January 14th, 2009

PlayStation 2 Consoles, A New Milestone

I always dreamed about having a console. First, it was one of the first Nintendo consoles I had to put my hands on, then it was Sony's PlayStation, all the way. Now, I was thinking about grabbing a PlayStation 2 for a bargain price, and that idea seems to grow in my mind with each day. I know, I know - it's outdated, but the fact that the PlayStation 2 consoles hit the 50 million units in the US give me high hopes...

What kind of hopes? That's pretty easy to figure out - such an impressive milestone means the software market for the PS2 will remain strong for at least 2 more years, so if I get the thing, I'll put it to good use with hot games, and not games that appeared 3-4-5 years ago.

Just think about the fact that a study conducted by Nielsen last year managed to show that US users spent more time messing with their PlayStation 2 than any other home console, despite the fact Sony's PS2 was released way back in 2000!

Now, the PlayStation 2 consoles retail for about $130, while the GameCube and the original Xbox have both been discontinued, leaving the "new old consoles" market as a prize for Sony.

The good news is that the PlayStation 2 isn't going to be discontinued anytime soon, but the bad news..."We've looked at a variety of options, and I think we're pleased with where we are; it's a significant financial contributor for us and it sells very well at $129.99. We're comfortable with the current price," at least according to Sony's US marketing boss John Koller.

Well, you can't have everything, but it's good to have what you can, so I guess $130 isn't that bad, after all.