Sony has announced that, following a near 13 year lifespan, it has discounted production of the Playstation 2 in Japan. Only the Atari 2600, with its 14 year lifespan, managed a longer production run.
The move, widely rumoured to be the first in a series of announcements ahead of an the inevitable confirmation that development of the Playstation 4 has begun, means that whilst developers will continue to develop games for the system, the most recent shipment of Playstation 2′s to Japanese retailers was also the last. It is currently unknown when Sony will discontinue production of the Playstation 2 worldwide, but with the forthcoming Destination Playstation in February, it would not be surprising should an announcement made made in the coming weeks.
Released in 2000, the Playstation 2 was a game changing console, it was the first console to embrace the concept of being a Home Entertainment System rather than just a gaming console and despite competing against it’s successor since 2006 managed to exceed Sony’s promise of a decade of support and content (content which will continued to be released by developers during at least 2013).
This article will examine its legacy and some of the ground breaking games which debuted on the Playstation 2.
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5 Comments
RIP Playstation 2, one of the greatest consoles ever. You will live forever in the hearts of gamers worldwide!
I still have mine and play it alot anyways. It had so many good games for it!
PS2 was awesome, the days I’ve spent playing GTA 3/San Andreas, Tony Hawk games, and Smackdown games were some of my best gaming not to mention the countless hours spent playing Guitar Hero. Right now my favorite wrestling game (Fir Pro Wrestling: Returns) is on PS2 and I haven’t seen a single game on the current gen consoles that can hold a candle to it.
I was surprised they’ve still been making them this long,,, game-changing console though well done Sony!!
My biggest surprise when researching for this was that independent developers were still releasing games for the Dreamcast in 2012! :S