Sony finally announces price drop… for the PS2.
Do you have $99? Are you overcome by a need to play some last-gen titles on a nearly decade-old system? Do you enjoy purchasing memory cards for storage rather than utilizing a built-in hard drive?
Well, you poor soul, you’re in luck, because Sony’s Playstation 2, what some consider the best console ever and certainly the one with the longest shelf-life, has finally dropped below that magical $100 price point (before tax, anyway). Starting today, you can pick one up for $30 less than you could yesterday.
Now, sure, there are plenty of good games on the system, and many are at reasonable - if not downright silly - prices, due to their age (and graphics, on newer titles), but do you really need a PS2? Take your $99, put it in a savings account, get a damn job, and buy a current-gen system already. The PS3 has been out for nearly 2 and a half years already!
I’m a little upset that it took Sony this long to drop the price. I can’t fault them for trying to sap every last dollar out of the system - it was still moving plenty of units, so why not, right? - but not that long ago, if you could find a GameCube on the shelf, it was selling for $49. And, though there are a few games I’d like to play on the PS2, it’s never been enough to sway me over to spending that much money. I’d much rather enjoy the likes of Zelda and Smash Bros. than yet another Final Fantasy or MLB The Show. (Yes, you’re understanding that correct - I have never owned a Playstation console. It’s not some deep-rooted hate for Sony or fanboy-love for the other guys, just never had a want/need to play the games that were only on Playstation. Commence flaming, I suppose.)
If anyone out there has suggestions on games that would be good add-on purchases to the new $99 PS2, feel free to leave some comments. Meanwhile, I’ll be sitting here playing my 360 and Wii.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I’m going to be the same way with the PS3. I’ll be buying it in about 4 years so I can play Ratchet and Clank. With that, I’m going to suggest that you get the PS2 and play all the R & C games you can find…as well as Nippon Ichi games. Disgaea just came out for DS, so you can try that out first.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I’ve come up with a grand total of 4 games I’d really want the PS2 for: God of War 1 & 2, Shadow of the Colossus, and 24 (friggin Sony owning the show’s rights, not releasing on Xbox, ugh). I’m sure if I ever get around to it, the R&C games will be on the list, but really, it’s just not that high a priority on my gaming checklist.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 am
Definitely not buying the PS3 anytime soon…but there are a few good titles for the PS2 that I adore. Shadow of the Colossus, We <3 Katamari (I can’t help it), Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit for the rest of the world), GTA: Vice City, Gitaroo Man. For the most part it was my DDR outlet back in high school, though.
April 4th, 2009 at 1:24 am
The system is a good outlet for a DDR fix, that’s for sure. The game bundles are fairly inexpensive nowadays on the PS2 as well, so that’s a good idea for fans of the series (genre?). Plus, I thought of another game, but can’t for the life of me remember the title… I’m pretty sure it was Harmonix’ first game, a rhythm game obviously, but I always wanted to play it because it had one of my favorite Garbage songs in it. Can anyone help? If you remember it (and the name) - is it worth playing?
April 4th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Wiki points to Amplitude, Frequency was its predecessor. Apparently Harmonix’s first game was for the PC, something that had to do with a joystick.
April 5th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Awesome, thanks Cait. I thought it was one of those two titles, but I had forgotten that there were actually two of them.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
[…] Sweet, now I have even one fewer reason to ever want to buy a Playstation 2! […]