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!
A price drop for the PS2 is all well and good but you NEED to move PS3 systems!
Seriously?!? Who cares?
Good news for PlayStation.
You guys should have never said anything about an announcement. This is just garbage. No one cares about the PS2. Hell, I didn’t even know that the PS2 was being sold for over $100 and people have to be stupid to pay $100 or more for it. It’s LAST GEN and you guys need to stop support for it on focus on the PS3 and PSP. I hope third place feels nice and cozy because it seems like SCEA doesn’t want to move from that spot.
Microsoft sends their lulz
http://kotaku.com/5192250/microsoft-discounts-ps2-price-cut
That is good news, although I already have a total of three PS2’s. Now I wish I would have waited! lol
Does this really affect anyone who might be reading this post?
I also want to see a PS3 price break, because I want the PS3 pass the bloody 360, but I’ve been told by a wise person, SCE doesn’t even break even with the PS3 yet. What do you want them to do then? Drop the price and then get more into the red numbers? PS2, PSP, Software is mainly what SCE need it from to earn profit, not by the PS3 yet as the PS3 its development costs are still higher than profit from sales.
Again, at least, that what’s I’ve been told.
Plus doesn’t anyone consider the fact that this price drop might be the last, before discontinueing the PS2 eventually? I guess not…
cool! nice achievement for the ps2! i just hope this is not the BIG announcement, cause in that cause its not that big…cause thats last gen..
and why lower the price of a console that already has soo much succes, than doing it on your main console that your need more sales in to carry the torch?!
Oh yeah and another thing, as long as the PS2 is profitable and the PS3 isn’t of course SCE isn’t gonna put the PS2 BC back into the PS3. Its better for the PS3 yes, but I doubt it would have been more effective than just selling a bunch of more PS2 consoles, now would it?
Does anyone notice they haven’t replied to any of our posts..sometimes I question if they care about the consumers with the NEXT GEN system. I love the ratings,2.32!
@resisfutal
“Are they pround that they can pay for an overpriced toy and the average family can’t? That makes you a better person? Wouldn’t it benifit you as well? You must be very ignorant to believe that just because you have payed full price for your first PS3 then others don’t deserve to join the PS “network” at a lesser price. Are you so shallow that you don’t realize its not about you?”
Are you so blind that you think a single person said that? I don’t know what class warfare fire is under you, but that has nothing to do with this. Sony remaining profitable as a company has everything to do with this. For over two years now they have taken losses on the PS3. As with all consoles, they made financial sacrifices to ensure people could afford the system at all.
Now they have reached a point where they need to make a profit. No one who says the PS3 doesn’t need a price cut said it was because it made them feel like some rich evil industry overlord, but because it helped Sony maintain revenue streams so that they can continue making video game consoles in the future.
Step away from the high horse and actually pay attention to what people are saying.
Who cares?! How about 2.7? Jebus at least knock $50 off the PS3. It would shut up the million of Xbots and naysayers that predict Sony’s doom on a weekly basis. I’m sick to death of reading: “Is the PS3 Dead” “Will Sony survive the Summer?” Seriously Sony, pull your heads out of your arses!! >8-(
I just have to say that this announcement have made my day :) Not because of the announcement itself… But all the comments :) Thank you :) It’s been fun reading :)
This better be a freakin April fools joke, THIS IS YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT SONY? What happened to the 2.70 firmware or PS3 price drop? No one cares about a 9 year old gaming system!
And how do you expect to get 10 years out of PS3 when you lost most of your best exclusives such as Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy?
This announcement SUCKS, Where are the PLAYSTATION 3 ANNOUNCEMENTS??????????
sony….this is lame!
this annoucement failed on a whole different level
OHHHHHH I know what this is now. GUYS Sony just called me they are sending this call out to all Playstation users. They just said that they don’t want to compete any more and are bowing out to support their PS2….. Wait hold on more news they also say that they prefer games with no graphics and want everyone to throw out their PS3 and go out and buy ANOTHER copy of PS2 because FF versus XIII will be exclusive to the PS2.
Hey sony get it trough your nine year old brains and figure out that you, “can’t tend to the dead but you can tend to the living.” Great words by a great man.
**** you Sony.
Oh and since you are so incapable of putting an edit button on the boards I have to post another comment.
1. Microsoft is laughing at you, I called them about my Vista and they Said do you have a Xbox I was like no. Then he said “I feel sorry for you, you’re supporting a company who strives for the PAST!!!
2. look at the rating of this post. 2.28 atm. I’m sure 80% put a 1 rating and a few fanboys threw out a 5 because they can’t stand the fact that sony made a bad desicion.
3. The future is the PS3, the PS2 sold 50 million that’s good. I wholly believe that the PS3 can sell 100 million if you can learn to market the product.
4. UGH stupidity.
I never thought I would say this but **** you Sony.
**Loyal Sony supporter bows his head and is ashamed of his the company of which he owns stock in.**
Sony shareholders should call for the resignation of John Koller. This is just the latest example of mismanaged marketing that only serves to backfire on the Playstation brand. What were they thinking hyping this up as a “big” announcement? This should have been a low-profile news release at best.
The fact that there are now 50 million PS2’s in the US only makes things worse, as that’s about 25 million more units than PS3 will ever sell in the US and demonstrates how much market share the Playstation brand has lost in the space of one generation.
Technology turn over is 6 months or so right? Every PC is obsolete in that time or at least half the value by then. Whats so different about a PS3 or even an xBox for that matter. For $400.00 bucks you can get an ok PC thats upgradable. It won’t come close to a fully loaded gaming rig but you get a lot for the money. If you google “Dream machine ’07” or “06” and compare them to todays prices you can get an $10,000+ rig for pennies on the dollar. Then look at the tech of the PS3 or the ps2. Isn’t the next gen console the same age as the “Dream Machine” of yesterday? And yet its the same price for longer. I just don’t get it. How does a console hold that value and a top of the line PC costing $10.000 plus can drop in price over 80%? If you know please share?
Well, I as everyone else has stated.. I really hope this is not IT.. I hope sony has more up their sleeves.. Because saying you have a GLOBAL Announcement.. Kinda implies something bit.. And I want to give sony more credit than that! In fact I am hoping the are purposely doing this to mess with is. And later today we will get a good announcement! Although I’m almost certain that a price cut is NOT in the cards.. It could be many other things. So heres hoping.. But for now i am going to hold off judgment until the end of the day! And I think most of us should.
Mr. Tretton, Washington is on the phone. They asking for you to step down as CEO.
I agree with everyone and hope this is not the big announcement as that would be rediculouse.
BUT to these people bashing sony over supporting this old technology and crap even some said they regretted their PS3 purchase and that sony should loose this gen because they won’t drop their price.
Why the h-e-double hockey sticks (give it a second to sink in) should they loose because they creat a quality machine that does not break down even comparibly as much as the X-box peice of you know what. I mean bang for your buck no one has really proven that PS3 is not a good value over it and I just won’t bye an x-box no matter how many good games they come out with because they have so poorly treated their client this gen so why I ask do you feel sony should be out of the race.
@374 resisfutal- Wow, if I was drinking milk, it would have spewed out my nose… You win the internet. I wish they had kudos here.
HAhahahHAHaHhahHAhAHAHhaHAhAHha…I’m laughing because i believe this is such a great april fools joke?..maybe who knows? but if it is it’d be reeeal funny when someone walks into a store asking to buy a ps2 for $99.99. I mean like $30 is that much of a difference..c’mon now lol..i hope im right.
@resisfutal
How many sub-$400 PCs do you know that come with Blu-Ray players and Cell processors? I can’t find one with just a Blu-Ray player, much less a new tech processing chip.
Add on proprietary software that isn’t just off the shelf products that any guy can pick up from Newegg and it gets expensive pretty freaking quick.
You cannot, on a pricing or technical scale, compare a PC that, even if intended for pure gaming, uses generic compatibility parts and software that anyone can buy to any brand of game console, which has custom-focused parts and software that are all devoted primarily to one single function.
I was hoping to spend this money on a new PS3 console, Oh well i’m going to buy another xBox and maybe another Wii also.
Thanks for helping make up my mind Sony.
April Fools?
Yup april fools..i just posted that lol
@372
I’m pretty sure PCs are ALWAYS sold for a small profit which isn’t the case with consoles. Sony takes a good hit into the red with each console sold in hopes that software sales will make up for this. PC makers don’t have this luxury and therefore always require a small amount of profit from each sale.
So this is why you see the price sticking longer with consoles. Sure the cost to make it may decrease but Sony isn’t willing to shift that over to the customer just yet. They are waiting until they have a profit on PS3 sales to drop it again.
If I’m wrong, which I probably am, someone else fill us in.
If I’d never made my first comment and withdrew it with over a dozen other messages you could have count the amount of reasonable people on 2 hands, now only on one, as my first comment still exist.
I read every comment around here and it looks like you need a lot of thinking to do Sony, this is worse than FFXIII being announced to be multiplatform. Somehow you really disappointed a lot of people.
I think i recently sold the wrong console. If this is big news to sony, they really don’t care about us. I don’t really care about a price drop as i have a PS3 already. I care about firmware. I want something cross game chat, that’s all i ask for.
Ah, nice for everyone who needs to buy a PS2… :) But i thought the news was to bring back PS2 in to the PS3, That would be great :) 60GB the only console Sony ever loved!
I hope this goes well and it sells many more =)
I have never seen so many pissed off ps3 owners in one place.
Seriously, How long will it take for blu-ray to become standard on every pc? The point is that how can all the goodies packed into a ps3 hold its value over such a long time? Isn’t the technology getting older faster these days. Its always about the next best thing. Out with the old in with the new. Its just that we seem to get tired of the “new thing” sooner and sooner. For example, every teenager in highschool has a cell phone and they treat them like its no big deal. Give that teenager a cell phone from ten years ago and they would think you lost your mind. I look at Sony that same way when they want me to buy a ps2 just because its $30 cheaper.
Well, this is kinda cool. Now I can get a Playstation 2 AGAIN so I can play all my old games I was promised would work on the Playstation 3.
My dreams are ruined, I was hoping for 2.70.
NOT! But I was hoping for PS3 news, not this BS PS2 crap.!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get da head out of your arses for God’s Sake! You know my PS3 just YLODed (60GB model) and I was hoping for a price cut to buy a new one, but since you can’t see what the rest of the world see and think straight, I’m seriously thinking not supporting you anymore Sony, way to go, excellent way to go…
boy I wonder how much my non-slim ps2 would be worth for trade-in. :(
Maybe the ps2 =$100 announcement is an april fool’s scam?
lame lame lame
I hope this wasn’t the “Huge” announcement that all of us in the PS community were anxiously awaiting, if it is I’m highly disappointed in SONY for this highly non-important news to us PS3 owners and other next-gen systems.
The amount of epic letdowns by Sony fanboy in this blog post are mind numbing. I’m literally falling out of my chair laughing at the people saying that it was Sony that hyped it.
I have no other choice but to laugh at this holy piece of crap.
Sony, you need to make many changes in order to do things OK again. As you won’t give a damn about what your community says, I won’t waste my little and precious time on what you should do.
But hey, let me tell you one thing: in order to success you need to prove great love and good business mind, and you ain’t delivering anything of these.
BTW, as a videogame fanatic I feel sorry for me and my partners here, as we will end buying a 360 or Wii… and both suck. Cheers!
To me this is exactly whats wrong with Sony right now! They are still messing around with the last gen system. Does anyone at Sony realize that xbox and the wii are CRUSHING you in sales??? Why??? Horrible marketing!(slip FREE online play into every add dumbies) The bundles are not thought out!(include backwords comp. and a HEAD SET) Lastly a overall unwillingness to give those who bought your PS3 what they want(private chat in game and cross game and in game music!) It’s cool we have a system that COULD do amazing things, but how about what we NEED it to do! Want sales to go up think future not past. Give us what we NEED!
50 million units sold! Wowzers! A next-gen console now for under $100 certainly is an outstanding feat. You can’t even pick up a next-gen hand-held for that price.
While this is good news for newcomers, I would like to hear something more about future development regarding the Playstation 3, more specifically the Playstation Network. While the Playstation 3 really can’t get all too advanced due to hardware limitations, I think that the Playstation community can really benefit from a Playstation Network overhaul.
Dear John Koller,
This has not been the most impressive announcement ever made by Sony. In fact, this is yet another bad publicity stunt. Whoever is responsible for this mess had better ‘fess up and resign, immediately. It is my impression that Shock-and-Awe works best when something is kept completely secret.
Even if a price drop for the PS2 was the intended announcement, you could negate a lot of the negative publicity by making a “oh yeah, we’ve dropped the price tag on the PS2” and leave it at that. I don’t think the shenanigans involved with boasting the PS2’s sales record helped; it seemed more like it has detracted from its impact.
As for what an earth-shattering announcement should be like, it should be like this:
“Oh hey, we’ve brought back PS2 Backwards Compatibility for the PS3 and it’s already available on the PSN. It’s also all-region capable for those who import games from Japan. :)”
There. Short and simple. And people would go nuts just hearing that.
You guys need to rethink your marketing strategy and bring in some NEW BLOOD. It’s painful to watch Sony make such a bad play.
Cheers,
-Neko
Drop the price of the PS3. I have one, and I love it, but its steep price point is such a great barrier to the average consumer. If I were to buy a HD ready console today, especially in this economy, I’d probably go with the cheaper of the two. Not that I regret my purchase, but I truly believe if you want to sell the PS3, you can no longer sell it at such a steep price.
Still cheaper than finding an old 60 GB PS3 on eBay, right?