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.

by Catherine Cai December 31, 2012 at 10:00 AM - Source: Kotaku

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.

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Catherine Cai

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WithoutWeakness 5 years ago

They were still manufacturing these and producing games for them in 2012? I'm actually impressed. Assuming they were sold at reasonable prices I can totally understand why they were still selling. There were so many great games for the PS2 and you can get them all used for dirt cheap.

Other Comments

dameon51 5 years ago

I totally missed out on that gen of console gaming, that's when I was totally into PC's. Too bad as the ps2 really did have a lot of great titles. Would of been a very good entertainment investment.
kawininjazx 5 years ago

When I look back on my favorite games of all time, there are a ton of PS2 games: Grand Theft Auto, God of War, Gran Turismo, it was such a great system.
WithoutWeakness 5 years ago

They were still manufacturing these and producing games for them in 2012? I'm actually impressed. Assuming they were sold at reasonable prices I can totally understand why they were still selling. There were so many great games for the PS2 and you can get them all used for dirt cheap.
rocknrollz 5 years ago

PS2 was my first console (Yeah I am a young one) and I loved it. I still have it from almost 10 years of use. Still works (Not the DVD side) and plays games pretty well for a 10 year old piece of hardware.
chibiwings 5 years ago

Best console ever, no matter what PS3, Xbox360 & Wii Throw, the can never dethrone PS2.
CaedenV 5 years ago

lol, and just today my neighbor asked me if I could fix his old PS2. there were some really great games on that system, and I admittedly still use mine. Once or twice a year I get the urge to play Final Fantasy, and the PS2 has all of my favorites of 6, 8, 9, and 10, as well as Kingdom Hearts 1&2. It also had Burnout 3 which is still a blast, and makes a great party game. I also played ONI, Xenosaga 1-3, and a few fighting games. The system was cheap and reliable, I never had to pay more than $20 for a game, and what games I played had tons of replay value.

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.
TunaSoda 5 years ago

chibiwingsBest console ever, no matter what PS3, Xbox360 & Wii Throw, the can never dethrone PS2.

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
darkchazz 5 years ago

The last console I have owned. such great memories
Anonymous 5 years ago

I bypassed this one and have a PS3 now which I dont use to game on, only for media and Blu ray files. My gaming PC handles all my games and does it many times better than any console ever could.
nuvon 5 years ago

Only reason I bought PS3: GT5. It is still the only game I have.
drinkingcola86 5 years ago

I loved my PS2. It was awesome to play games on it like. GTA3, both gods of war, and most of the final fantasy games from that era. The only reason why I got rid of it was because I got one of the Last generations of PS3's that could play the PS2 games. I still go back and play Final Fantasy 9 and 10 on it even today.
edogawa 5 years ago

I loved the PS2! So many great games on it that I loved and want to play. I even still have my original PS2 in great condition with everything.

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.
DRosencraft 5 years ago

LOL, just last night my brother and I had a two hour long talk about how great the PSX and PS2 generations were - that despite a few mistakes they were incredibly fun and entertaining. The PS3 is a great system, but ours crapped out and three attempts at fixing it have lasted two weeks at the longest. Even so, this current generation has suffered from a serious lack of great games. Even some of the series that carried over from previous generations have been gutted thanks to half the games being stripped out for multiplayer or micro-transactions of some kind. My biggest concern in gaming isn't the hardware, it's the software; stop with the endless micro-transactions, the over-focus on online/multiplayer, and please, please, please stop with so many FPS games.
NuclearShadow 5 years ago

The PS2 was a interesting console for sure. While I never personally owned one I do of course have friends that had them. I would certainly say that it helped play a large role in bringing console games into the online multi-player. I think it's fair to say it was the most influential console of its generation.
Anonymous 5 years ago

Socom I and II ruined my High School experience. In 4 years I played roughly 8000 hours of Socom online.

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.
rantoc 5 years ago

All the hard earned games that will be lost now when peps can't get a new replacement system when the old one fails, just another reason to stay on PC imo!
tomfreak 5 years ago

they could have just make the entire platform to replace PS vita.

PS2 game library is significant better than PS vita.
rdc85 5 years ago

At least we can still ("sort of") plays old games via emulator.....
bustapr 5 years ago

now is the time when ebay sellers start selling PS2s at more than a new PS3 costs. I dont think the PS2 is entirely dead yet since Square Enix announced a new Final Fantasy 11 expansion for PS2 in japan for 2013. also hopes for a new PERSONA in the future, though I doubt either will appear in USA. PS2 was amazing for its time with all the great games, PS3 didnt live up to its predecessor mainly because of the ridiculous online patch reliability which allows devs to release half baked short games on time and finish it later with a patch. also the lame belief that multiplayer has to be in every game ruined it for story games.
holdingholder 5 years ago

bustaprnow is the time when ebay sellers start selling PS2s at more than a new PS3 costs. I dont think the PS2 is entirely dead yet since Square Enix announced a new Final Fantasy 11 expansion for PS2 in japan for 2013. also hopes for a new PERSONA in the future, though I doubt either will appear in USA. PS2 was amazing for its time with all the great games, PS3 didnt live up to its predecessor mainly because of the ridiculous online patch reliability which allows devs to release half baked short games on time and finish it later with a patch. also the lame belief that multiplayer has to be in every game ruined it for story games.

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.

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