End of an Era: PS2 Stops Shipping to Retailers in Japan
The PlayStation 2 will no longer be produced in the world, but it hasn't breathed its last.
According to Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Sony's stopped producing PlayStation 2s in Japan and ceased sending them to Japanese retailers. This means that the remaining stock is the last batch of new PlayStation 2s left.
For its near 13 year run, the PlayStation 2 has sold over 150 million consoles worldwide. Only until recently, when it was beaten by the Nintendo DS, the PS2 was the best-selling console to date.
Though the PlayStation 2 is officially off production lines, it's still getting at least one more console release. Square Enix's expansion for Final Fantasy XI, Adoulin No Makyou, will be landing on PlayStation 2 sometime in 2013, proving that the PS2 still has yet to breathe its last.
I never bought a PS3 (or xbox 360. We do have a Wii, but it was a gift and has not been used in 2 years). I was looking forward to buying one when it came out, but it never got the exclusive games that grabbed my attention. My friends have given me their PS3s to fix from time to time, and as payment I require them to let me borrow it for a week or two to play through a game I was interested in... but truth be told the only exclusives that I have enjoyed playing through was FF XIII, and Uncharted, and after I played them I did not have the urge to go back and play them again like I did with the old PS2 games.
I think what killed it for me has been the excessive focus on multiplayer games, which I simply don't enjoy (because I have the reaction times of a sloth). Another thing has been the shift in jRPGs. I mean, the only 'big' jRPG to be released this generation has been FFXIII... and it does not hold a candle to the old FF games, and the one that I was really looking forward to (FFXIII Versus) was canceled! jRPGs use to be these fun epic team-building stories that could be enjoyed by a wide audience (FFX was my favorite except for the terrible voice acting). But now jRPGs have moved to handhelds (which I hate), and they are all angsty highschool dramas, which are just not enjoyable for me as an adult.
Give me a few RPGs that are heavily story and team driven, with a world that looks as big and amazing as skyrim. Throw in some quarky humor, high drama, a killer sound track and I will be interested. Make some balanced game mechanics where I can play the game through a few times using different strategies, and then you will have me sold on whatever console it comes out on. We just did not get any of that since FFX (FFXII was simply not fun, and while XIII was better, it was not repeatable), and I really miss it.
I love Skyrim, and it is hands down my favorite game in recent history. But for me it is too open. I am too ADD to stay focused on the story (80+ hours and I have yet to do much of the main quest). And it is just so easy to put all of my points in magic, and blow through each level launching fireballs with a stagger bonus, that I have become too lazy to try any other strategies, which gets a little old after a while having that one 'silver bullet' that I can play the whole game with. I always loved the jRPGs because the story forced you to keep moving, so you would want to replay the game because you know you missed something. Also, the constant change-up of the teams in FF9 and XIII (and to a lesser extent in FFX) force you to adopt different strategies throughout the game, which helps keep the combat fresh. Plus, they were never afraid of having some really fun and colorful characters, where as skyrim's characters seem to be either overworked and bitter... or they worked too hard and have gone crazy... not a lot of variety.
How does that even make sense when the original PS3 has the PS2 chip on-board and offers better video quality for PS2 games and comes with a blu-ray player? lol
It was the last console I played when it was just all about games, and not all the social/dlc/online stuff.
PS3 was a let down for me, and I stopped using it 4 years ago. This next generation of consoles(Ps4&Xbox 720 only) will be the first generation I skip.
I still wish I had working Atari 2600 and NES/SNES too, great systems. Good times.
PC gaming is where I'm at from now on only.
It was the console equivalent to Counter Strike and is the last console based tactical shooter that required skill and teamwork to play. It has since been relegated to the dumbed down shooter genre that Call of Duty has created.
I still believe Sony will do Socom fans right and release a proper Socom game eventually.
PS2 game library is significant better than PS vita.
Never gonna happen as far as ramped up prices, there are more ps2's out there than any home console in history, and if you check ebay all but the rarest of consoles are cheap as hell (20-50 bucks for anything from Genesis to NES to Dreamcast). I doubt that they will even be gone from retail in the US in the next year.