bit-gamer.net

PS2 to sell for three more years?

Published on 27th September 2007 by Joe Martin

Sega still thinks there's life in the PS2 yet and expects it to sell well for another three years at least.

A recent poll of the bit-tech community revealed that an overwhelming majority of you wouldn't buy a PlayStation 3 even if the price dropped again, but I'm still willing to put money on the fact that a lot of you have a PlayStation 2 still.

In fact, it's not just me who thinks that - Sega too thinks there's a lot of life left in the old PS2 yet.

Speaking to MCV recently, Sega COO Simon Jeffrey said that he expects the PlayStation 2 to carry on selling for "another two or three years at least"

Jeffrey confirms that "PS2 high profile titles, especially 'wide market' and licensed titles, will absolutely be part of the Sega portfolio going forwards."

In fact, a quick search by Joystiq showed that there are dozens of games seeing a release on the system before January, including titles like Tony Hawk's Proving Ground and Guitar Hero III.

The PlayStation 2 is one of the best selling consoles ever and has sold well over 100 million individual consoles, with continued strong sales and games like Tomb Raider: Anniversary still debuting on the console.

Which raises the question - what is it that makes the average gamer love the PS2 but frown at the PS3? Is it just a matter of pricing and games, or is there a deeper issue? Let us know what you think in the forum.

8 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

Mother-Goose 27th September 2007, 11:28

It's vista syndrome (well that is what I am calling it). It is easier for developers to work with technology they have been developing games for over quite a few years.

The 360 was good because it came reasonably soon after the original, where as the ps3 has come out a significant period of time longer, just like microsoft has with Vista over XP.

Joeymac 27th September 2007, 12:33

console pricing.. worthwhile games... pricing of games....ease of use.... no updating games... no menus to mess with... no HDMI cable to buy. SD games are like CD's. Put it in and it starts up. That's it. The consumer gets it. These new consoles are much much more complicated... "do I need a new TV?.. why won't this old game work in it?.... what do I need to connect it to the internet for?.. I can't plug my old memory card in... I don't want a Blu-Ray player, DVD is fine for me... why do I have to update the console?" etc etc etc. Most people don't want to have to dick around like that.

Plus most people are still on SD. PS2 games look fine on regular old TVs. It would be interesting to see how the PS2 sales are stacking against xbox 1 games at the moment.

Da_Rude_Baboon 27th September 2007, 13:01

Quote:

A recent poll of the bit-tech community revealed that an overwhelming majority of you wouldn't buy a PlayStation 3 even if the price dropped again..

Isn't the poll is asking if you would buy a lower spec PS3 at a lower price?

Lower price PS3 + catalogue of good games = purchase for me.

Flibblebot 27th September 2007, 13:23

The thing with the PS3, is that at the moment, there are no must-have titles for it. Add the high initial price of the console (even higher if you have to buy a new TV too) - you're looking at an initial outlay of £500 (possibly over a grand if you decide you need a new TV) for a console that, as yet, doesn't have that much going for it.

That's why there's more of a market for the PS2: most people have one (and if they don't, it's dirt cheap to buy), there are still good games being published, and an absolutely massive back-catalogue of old games. If you haven't got one, you could probably get going for less than 20% the price of a PS3 starter pack.

devdevil85 27th September 2007, 18:45

everybody and their brother owns a PS2 that I know, so it makes sense that they are still marketing for it. Everyone in my friend's dorm owns one, and we're talking like easily 100 people (of course starving college students can't afford a PS3) cause they LAN up like every night playing games...so....

proxess 27th September 2007, 20:02

They've got it wrong again! Its not that the PS2 will sell for another 2/3 years. Its because the PS3 won't sell well for another 2/3 years until its like half the price!

Neogumbercules 27th September 2007, 20:53

Damn, I made it in two Bit-Tech articles in the same week. /pats back

I regret not including a third option on that poll, though. I should have added an "I'm not sure yet" option. The thing has like 750 views and less than 100 responses. It makes me think I didn't provide enough options.

These are the reasons why I think the PS3 is having a slow start:

360 had a year head start
High price(low early adoption so devs opt to jump ship or go multi-platform)
Sony making lofty claims and not living up to them
No killer titles early on (although I think this is a BS reason, most console launches are lackluster, at best)
Ken Kutaragi saying all kinds of ridiculous things about the PS3
Sony marketing disasters (losing exclusives left and right)
Sony PR disasters
Internet folks jumping on the bash-Sony bandwagon and people just going with it.

And most of all, despite insurmountable hardware flaws Microsoft managed to keep their system alive through awesome marketing and expert level PR work, putting it in a well-liked position for gamers. That and the promise of Halo 3...

completemadness 27th September 2007, 23:17

Personally, i think its just pricing

the PS3 is just so expensive, when a PS2 is £100ish, and there are so many games, and even a few good ones, why get a PS3 ?
Also, the PS3 doesn't have rumble, and accessories are very expensive (especially wireless controllers)

Hell most of the people i know don't even have a 360, its not like there are any amazing games for it, and its still £200ish - and it doesn't exactly offer an advantage over the PS2