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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."
I guess this Sony's answer to removing backwards compatibility on the new 40GB PS3?
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.
Kevin Smith on Prince
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 and Microsoft consider the PS3 their competition now. It's like Microsoft worrying about Nintendo DS sales - it might matter, but it's also not their primary competition.
Goo goo g'joob.
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.
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All over the place. 2 weeks ago in Canada, Zellers was selling PS2s for $99 and DS Lite for $109.
With the rising Canadian dollar, urther cuts are possible before Christmas. Watch for them at $89 after Christmas.
Kevin Smith on Prince
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.
I never said I was smart, I just said I was smarter than you
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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dvi/vga/hdmi anything digital and it will sell like sugar.
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.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
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.
I, for one, am looking forward to the inevitable
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.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=PS2®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39019&end=39383
(if you ignore the spike of the last couple of weeks)
Having said that it still outsells the 360 week by week too...
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.
swanker than you
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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?
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 initially.
If I had to guess, I'd say they compressed several internal components of the PS2 into a single, cheaper chip, and with the space they saved they are moving the power supply in there.
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.
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 into a box. A slightly smaller and lighter package for shipping. Plus, I'd bet that the external bricks were outsourced, the internal PSU might be integrated into the main circuit board.
It's nickels and dimes.
Also, a $30 drop at retail, does not mean a $30 drop in hardware costs. After retailer markups, importing costs, and transportation costs, who know, you might only need a $15 change in costs -- or Sony might take a bit less profit on the hardware, and hope to make up a bit in software sales.
I've never bought a PS2, who knows, maybe I will this time.
... 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 old age.
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
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And what's broken with it?
This is blinging
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. :)
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
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 looks like a great object. Plus, the psychology of a 2-digit price instead of a 3-digit price is pretty important. Dropping a price from $120 to $109 has nowhere near the effect of $110 to $99, even though they're both basically 10% drops.
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.
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
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 those people buying PS2s now won't help Sony's success with the PS3, and that's where Sony needs help right now.
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.
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