Slashdot Mirror


100 Million PS2s Shipped

1up.com reports on a Sony release stating they've shipped 100 Million PS2 consoles. From the article: "PSOne took more than nine years to reach the same milestone Sony's achieved with PlayStation 2 in a little more than five. Sony says global shipments of PlayStation 2 break down to 40.65 million units in North America, 37.14 million in Europe and 22.22 million in all of Asia. The end result is Sony having a PlayStation brand that's moved roughly 1.86 billion units of hardware in a little over a decade, with plenty of time for PlayStation 2 to keep growing as the company makes the shift into next-generation in the coming year. "

36 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Quite a milestone by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 1

    It really is pretty astonishing to ship 100 million *anything* let alone a game console. It sure makes that trumped up 10 million Xbox 360's by 2006 statement look like a long shot.

    --
    http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
    1. Re:Quite a milestone by Delphiki · · Score: 1

      First of all, what makes it trumped up? Second of all, after reading a bunch of your posts, I have to ask, how much does Sony pay you?

      --

      Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".

    2. Re:Quite a milestone by albyrne5 · · Score: 1

      I was reading this e-mail thinking, "my god what do these guys DO to their poor PS2s", then I realised I too had to replace one (but it did suffer some serious abuse). And then I thought some more and realised I've now got one of those small-and-quieter ones, so I must've replaced it again, but I don't even remember when or why! So yeh, I'm on my third PS2.

      This one seems to be fine so far, but it definitely doesn't get anything like the same amount of abuse that the previous two got.

      Here's an unrelated question - what gives with the 720/1080(i/p) modes offered by the next gen consoles. Most 50" plasmas I've seen offer 768 lines which is too high or too low depending. Are there plasma 50"+ HDTVs available which support 1080p? If not, will there be a problem scaling to suit the tvs natural resolution?

    3. Re:Quite a milestone by mink · · Score: 1

      Considering 2 of my 3 PS2 units are no longer able to read DVD media (they can read CD) I say it's a good sign that SONY is producing shit hardware (I treated them well). Back in the 80's I had a walkman. Plastic, looked like crap and the front door broke off, but the radio and actual cassette player mechanism held up to several years of damp dishwasher work in a restaurant. I wish SONY and AIWA products were built as well now as the ones I dealt with 20 years ago.

      --
      Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
    4. Re:Quite a milestone by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 1

      I never claimed Sony made *good* hardware, just that my personal PS2 is a gen 1 PS2 that has held up to more abuse and work than almost any over 5 years or so and still runs perfectly.

      I would never own one single piece of sony A/V equipment, no TV's, no monitors, no stereos, no CD walkmans... nothing. The PS1 and PS2 are it... and I used to work for Sony! I've bought Wega's for relatives at discount, and they like them, but I never personally trust any Sony product.

      Even with all that said, 100 million PS2's is still amazing. Even if every person had to buy two, that is still 50 million PS2's (and Sony still technically sold 100 mil). No matter how you slice it, that is a ton of any console to move.

      --
      http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
    5. Re:Quite a milestone by mink · · Score: 1

      I agree, but going by ancidoltal (sic) evidence, many people buy somewhere around 2-5 PS2 units. So using numbers pulled from my ass, at worst SONY has only sold units to about 25M individuals or more realistically somewhere between 38M and 45M.

      Any spelling mistakes are intentional in the post, and I have no grammar.

      --
      Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
  2. So... how many of those were sold? by MilenCent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure it's a lot what with their market-leading position, but after the PSP discrepency between units-shipped and units-sold, I think it's a valid question.

    And, 1.86 BILLION pieces of hardware? How many of those are consoles, and how many are things like memory cards?

    1. Re:So... how many of those were sold? by rohlfinator · · Score: 1

      Take this with a grain of salt, but I've heard that Sony counts replacement and demo kiosk units as "shipped". Only the consoles that are actually purchased by a consumer would be considered "sold". In that case, if little Billy sends his PS2 in for repair (even if it's still under warranty), Sony would count that as another "shipped" console.

      Does anyone know if this theory is true? I was skeptical at first, but the 100 million figure does seem a little high. I know that the PS2 is leading in sales, but from my personal experience, it sure doesn't seem to have sold five times as many units as the GameCube or Xbox.

  3. Doing the maths by FirienFirien · · Score: 1

    That's 1.86bn items of software, not hardware. Quick envelope-maths goes pretty hard on the idea of having that much hardware, even if you include the PS units themselves.

    --
    Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
    1. Re:Doing the maths by jcorno · · Score: 1

      200 million consoles, several hundred million controllers, probably a few million hard drives, several hundred million memory cards, lots and lots of ethernet adapters...I don't think 1.86 billion is an unreasonable number. Granted, it's a little silly to count stuff that comes with it in the box, but it's probably technically correct.

    2. Re:Doing the maths by Red+Flayer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, over the life of my PS1 I bought:

      (4) controllers
      (2) multi-taps
      (4) memory cards

      This doesn't include other hardware that shipped with the PS1, and it's probably a little above average (but 8-player FIFA was pretty fun).

      Over the life of my PS2 (so far) I have bought:

      (2) controllers
      (3) memory cards
      I didn't bother purchasing the hard drive or network adapter, and this is probably around average.

      So, including the units themselves, and not including additional hardware shipped with the base units, I've purchased 17 pieces of Sony hardware... from Sony. This doesn't include the knockoff disposable controllers and cord extenders I bought and cannibalized after they broke.

      So, 1.86bn pieces of hardware seems pretty darn attainable.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    3. Re:Doing the maths by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      It's still 8 pieces of hardware per shipped console. Even counting the included cables (1x TV hookup, 1x power) and controller only gives you 6 pieces of hardware for a console with 2 memcards and 2 controllers, the average punter will have less than that (and quite a bit of 3rd party gear that doesn't count for Sony).

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  4. 1.8 billion? by BushCheney08 · · Score: 1

    Okay, so you've got approximately 200 million PS1 and PS2s out there. Does that mean that every one of those has approximately 10 other pieces of hardware that goes with it?

    --
    Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
  5. Re:They've shipping! by BushCheney08 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They've shipping = They have shipping.

    This is something that I always look for when placing an order online...

    --
    Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
  6. Yeah, but... by hawkbug · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I want to know how many of those units sold were replacements for the shitty first generation ones that died on people! I've had 3 PS1 consoles and also 2 PS2 consoles. Crappy lasers make crappy console parts.

  7. Re:obligatory tommy boy quote by /ASCII · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm sure you can. But to ship 100 million such boxes, you'd have to take a dump five times every day for 55,000 years. That would take some serious dedication.

    Further, Sony made people pay for the PS2, at least $100 on average.

    If you manage to create 100 million of your 'turdboxes', and make people pay $10 billion for them, then you can start comparing yourself with the Sony marketing department.

    --
    Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
  8. Wow! by chudgoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And thanks to Sony's faulty optics used in the PS2
    at least three of the 100-million are mine!
    (Only one, the redesigned PStwo, still works...for now)

    Just makes me wonder how many of those 100 million have been sent in for repair/refurb...

    1. Re:Wow! by Impotent_Emperor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My PS2 is currently broken and I'm not looking to replace it or get it fixed.

    2. Re:Wow! by chudgoo · · Score: 1

      If it weren't for Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater I wouldn't have replaced mine either...

      Goddamn Konami...making exclusives for Sony...jerks...

    3. Re:Wow! by eamonman · · Score: 1

      Gee, I bought my PS2 about 4 years ago, and hav abused it to no end (dropped water on it, kicked it in anger), and after playing 100+ games, it still runs. My controller doesn't vibrate too often, but that's because i've swung the thing against the floor more than a few times ( I really hated NBA 2K whatever). The only thing that is on the fritz is the memory card, but that's just because the kicking probably did something to it.

      I guess it's just a roll of the dice.

      --
      0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
    4. Re:Wow! by mink · · Score: 1

      I'm always on the lookout for spare parts. If you would like to sell it, drop me a line.

      --
      Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
  9. Re:1.8 billion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    PS2s, PS1s, PSPs. You don't add an apostrophe to anything to make it plural.

  10. Re:1.8 billion? by Delphiki · · Score: 1

    I'm sure they're including controllers, memory cards, eye toys, DVD remotes and probably even the stands they sell for the PS2 as hardware.

    --

    Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".

  11. 1.8 Billion SOFTWARE, 200+ Million PS1+PS2s... by javaxman · · Score: 4, Interesting
    so, how much does it pay to be a slashdot editor, because I'm sure I'd actually read the linked article and check the story for obvious errors before submitting it ( yea, I'll be modded down, but isn't that what an "editor" is supposed to do? Half the damn posts here are about the story's "1.86 billion hardware" mistake... )

    Anyway, a key point here is ( or should be ) that there have been 1.86 *billion* Sony Playstation game disks sold. If the PS3 is backwards-compatible, that's a lot of people who have a lot of games they can *already* play on that system.

    Another key point is that the PS2 is going to continue to be sold for some time, and is easily the most successful console of all time, selling 100 million in 5 years and still going strong. I know people who will be getting thier *first* PS2 this Christmas, and believe me, they aren't thinking of it as a console near the end of it's life. I expect the PSone to be phased out sometime after the introduction of the PS3, but the PS2 is going to be around for a while yet.

  12. Blast Processing defined by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For comparrison to other more important and trendy questions of the day - does the XBox360 support Blast-Processing?

    Depends on whether a Sonic the Hedgehog classics compilation is one of the backward-compatible titles. In practice, if the name "Blast Processing" referred to anything, it was the name of the graphics engine in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This engine used a lot of caching of objects to fixed parts of the Sega Genesis console's main RAM to take advantage of the fastest MC68000 addressing modes, something that modern consoles and their malloc() based memory management can't do as effectively. Anything that can emulate a Genesis can run Sonic 2 and any other hypothetical Genesis game that uses the same engine.

  13. How many are replacement units? by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And how many of the consoles sold are replacement consoles for the ones that broke?

  14. Re:obligatory tommy boy quote by Pluvius · · Score: 1

    I think the "joke" murdered itself.

    Rob

  15. Sincerity defined by tepples · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that's the sound of a joke doing a high-speed flyby over your head.

    It's possible to lose a lot more karma by making bad jokes (1 Funny + 1 Overrated = -2% karma times the number of pairs of moderats who feel this way) than by intentionally missing a joke and making a sincere comment (1 In* + 1 Overrated = 0 effect on karma).

    1. Re:Sincerity defined by EnVisiCrypt · · Score: 1

      I was just giving you a playful ribbing. Relax.

      With respect to karma, I couldn't give a good god damn about what type of comment will affect it.

      --


      *everything* is Orwellian to cats.
  16. Re:1.8 billion? by apoc06 · · Score: 1

    in addition, that these are shipped numbers. sold numbers are pretty high, but shipped numbers will always be even greater. i counted out the number of accessories ive bought for my ps1 and ps2 and i was surprised at how much ive spent. stretched out over the last 8 or so years, you dont even realize how much you spend.

    ps1 system
    ps2 system
    psp system
    2 memory cards for ps1
    1 memory card for ps2
    multitap
    extra controller for ps1
    2 dual shock analog controllers to replace original [non-analogstick] ps1 controllers
    network adapter for playstation2
    512mb memory stick for psp
    1gb memory stick for psp
    case for psp
    extra power cable for ps1
    action replay for ps1
    extra battery for psp
    [and im most likely still leaving out stuff... PLUS this isnt even beginning to count the money spent on games]

    i dont even think i am the worst offender when it comes to buying hardware. then theres additional hardware numbers when you talk about hardware that come bundled with certain games. like DDR dancemats, guitar hero guitars, novelty controllers, rez vibrators, and almost any and every light gun game. thats alot of hardware sony pumps out. 1.8 billion units doesnt sound as unheard of when you take into account all of this is spread out over ~8-9 years, and three pretty successful systems.

  17. I bet... by PeelBoy · · Score: 1

    2/3rds of those systems were purchased by people whose PS2 died on them once or twice.

    I've purchased several (more than 2) and so have most of my friends.

  18. Love the PS2 by Jim+Hall · · Score: 1

    I love my PS2. I'm actually on my second one - not because my first one died, but because I bought the PS2 slimline and gave my first one to a friend. It's all about the games. I've played games on the XBox (including a few that supported 1080i on my HD-TV) but they're too much like games on the PC. There's more variety and unique games on the PS2.

    Can't wait to play "We Love Katamari", or "Shadow of the Colossus" or even "Ratchet: Deadlocked". Last weekend, I went to our local GameStop and picked up some used games to get me through until Christmas. Right now, I'm playing "Maximo" and "Killzone".

    The irony (for me) in Sony shipping the 100 millionth PS2 is that last weekend I also bought a PSOne for $20. I'll use it to set up a dedicated "Dance Dance Revolution" system, so I can get some exercise during the winter.

    1. Re:Love the PS2 by Hitto · · Score: 1

      Trust me, in the long run you'll probably want a cheap PC instead, with this installed.
      But hey, 20 buck's a good deal.

  19. Hardware? by Repran · · Score: 1

    That should read "1.86 billion units of software"

    --

    -- Contradictions only exist in thought - not in reality.

  20. Kudos to Sony by fujiman · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The PS2 has proven that game consoles are expendable, replaceable, and most importantly for them, re-purchaseable. It seems that if you keep your price even with the percieved value of replacement, you'll sell those things until you run out of plastic to make them.

    While I'd love a console that would last at least 5 years, the PS2 model is making me think they won't try that hard next go-round.

    Why sell something once to someone when you can sell it over and over (also see: music CDs)?

    Actually, I think that is one of many reasons Sony-BMG (et al) hate the digital media (yes, I know CDs are technically digital media) -- it doesn't scratch and never has to be replaced. Not much money in that.

    That being said, MS is doing a great job peeing in their pie. By shortening the console generation, MS is basically robbing Sony of profit. Since Sony has such an enormous lead this time, anything to shake them off balance is good for MS.

    The other thing MS is doing right is the Live Marketplace. Everyone (I know) who has seen it has fallen in love with it. People will be spending money like crazy, 5 bucks at a time.

    Back to Geometry Wars...

  21. Re:They've shipping! by BushCheney08 · · Score: 1

    You don't even realize what's wrong until someone pounds it into your brain.

    Right back atcha, buddy. And in case it's still not clear, I am very well aware of the error in the original sentence and why it didn't make sense (as well as what it should have read). It seems that you aren't capable of figuring out that what I wrote was a (not so subtle) joke.

    --
    Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.