Hi PlayStation fans!
It’s great to kick start the year with some exciting news. I’m thrilled to share that we’ve hit a remarkable milestone on the PlayStation 2. In December, PS2 officially broke the record as the first video game console in history to sell over 50 million units in North America. This is a tremendous achievement and truly reinforces PS2 as the best-selling gaming platform and one of the most successful technology products ever released. On behalf of everyone at SCEA, I want to thank all of you, our loyal fans, for supporting the PlayStation 2 platform since its launch.
We know that PS2 owners have a deep love for their system, primarily due to the engaging and diverse gaming lineup. To date, PS2 owners bought more than 500 million software units and it remains the most-played console on the market. We’re very proud of the success the PS2 has accomplished, and it’s a testament to the content and value that the platform offers. The fact that the PS2 is in its ninth year and continues to engage consumers further validates our mission of delivering ten years of entertainment value with all of our platforms.
Introduced on October 26, 2000, the PS2 rocked the gaming world with the then-fledgling DVD format and software titles that went on to become some of the biggest franchises in gaming history. Titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Madden NFL, Gran Turismo and Jak & Daxter defined what entertainment meant for the PS2’s generation of gaming and beyond, marking the platform as one of the most successful for game developers. Used as the de-facto DVD video player in tens of thousands of living rooms across North America, the PS2 also helped establish the DVD format in the market. The combination of killer titles, advanced technology, and innovative applications is what set the PS2 apart as the dominant gaming system and helped pave the landscape for SCEA today.
This milestone showcases the significant impact that PlayStation has made on the gaming industry and reinforces what is to come on PlayStation 3. No other video game console has come close to what’s been achieved with the PS2 and we’re on track to do this again on the PS3.
PS2 owners still have much to look forward to in the coming year. We’re thankful for your loyalty and look forward to providing the same engaging PlayStation experience as you gravitate to PS3. Given there are 50 million PS2 units out there, we know that you have a lot of fun PS2 moments to share – we look forward to hearing about them on the blog. Thank you all again for your support!
– John
130 million consumers can’t be wrong. Hurrayz forz thez PS2zezez. :P (Though, to be fair, three of those were bought by me because each broke. Don’t know if it was just bad luck, but I DO know that my PS3 is already showing that it’s a superior value.) Congratulations and here’s to another couple million before this thing hits the breaks and leaves the PS3 to take over. :)
My most fun memories revolve around the God of War, Mark of Kri and Shadow of the Colossus games. Now that’s some great work right there. Hopefully all of these franchises see the light on the PS3.
You would think Sony would realize that taking BC out of the PS3 is what’s stopping it from really taking off, well that and the price.
Damn what a double edged sword.
I still have the PS2 I got the day it launched in the US. Since then, I’ve bought 2 more PS2’s. So I have 3 laying around.
I love the PS2! Why in the world did you remove the backwards compatibility from the PS3!?!?!?!?
Great milestone. Still playing the Gor of War games. And some Vice City, one of my favorite games ever.
@phinn
You dimwit, GTA was never a Sony exclusive. The damn series has started out on the PC, always had PC versions and sometimes Xbox versions.
And LOL! at the stinking pile of fail Square has turned into this gen. Outside of Crisis Core they have put out nothing but garbage. Buggy, poorly running garbage.
God of War, sorry typo
Wonderful, now return BC to the PS3 so I can buy another one for my kids. You have lost more money by not having a BC SKU than you have gained by taking it out. The software I would have bought for my children alone would have made up for the money lost on including it. Not to mention the blu-ray kids movies that would be bought. Please quit ignoring us, we want it back.
@48 https://blog.playstation.com/wp-login.php
That’s great an all but… what’s going on with sony’s marketing department? For the holiday season I hardly saw any PS3 commercials, the few I saw were cool, but they had no mass appeal at all:
http://www.destructoid.com/sony-s-playstation-3-holiday-ad-campaign-is-uh-yeah-111724.phtml
Mean while, all I see is xBox giving away 2 free crappy “family games” with their $199 stripped down arcade sku. Like it or not, that sells. I gotta believe that had there been some sort of deal or better marketing, the PS# would have done better than this:
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php
And now there’s news that xBox will be getting the new Resident Evil demo earlier. I mean is there no one at SONY that goes after stuff like this for ust PS3 owners? No wonder they have a surplus of units and has to drop the price to get rid of them. I just hope it’s enough.
As a SONY fan, I’m really hoping someone inside SONY can shape things up around here.
PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS3 owner here. Congrats on the ps2, I have a BC 60GB PS3 myself I paid $500.00 for. 2 months after the warranty expires I have to pay another $150.00 to get the disc read problem fixed. When is Sony going to get back to the games instead of wasting all this money on Playstation Home? Don’t get me wrong Playstation Home is a very good place to interact but where’s all the in home media capabilities, AKA Personal space video and photo’s you promised at E3 2 years ago? Atm there is a serious lack of support for game launcing from within Home. And everytime I go on Home about the only thing I see is some virtual guy tryin to get into some virtual girls pants. Not to mention when you’re playin pool someone misses one shot and just quits. In closing start snking more money into developing games for the ps3 and more advertising. Sorry for the long post but thank you for the chance to express our views.
Awesome! That just means the PS3 will be THE BEST CONSOLE EVER, too!
:P
Congratulations Sony—may similar numbers be achieved with your PSP and PS3. With only a few exceptions, I’ve been well-pleased with Sony products and software since I bought the PS1 in 1997. All the best.
12
If you guys really want to keep supporting the PS2, how about getting more blog posts up for it and its games? Besides this one, there are currently only three other PS2 related posts. :( There are still good new games coming out for it so get yourselves and third parties more involved!
This is the PLAYSTATION blog! PS3, PSP AND PS2 should be welcome here! :)
I hope the ps2 sells another 10 million in NA, and hope the ps3 gets atleast half of that in NA.
Well done PS2! Now it’s time to bring the thunder PS3. Please don’t let the best system on the market continue to be relegated to 3rd place – it’s just wrong.
grats sony. i loved my ps2.
this brings me waaaaaaay back to when i first got the PS2 that xmas back in 2000. through thick and thin, for better or worse i stuck it out with my old PS2 and never gave into buying any other system that was available on the market. it truly was the best system to own of the last generation. now would be a good time for Sony to drop the PS2 and focus solely on the PS3 and the future for it. we wanna be #1 again. the way i see it we’re not up against much again, just two white boxes – one that’s for kids and the other for a company that is trying to dominate and corner the computer software industry.
peace,
Lh
PS2 was the greatest, and still is. Mine has a battle scar but still works amazingly!
Congrats Sony and PS2. We shared a lot of moments. The God of War, Socom and Kingdom Hearts series are one of my favorites. Way to be a survivor.
I just bought FFX again (playing it for the fourth time now) but for my PS3, FFXIII hype got to me!
Still I had the best gaming memories ever on my PS2 and it truly was the awesomest console ever! Jak & Daxter anyone?
But I want the PS3 to do the same… this console needs to kick some serious a**, like now!
Sony keeps dropping the ball. The PS2 is still selling like crazy without many new games. The PSP is selling like crazy but no one developed any games for it last year (with a few exceptions). And the PS3 removes things like BC to make a lower price point and is still struggling against the XBots. And soon you’ll be able to get a cheap Blu-ray player and a Wii (gack) for less than a PS3 now. I love my PS3, PSP and PS2, but Sony isn’t making it easy to share the love with friends.
Congrats Sony. My unit well RIP. But thanks to my PS3 60Gb now 160GB, i can still enjoy my PS2 titles.
Does this mean Sony is bringing back backward compatibility?
SONY, WHY , WHY OH WHY DO YOU STILL REFUSE TO LISTEN TO YOUR CONSUMERS’ DEMANDS!
Give them what they want! They want Backwards compatibility! They didn’t ask for a SKU with 160GB bundled with Uncharted! Wasn’t the 80GB with BC selling more than the cheaper 40GB SKU? They want PS2 games too! Don’t look at it as if these gamers won’t give you any revenue buying old used PS2 games, just think BC will be (and was) atractive enough for them to decide to buy your must expensive PS3!
Over 120 million PS2 owners around the world. Tons of first class games many newcomers didn’t have the chance to play, THESE OLD GAMES CAN STILL SELL YOUR CONSOLE, AND I MEAN THE PS3! It’s a MAJOR factor, stop ignoring it!
Was playing GOW2 on my PS2 located in my basement, PS3 is in my living room.
Still remember waiting in line all night at a Walmart two days after it’s launch. I wasn’t planning on buying it but a few days before launch i got sucked into the hype and never regretted it since.
Great job SONY….
Lets get those PS3 number moving with a price cut. I agree at 399 it is a great value but at 299 you will get sooo many more people that are on the fence because of price.
Ok, now bring back PS2 Backwards Compatibility so those people can migrate easier to the PS3 instead of buying other consoles.
Cause as Kaz Hirai said “it’s a huge disservise to come with a new machine only to say: sorry, it only plays PS3 games”
I thought maybe you’d announce some PS2 items on the PSN or PSP. It’s ok – I still love you and my little bro loves his PS2 until he can afford (or someone will buy him) a PS3.
Great stuff Sony, always loved the PlayStation, keep it going and we hope to see PS3 be as slim and selling 50mil one day :p
Great!
Do you think this will happen for the ps3 with the way it is? NO
Sell the ps3 for 350 w/hdmi cable
Fix the playstation network and make the servers and everything updated and not laggy. As well as update the ps3 with features and make game developers add the ability to join players games from the xmb. In game chat, and voice messages, along with a re designed xmb (the same thing but sort of what mac did with their dock) make the icons 3D and customizable orders etc.
Do you want to compete Sony? Or just be the laggy dog behind others? This is not the company i remember which is why i bought a ps3, i had faith. It seems Sony is slacking very badly and needs to start with better ideas, and software development. The hardware is there.
Do these things and watch the ps3 numbers climb, sometimes you just have to listen to the community.
Hey John how about gravitating some of those PS2 purchases to the PS3 by giving us back Backward Compatibility in either hardware or emulated form.
PS2 helped the dvd market the same as PS3 is helping the blu-ray one. I remember that with my PS2 I was one of the first to be able to rent dvd movies. Same goes with my PS3 and Blu-ray. Funny.
I’m really glad Sony have a 10 years console life span.
I wish the Playstation 3 would be the best selling console in the years to come!!!
The potential is there.
I think to sony its smart not having BC for now, because that means people will buy both a ps2 and ps3 to play every playstation game(except psp).
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! But as many have said before me ps3 will never be another ps2, not the way xbox360 has a hold on people. I constantly hear from friends and co-workers that “the ps3 sucks get a 360.” It’s not how I feel, but I feel you need to hear this.
Still got my PS2. Lets hope u guys can pull the PS3 back to the top
I bought a fat on day one and a few years later a slim one, I have a 80gb with B/C…feel sorry for the guys that don’t get to play some masterpieces on their ps3…
Still play Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner at least once every year(full playthrough)..
Kojima needs to make (or produce) a new Zone of the Enders (hopefully with Dingo and Ken as the main characters).
I still use my ps2 to play time crisis titan quest since my ps3 is hooked up to an HDTV and the gun doesn’t like my tv XD.
I mean project titan >.> I was confusing the name with another game
I’ve been playing the hell out of Persona 4. I’m getting more enjoyment out of that game than any rpg i’ve played on the next gen platforms. THat includes Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Oblivion, Valkyria Chronicles, and Disgaea 3!
It just proves that a great entertainment experience can still be achieved on the 9 year old PS2. It isn’t going anywhere. I plan on actually buying a ps2 later on (I have an 80gb bc compatible ps3). I will no doubt replace that PS3 sooner or later :)
It’s great that the PS2 has achieved this. It is evident that this is one of the greatest consoles of all time (if there were such a thing as a Hall of Fame).
I would like to echo what you said about there being many, many games that made this possible, and early on no doubt the GTA series (kicking off with III) put consoles in homes and gamers hands.
Fast forward to 2009 and I think it has been more than shameful how Sony has nurtured the GTA fanbase on the PS3 thus far. Where is our DLC? Oh that’s right, Sony was too good and proud to give us a treat like the other console received. This has left a bitter taste in my mouth and many, many others who bought a PS3 for, amongst other games, primarily for GTA, as this is what we did with the ps2 (not all cases, but many as pointed out).
Mistakes like this show your complacentcy (sp) for the likes of this fanbase…which no doubt is one of the largest ones (see sales of GTA IV as an example). I just wanted to state, that while the PS2 has been one of the greatest consoles in history, how soon it is forgotten what made it that way (exclusives in the GTA realm, either timed or otherwise).
It’s sad how this was forgotten with the ps3 thus far.
I am so glad that the PS2 has been doing so well, it has tons of great games to choose from, many of which I still play on my PS3 even though I still own a PS2 but…
I have seen some things that disappoint me, and that disappointment is PS3 sales being lost due to something as simple as bc.
Sony. The loss of backwards compatibility is hurting your sales. Please bring it back! I don’t care how! A deluxe model with all the bells and whistles, a PS2 emulator, or an abracadabra magic trick, I really don’t give a flying rats ass…JUST BRING IT BACK….PLEASE!! Thanks.
I have a number of friends that entered the “Gaming Universe” with the PS2. There were so many things going on and available at that point. PSone had changed so many things for gamers, N64 was floundering, Dreamcast was being ignored, and the PS2 was lumbering into it’s own. I remember launch day horror stories, eBay prices well into the thousands of dollars, disc read errors, and then I look at my PS2 sitting next to my PS3. Same PS2 I picked up at 8AM on October 26. The same PS2 I’ve played countless hours of FFX, ALL of the Ratchet & Clank games, GTA III and it’s cousins, Zone of the Enders, Madden online for the first time, Devil May Cry, and the nostalgic list could go on for miles. Hell it’s even run FFXI for over 5 years, often times running several days with out being shut down.
I bought a 60Gb model with backwards compatibility, but I didn’t remove my PS2. It’s still sitting right next to the PS3 and still gets some play time every couple of weeks.
I just bought a PS2 for my son for christmas! Congrats Sony!
Bought my PS2 at launch along with Twisted Metal Black.
Yeah really, Losing BC was the stupidest thing SCEA ever did. Thank god for my 60 gig. Sure, the only game i EVER play anymore for PS2 is Amplitude (which i would like to thank Harmonix and Sony for ditching the game, shutting the online servers down [We’ve now hacked your Socom servers to get it to work. Win for us!), making FreQremixes go bankrupt, and then shutting down FreQ.com. Thanks… freaking jerks), but i still would never want to NOT have Backwards Compatibility.
I own three out of the 50 million sold . One in the Kitchen,Car, & One in my Bedroom. Anyways Congrats to the PS2.
Great console… the only thing that made me let go of it was my backwards compatible PS3.
Well congrats on the 50 mil mark, it was bound to happen to such a great console, now on to my point.
I don’t and will not own a ps3 without B/C, i’m not alone in this and i’m sure you know it sony.
i was willing to buy a ps3 at 600$ if it had good B/C, but being 25 and having bills slows down your savings.
When i went to get a MGS4 Bundle in august, i found out that sony was removing ps2 B/C from the ps3, i flat out refused to buy sony products after that, outside of ps2 games.
The removal of backwards compatibility for ps2 games has cost you more sales than just mine, so please bring it back soon, i’d rather not completely give up on the ps3, since my loyalty is slowly dissipating.
Also, fyi i still play my ps2 more than any other console, even now, since the games are that good.
The PS2 was a great system and even 9 years later is still a fairly decent system. But NO SYSTEM can match the power of the Playstation 3. The best thing I have ever bought and will probably still be until the next Playstation comes out.
Great job SONY, and CONGRATS