Sony ends shipments of PlayStation 2 to Japanese retailers
updated 02:39 pm EST, Fri December 28, 2012
Withdraws PS2 from Japan, unknown for other regions
Sony is putting a stop to sales of the long-standing and popular PlayStation 2 game console in Japan. The electronics giant made an announcement earlier today that there will be no more shipments to Japanese retailers, in the future, and that the only remaining stock on the market are consoles held on store shelves or warehouses.
Launched on March 4th, 2000 in Japan and October 26th, 2000 for under $300 in North America, the console survived for just over 12 years, and managed to sell around 150 million units world-wide. Redesigned in 2004 with a slimmer profile, the console continued to see high sales a decade after its launch with six million sold in 2010 alone. In comparison, the succeeding PS3 sold 15 million in the same year, and the PSP reached only two million more sales. Even in the last few years, the PS2 has received software updates in Japan, and still had games being developed for the platform.
While the announcement in Famitsu confirmed the stoppage of sales, it wasn't mentioned if the PS2 will be withdrawn from sale in other markets in the near future, though this is likely to occur sooner rather than later.
