, like PS3life, Joystiq PS3 blog. We’re not morons, the people that made a bug into an elephant and made just an announcement a big announcement and made us believe to expect something huge from Sony. You can’t blame people for reading stuff on the Internet and believe it or hope for it now can you?
Is it possible to vote zero? I want to drag this score down.
I don’t know what the point of this price drop is, are there really that many people buying PS2s still, especially new ones? I thought production of them had actually ceased. Here in the UK, most specialist games retailers don’t even stock them new, and second hand ones go for £30-40.
if this is the big annoucement you guys had to make than i fear for sony
@greatestfoe, are you a tard? Loltaku posted Sony contacted them about something that was happening. There was no official press release by Sony. No mention of a big announcement. Nothing about the PS3. Something did happen, the PS2 got a price drop. Those who continue to whine about it and wail at Sony just prove the Internet is full of tards and morons.
Why would they even take the time to say there would be an announcement.
Only to reveal a $30 price drop of a 10 year old console?
I don’t think it’s a joke but it can’t be the only announcement so don’t get your e-panties in a bunch.
Is that it??? Target told us that last week…
this CANT be the big news, im completely dissapointed in sony’s arrogance…the market is already saturated with ps2s..take that s**t off the shelves and start promoting the psp more! stop pumping money into a bleeding out last-gen system, this is what happens when i company gets to be arrogant, the only thing your doing is putting a lot of money into 1rst party games that dont deliver…the only games i play on ps3 are Metal Gear 4, LBP, and Resistance 2. honestly guys you want more ps3 sales get rid of your old s**t and charge forward with the new…your at the bottom of the food chain right now when it comes to the industry, obviously time to do SOMETHING good.
Again, Sony doesn’t suck, those non official sites do. From now on I’m no longer reading those blogs nor websites or simply don’t believe any rumor until official notice from Publishers / Game Companies. Saves a) a lot disappointments b) yelling first at a victim which is being seen as the offender and therefore make myself and others a complete fool out of ourselves and c)… that sums it about up.
What about the PS3 system price drop
any time ???