Sony stops shipping the PlayStation 2 in Japan after nearly 13 years

Kinda makes me sad. I have spent more hours gaming on a PS2 than any other gaming device (including PC).
Sadly I have barley had a reason to touch my PS3

First I would like to say Thank you to Sony for the PS2. During its heyday it was an impressive machine. One of the first consoles that offered a hard drive option. Second, it is more then 75% responsable for the death of the DreamCast system. The DreamCast was a better gaming system, its only flaw was spliting the viewing between the screen and the memory card screen.
I am personally hoping that Sony will look at what made the PS2 so succesfull and try the same tactics on the next gen console.

It could had been awesome if they just launched an upgraded ps2 console capable of running all the ps2 library but with 1080p graphics and antialiasing. Well, dreaming doesn't cost a thing.

I got the small in black, really need to sell it (CEX @ £20) but need a new controller since the current they wouldn't take due to the rubber pads on the two thingies has worn off/chipped.

Anyway, spent so much time on this when I was younger, whether it would be round my friends house or when Iv got mine. Played Tony Hawks, Ace Combat, NFS and GTA SA games on it, was a blast.

The end of an era. The glory years of gaming. These days people are too obsessed with multiplayer and dlc. PS2 era, when complete games were sold at retail and everything was properly bug tested before release. I miss you ps2.

>_> I just bought 3 ps2 games this week lol

I've had many good times on the PS2, but we all knew it was coming sooner or later.

PS2 was a great console but its age def shows, I think it's about time for Sony to hand the torch to the PS3 which is a great console.

Now if only it had ps2 compatibility lol. PS2 would've been dumped even sooner xD

Well hopefully this time around Sony will listen to the Gamer population and make PS2 game title compatibility a standard feature of the PS4. Why Sony thought dropping that feature from the early PS3 design was a good idea is still baffling. Oh wait the whole Playstation Network initiative whereby the loyal fans (I was one once) are cornered into paying an upper tier access fee should they wish to play many of the same games they already own. Either that or run a PS2 and PS3 side by side. So some of us did cough up the dough but then those nasty hackers came along, poked a hole in Sony's cost compressed security wall and pilfered our personal info. So much for the double pay plan. Then there was that financially crippling lawsuit lauched against an over enthusiastic gamer who tinkered a little too much with his PS3 for Sony's liking. That did wonders for Sony's image among the gaming population. XBOX is retro compatible and Microsoft seems to recognize the importance of not randomly trying to bankrupt a fan. Sony take note:

Telling gamers what we want instead of listening = Fail
Allowing Hackers to steal subsriber's personal information = Fail
Lawsuits against enthusiastic fans = Fail

A man can dream lol

GameCube released in 2001 had 43MB RAM, XBox released in 2001 had 64MB RAM, DreamCast is a bit older being released in 1998 but it had 16MB RAM. Where are your 128MB RAM gaming systems in 2000?

They are called computers. Whats happening today isn't any different then whats been happening for the past 15-20 years. PC's make consoles look like gameboys. Always have, always will.

@ Amstech- I think you're missing the point here. Yes a computer will hands down deliver more graphical quality, have more storage space, have more processing power. But the feeling of playing on those good consoles is what mattered. Good and well thought out games, even though sometimes having old fashioned graphics, is by far better then having a bugged game or a bad story-line. I have played on the PS2 when it came out, at a friend's gaming shop. We made lots of friends playing on PS2 and even when the XBOX just showed up, we still had a good time on PS2. I can still remember playing Onimusha the graphics where impressive at that time and I even liked the story-line. Games these days, seem to be missing an element. And also getting up out of the house to play on the PS2 with friends is a far better experience then nowadays

Your missing the point here.
15 years ago, very few people gamed on PC's compared to today. That does not mean there were not quality games made for PC.
As far as actual effort and moving around when you say "getting up out of the house" your introducing an entirely new subject completely unrelated to this topic. And about making friends? What the hell are you talking about?

Classic. Before PC, I was instantly hooked with PS2.

Back then PC gaming required quite an investment of cash in order to get a system strong enough to keep up with the advancments in gaming. Consoles solved that problem for a lot of ppl. The PS2 allowed everyone to enjoy games w/o the substantial investment required for PC gaming. Roughly $200 plus a memory card and some games meant that even the lowliest of minimum wage workers could enjoy themselves.