Low-Price Compact PlayStation 2 Due Next Year

MCV is reporting that a $99 version of the PlayStation 2, in a new and compact format, will be released next year. The new unit will incorporate the power supply into its housing, allowing Sony to manufacture the product very inexpensively. "The news will surely come as a blow to Sony rivals Nintendo and Microsoft, who have seen sales of PS2 suffer somewhat due to the introduction of Wii and Xbox 360 in recent years. PS2 this week celebrated its seventh anniversary, during which time it has sold over 120 million units worldwide. Yet this cut demonstrates Sony's belief that the system's market is far from exhausted. Last month, publisher bosses from the likes of Eidos, Ubisoft and Atari suggested to MCV that a price cut on the console could massively reinvigorate its sales figures."

Replacement for compatibility?

[bsharitt]

I guess this Sony's answer to removing backwards compatibility on the new 40GB PS3?

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[ozbird]

Removing? Some markets (Europe, Australia etc.) didn't get the hardware-based PS2 compatibility in the first place.

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[Ant P.]

And when you think about it, that's a good thing.

Imagine everyone throwing out their PS2s to run old games on that power-sucking monster.

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[bsharitt]

Being a PS2 owner, the backwards of the PS3 was one of it's biggest selling points. Of course the Wii was also backwards compatible with all of my GameCube games too, so I got that since it was cheaper.

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[Storlek]

Not only that, the Wii can also play a number of N64, SNES, Nintendo, TG16, Genesis, and Neo Geo games. (Beat that, Sony.)

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[Gingernads]

I'm sorry but the ability to download games originally available on N64, SNES, Nintendo, TG16, Genesis, and Neo Geo (for money) does not equal backwards compatibility. I know this because I have a Wii, along with original versions for most of these consoles. I have yet to find the slot for any of these Did I get one of those Walmart Wii consoles by mistake?

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[Storlek]

I said nothing about backward compatibility. I only said that, with a Wii, you can play a number of those games.

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[tlhIngan]

Removing? Some markets (Europe, Australia etc.) didn't get the hardware-based PS2 compatibility in the first place.

Technically, there is some PS2 hardware in the PS3s except the 40GB. The first PS3s came with the combined EE/GS chip, thus putting a full PS2 inside every PS3. The ones that Europe got still have a GS chip in them, while the EE was emulated by the Cell CPU. The GS was never fully emulated by the Cell or RSX (unlike the Xbox360).

The 40GB PS3, however, lacks a GS chip. Thus it has no backwards c

Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[trolltalk.com]

For once, it was right!.

Contrary to the assestion that "this will be a blow to Nintendo ...", Nintendo doesn't give a hoot - they're going to be able to do the same thing, except why bother when demand STILL exceeds supply for the Wii?

If you had to buy just ONE, which one would you want to buy?

Now if you had to buy 3 as gifts, which one would you want to buy?

The Wii wins on both counts.

Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[bsharitt]

This will be no more of a blow to the Wii than the existing $129 PS2. The only real advantage it has is the price, and people who are buying it on price are already buying the PS2 over the Wii and are probably buying the GBA over the DS and PSP.

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[Lunarsight]

The original PS2 I have still works. When it dies, I'll probably switch to the WII, not the PS3. (The PS3 is just too unrealistically expensive.)

Would I consider getting the $99 PS2 console so I can still play my old games? Yeah.
In that regard, the streamlined PS2 could still win, in a matter of speaking.

Although, would it be able to challenge the WII as king of the proverbial hill? Probably not.

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[G Fab]

granted, the wii pretty much sells as many as can be made, so nothing is possibly affecting it sales negatively, but I assure you, the PS2 has reduced demand for every console out there.

If you have an SDTV, and want a lot of great games, why not the PS2? The wii is pretty neat, but it's all about the games, and nothing touches the PS2.

But if anything this is great news for Sony. They are still the king of video games. 120 million installed base. Home was supposed to be a PS2 idea (and was discussed for

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[Skreems]

Honestly, even if you have an HDTV the PS2 is pretty cool. Most games out in the past couple years support widescreen with progressive scan, which looks pretty damn nice on my 32".

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[happyemoticon]

Well, I don't know. I bought my first PS2 a few months ago, because 1) the system itself and all the games I wanted to play are cheap, 2) there is still far more entertainment value in the PS2's library than all of the next-generation consoles combined, 3) I have a better job, 4) I don't have an HDTV and 5) I needed a new dvd player. I can't believe what I was missing all of these years! Seems like the PS2 is still a good choice in the cheap-nostalgic-non-cutting-edge-need-a-DVD-player demographic.

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[toolie]

How does your number 3 (have a better job) relate to numbers 1 (it is cheap) and 5 (need a new DVD player)?

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[happyemoticon]

I can see how you could take those statements as somewhat inconsistent. I'm pretty young. At the time the PS2 was really big I was a starving student, so any type of electronic entertainment beyond what could also be used for schoolwork was a luxury. I suppose I should add that I still try to be pretty frugal even now that I have a real job with a comfortable salary - I'll now allow myself a game system, but I went for the best perceived value.

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[toolie]

That makes more sense. I never got the PS2 because I had just graduated and couldn't justify that much on a system. I just skipped that and went for the PS3 (60g for full backwards compatibility) instead. The PS3 has seen a TON more use as a surrogate PS2 instead of playing new games (at least until GH3 was released last weekend).

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[LKM]

Same here. Never had a PS2 (starving student), bought a PS3, mainly use it to play all the PS2 games I've missed. While I own a few PS3 games, the only PS3 games I play semi-regularly are skate and Warhawk.

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[Deliveranc3]

Second only to a modded Xbox...

well, uh

[happyemoticon]

Girlfriend and I were playing with a Wii at her friend's house, and she demands we get one:) I'm still happy with my decision to buy a PS2, though.

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[Anonymous Coward]

If I had to buy one, I'd buy the PS2. The Wii doesn't have any available games that I care about (and I'm not into the Mario/Metroid/Zelda franchises).

Gifts? Well, the PS2 is quite a bit cheaper, so I guess I'd buy that too.

Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[donaldm]

If you had to buy just ONE, which one would you want to buy?
Now if you had to buy 3 as gifts, which one would you want to buy
The Wii wins on both counts.

I fail to see your logic here. If a person wants a PS3, Xbox360 or a Wii then then they are going to buy on price and/or perceived entertainment value and people who buy these machines are not normally going to buy them as a present unless it is for the immediate family or themselves.

Most people looking to give a games machine as a Christmas present will find a cheap brand new (you would not give a second hand one, would you?) PS2 an excellent gift. If you are a person who is looking to buy more than one Wii as a Christmas present then you are going to pay one and half times what the new PS2 costs. In addition the games for the PS2 are relatively cheap and there is such a diversity of games that they cater for nearly all tastes, in addition the graphics are just as good as the Wii's graphics, especially if you don't have a HDTV. Actually my PS2 games as well as my Gamecube games still look good on my 37" HDTV since it smooths Standard Definition output.

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[Moridin42]

Actually, I fail to see yours. The giftee doesn't care at all about price of a console he doesn't have to pay for. He wants the console he wants. The gifter doesn't get to think "hm.. well he wanted an Xbox360 or a Wii, but I'm going to get him a PS2 because its cheaper." Well, the gifter does get to. But that won't suddenly make the giftee want a ps2. End result of that kind of decision making? A return. The decision the giver faces is whether or not to give a console, given the price of the console desire

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[aichpvee]

You only think that the PS2 graphics are just as good as the Wii graphics because so many Wii games at this point are ports from PS2, or worse, PSP. Otherwise, I agree completely. PS2 is still a great system with a ton of great games, especially if you're just getting one now. It's pretty hard to beat the huge number of quality games that you can get in the $10-20 bin.

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[trolltalk.com]

The ps2 is selling here for $99. I wouldn't buy it as a present for either of my daughters ... they're not "into games." The Wii, however, looks like something they'd both enjoy. So, if the decision is between something cheap that they won't use, or something more expensive but that they will use, its really no choice.

They've already had a $30 price drop on the Wii here a couple of weeks ago, and I'm expecting it to drop anoterh $50 after the holiday season - just in time for the older one's birthday :-)

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[LKM]

Yeah. The PS2 is no competition for the Wii. Neither at 130 bucks, nor at 99 bucks. While the PS2 has some "casual" games (Buzz, SingStar), it just doesn't compete with the Wii on that front. People who want a Wii aren't going to buy a PS2 just because it just got cheaper.

That doesn't meant that this won't increase PS2 sales, of course. It just won't increase them at the expense of the Wii.

Am I missing something?

[JediLow]

But hasn't Sony already done that? [amazon.com]

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[trolltalk.com]

All over the place. 2 weeks ago in Canada, Zellers was selling PS2s for $99 and DS Lite for $109. [tp]

With the rising Canadian dollar, urther cuts are possible before Christmas. Watch for them at $89 after Christmas.

Bull.

[Gothic_Walrus]

The news will surely come as a blow to Sony rivals Nintendo and Microsoft, who have see sales of PS2 suffer somewhat due to the introduction of Wii and Xbox 360 in recent years. ...What? I could be wrong but I don't think that sales of a seven year old console are going to intimidate the other companies much, or damage the lead that the Xbox 360 and Wii have built up. Sure, it'll cause some increase in sales numbers but I'm not sure where the author is pulling this from.

Besides, I'd assume that Nintendo a

You'd think so, but the PS2 still outsells the PS3

[Fross]

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=PS2&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&start=39019&end=39383 [vgchartz.com]

(if you ignore the spike of the last couple of weeks)

Having said that it still outsells the 360 week by week too...

Re:You'd think so, but the PS2 still outsells the

[LKM]

GP wasn't saying that the PS2 doesn't outsell the PS3. He was (I think) saying that PS2 sales simply don't matter. In two years, there will be no new PS2 games, and the people who buy a PS2 now won't matter anymore. Only the people who buy a Wii, a 360 or a PS3 will matter.

So in a way, Sony is hurting itself by pushing the PS2. Everyone who goes out and buys a PS2 right now won't go out and buy a PS3. That's money in Sony's pocket now, but at the same time, it's a lost opportunity to gain market share. All

not really a unqiue idea

[ILuvRamen]

With so many people selling PS2s because they bought a PS3, there have been $100 systems on down for sale for a loooong time. Since my family's poor, we're "down a tier" in consoles and bought someone's PS2 when they got the PS3 and we got it for I think under $100. So the only difference is it's brand new compared to used. Well mine works fine so I don't care either way. I think a lot of the people that wanted a PS2 already bought one used for cheaper so this isn't going to do very well.

Somehow I doubt Nintendo or MS care

[Samari711]

One of the reasons PS2 is still selling at a good clip is because developers haven't completely abandoned the platform yet. Eventually games will stop coming out for it and sales of it will drop to nothing.

Maybe not soon...

[PhoenixOne]

With 120 million sold and hundreds of skilled developers who understand how to push the PS2 to its limits, there may be some life left in the old girl. :)

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[LKM]

Sure. There are also Dreamcast games still coming out, and from time to time, a new VCS 2600 game is produced. That doesn't mean these consoles still play a role. Right now, it's DS vs PSP, and Wii vs 360 vs PS3. Every sold PS2 is money in Sony's pocket, but it's a Pyrrhic victory for Sony: The PS2 sales they make right now won't help them gain ground against the 360 or the Wii. If Sony can't move their customers to their current-gen system, they will never catch up with the 360; third-party devs will aband

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[PhoenixOne]

Unlike SEGA and the Dreamcast, Sony is still serious about supporting the PS2. Right now, in Japan, PS2 hardware and games are selling better than Wii/360/PS3 games.

But you are right, in the long term game Sony must suceed with the PS3 if it is to survive 2+ years down the road. But the PS2 market will still be viable for a few years, until HDTV and PS3/360 costs come way down.

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[catapan]

I agree with the idea of they have what to worry is with the sale of the PS3, but the PS2 is still selling very much; In my case, I am a Brazilian, in order that I buy and to maintain a PS3 it is very difficult, already the PS2 for his price and even his plays it is more viable.

Slim PS2? Dupe?

[Hadlock]

Wasn't the slim PS2 released.. 2, 3 years ago in the US? This looks exactly like it. The article says the power supply is inside it now, instead of as a laptop power supply looking thing, but I'm skeptical.

Re:Slim PS2? Dupe?

[Andy Dodd]

The PS2 has been slimmed down multiple times.

A few years ago the original "Slim PS2" was released.

I believe a few months ago the "Slim and Light PS2" was released (with little fanfare, marketed the same as the original slim) - Same form factor as the old one, but apparently lighter. (I heard 600g instead of 900 for the unit itself, and 250 vs. 350 for the power supply).

Now they are set to release the "Super Slim PS2" which may retain the same form factor for the unit itself, but instead of having the external brick it'll have 120VAC input to an internal power supply.

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[Leviance]

I've been debating whether to buy a PS2 or wait until they were cheaper. Being a student, I lack enough disposable income to invest in expensive hardware. This new version will likely allow me to finally play some of the exclusive games that Sony has to offer.

That said.. shouldn't Sony be focusing on trying to fix the PS3 rather than extend the life of the PS2?

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[macshit]

I've never bought a PS2, who knows, maybe I will this time.

It would be kind of nice to have a long-lived "low tech but very well supported" game system around, but it's sort of a shame it had to be the PS2 ... graphics aren't the most important thing, but the PS2's graphics were always just a little too ugly (given what developers were trying to wring out it), and the controller just a little too painful. Either the orig xbox or the gamecube would have been a far more pleasant system to see live on until o

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[IrquiM]

And what's broken with it?

Smaller units

[Enderandrew]

Some people are obsessed with smaller units, and will replace their existing PS2's with the smaller unit. This isn't aimed solely at people who haven't purchased a console yet. Many people with older PS2's may have experienced DVD drive failures, and a cheap, smaller replacement may appeal to them, especially since the cheaper PS3 lost backwards compatibility.

When I was in Europe, smaller appliances were all the rage.

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[Khaed]

My PS2 failed after two years, but I'm not about to shell out $100 for another one. That's the price of two games, and I have too little time and there's enough to keep me occupied on their competitors current-gen systems that I have already. I haven't replaced my NES yet, either. (and probably won't, now that 90% of the games I liked for it are on the Wii)

However, if I did decide I wanted to play my old games, I'd certainly get the smaller version.

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[Enderandrew]

Most people I know who have "failed" PS2 units have bad DVD drives. These often are repaired fairly easily. I'm not great with tools, and I had never worked on one before, but I opened it up, took it apart, sprayed some compressed air in it, cleaned it out, and it worked perfectly. There are also guides online telling you how to adjust the gears if need be to tweak the laser. You can also adjust the potentiometer to increase the laser strength as well, but I didn't need to do either of those things.

When

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[Storlek]

The NES however, was NOTORIOUS for failing to read games. How often do you have to blow in your carts, or fight with the unit to get it to work?

Ah, but in Nintendo's case, that provided nostalgia. People look back and still say they loved their NES. For a disc drive not to read a disc is just annoying, especially considering how most DVD players can still play a disc even after a sticky-fingered toddler uses it as a toy, once it's been wiped clean with a soft cloth.

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[Khaed]

My PS2 doesn't even power up. It sat in the same spot, never falling, never taking any of the abuse my Gamecube did (shorter controller cables = Gamecube falls when person or dog walked by and tugs the thing out)... yet no go. It's not that early of a PS2. I think I got it a year or a year and a half after they came out. I've long ago stopped buying systems on launch or close to it.

The NES however, was NOTORIOUS for failing to read games. How often do you have to blow in your carts, or fight with the un

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[LKM]

The NES however, was NOTORIOUS for failing to read games. How often do you have to blow in your carts, or fight with the unit to get it to work?

Yeah, but you just take the game out and put it back in and it works. Still does on my NES. The problem didn't get worse with time. You can't just take the disc out and try again with a broken PS2.

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[Enderandrew]

Actually both of my NES units just stopped reading games period. My PS2 still works after I cleaned it.

Just add a better video output

[Gabest]

dvi/vga/hdmi anything digital and it will sell like sugar.

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[Anonymous Coward]

They could also jump on to the high-definition bandwagon and upgrade the DVD player to HD-DVD.

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[Professor_UNIX]

They could also jump on to the high-definition bandwagon and upgrade the DVD player to HD-DVD.

Shit, they just might give it away for free while they're at it or add an anti-gravity generator to the box. What the fuck are you smoking? Sony will support HD-DVD when pigs fly.

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[TeknoHog]

joke

sarcasm tag

you

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[tyrione]

Blue-Ray is not selling well due to the initial run up costs of the devices. Make them affordable and generic on PCs and you'll see it own the industry. Problem is that SONY hasn't figured out how to open it up and be comfortable with not all the spoils.

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[thopkins]

Except that VGA is an analogue connection.

Not so good for car installs

[shotgunefx]

I don't get it, but a lot of people put PS2's in their cars, making the PS internal is going to make that a bit tricky.

Between modders and soccer moms, I wonder how many units they sell that end up in autos.

Re:

[karnal]

Not the best solution, but if you have to have a power brick with the older one, you could supply the vehicle with a reasonably small (is the ps2 100 watt?) inverter and use the same smount of space, right? Either that, or if you're capable, you could replace the internal power supply with your own (as long as you're not a soccer mom or similar.)

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[shotgunefx]

An inverter would work but would make stealthy installs harder. Plus inverters usually introduce a lot of noise with amps.

I have a feeling the PS will be on the main board which would make modding a bit tricker.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[shotgunefx]

I agree 100%, nothing added to my car that isn't functional and ergonomic for that reason.

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[porcupine8]

Most of these are not installed for the driver (or even the front-seat passenger) to play.

You try taking a minivan full of kids on an 8-hour road trip and then tell me a video game system in the back seat wouldn't be functional.

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[glavenoid]

I think the refurbs, especially the old fat ps2 will still retain some value due to the ease of modchipping and the hdd bay. If someone with a lot of "backups" unit fails, they'll probably reach for a refurb.

de pas de mod

[chigun]

Pretty neat, but you can't mod 'em. No HDD slot either. At least by the time it comes out the games will be even more dirt-cheap than they are now.

Yay!

[samael]

I've been wanting one of these to play the few games that were PS2 only that I really wanted- Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Rez and a few others. $99 is pretty much irresistible.

Not a big deal to Nintendo or Microsoft

[madsheep]

Ok.. I don't see this having any effect what-so-ever on Nintendo or Microsoft. Hell, who really cares here? PS2? The PS2 slim is already super small, it can't get much smaller than it is now...will it really have that much value? Plus, wouldn't this hurt Sony as much as any other? You know.. spending $99 to buy a PS2 instead of $400+ for a PS3? What a waste of time and money.

Neat!

[seebs]

Reminds me a bit of the PsOne compact units they did for a while, which eventually dropped to $50.

I see no threat at all to the Wii and 360 from this; $99 is not THAT much cheaper than $129, and at this point, Sony's just going to be picking up people who never got around to the PS2, or whose PS2s broke. I don't think this will have a significant effect on the size of the market, though; the current-gen systems are picking up steam plenty fast.

I still have my old one

[psychicsword]

I still have a working fully functional PS2, one of the ones that needed the extra network adapter and allowed the use of a hard drive. I will never need a new one and unless they add the hard drives back in I will never think of buy a new one.

How does this lead to a $30 price drop?

[CopaceticOpus]

From an engineering perspective, how does moving the power supply brick into the unit make it any cheaper? The current external power converter must be pretty cheap for them to produce by the millions. They'll still have to produce one inside the unit, but now it has to be redesigned and made smaller. All the internals of the PS2 have to be shrunk down as well. Heat will more of a problem as well since the power supply gets pretty warm. Making electronics smaller is generally more expensive, at least initia

I doubt it's just the PSU change...

[WoTG]

The brick moving internal is probably the most visible change, but I doubt that's it. I would guess that the overall power usage has shrunk, to allow the PSU to be moved internally. To reduce power usage, the chips probably aren't the same. My best guess would be a process shrink to the bigger chips, or more integration, as you suspect.

Bricks are cheap, but internal PSUs are cheaper, especially in higher volumes. It's less pieces, period. Fewer, simpler cables. One less "case". One less item to pack

I'll probably get it

[r_jensen11]

My brother has had our family's PS2 for the past 3 or 4 years. I havn't wanted to shell out money for another PS2 because I figured I'd be getting a PS3 in the next year or so and I could play my old games on that (since I'm still attending university and will probably graduate in May, I'll hopefully have enough disposable income to get a TV and a PS3.) But since the PS3 doesn't have PS2 emulation any more, and I havn't heard a thing about PS1 emulation (yes, some people still have PS1 games), this thing

will hurt ps3?

[john_uy]

isn't reducing the price going to hurt more of ps3 sales rather than helping it? people will instead buy the ps2 and avoid buying the ps3 for the meantime because of the higher price. but then again, it may also be good because it is also possibly hurting the sales of wii and xbox as well.

the price reduction for ps3 is a good move as well. removing the compatibility probably will not make a big different because people who will buy ps3 will highly have a ps2 already.

stop it, Sony... just stop it.

[captain_cthulhu]

oooh!! Sony drops the price of the PS2 a whole $29!!!

that's about the same price that the PS2 chip costs when put into the PS3 - according to Joystiq's research

Gee Sony, button up your shirt, your heart's falling out.

Re:

[Woooopa]

This offering is confirmation that Sony is scrapping for every dollar from any piece of hardware they can get put on the shelves. Why don't they bring the PS1 back??? Being that not enough people are buying their inflated (expectations and price) PS3, this is Sony's solution to loosing their collective shirts. Bow before the XBOX360!!!