By all accounts, the PlayStation 2 has had a fantastic run. As of August 2009, it is the best-selling console of all time, continuing to move units years into this current generation. More than three years after the launch of the PlayStation 3, the PS2 has had plenty of new releases, which cannot be said of its former rivals, the Gamecube and Xbox. Both Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s last-gen systems seemingly ceased production not long after their next-gen counterparts launched, but the PS2 has continued to have strong sales. True, this was aided by a shaky PS3 launch that failed to win over a lot of previous Sony system owners, and the slim model and agreeable price certainly made the PS2 a nice choice for impulse buyers. At any rate, it’s undeniable that the PlayStation 2’s performance over the last nine years and counting is impressive. However, looking over the new releases planned for this year, it seems like the PS2 could be in its last days.

At the time of this writing, there are currently seven upcoming games listed for the PS2 on GameStop’s website, as well as two peripherals. Spread across eight months, four of those are yearly installments of sports games, which are always the last games to come out on older systems (the last games for the Xbox and Gamecube were yearly Madden titles). The others are Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which has already been out for weeks on the Wii; Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, which came out in Japan over four years ago; and Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, a family-friendly title also due out for the Wii that was pushed from its late 2009 release date. That’s not a very promising line-up for the once prominent system. It was just 2008 that two of the year’s best games, Persona 4 and Yakuza 2, were PS2 exclusives. That year, publishers like Atlus and NIS were putting games on the system that we just weren’t getting elsewhere, like quirky JRPGs. However, in 2009, that was already starting to change.



Last year, a good amount of multiplatform games had PS2 versions, and it also became the go-to system for Wii and PSP game ports. It did not, however, have any new, exclusive, “must play” games, and waggle-less PS2 versions of Wii games haven't sold enough to justify their continued existence. Though Sony's other systems faltered early on, the PS3 and PSP continued to pick up steam and had plenty of great titles last year. With more and more PS3s sold after the price dropped, the PS2 became less necessary, especially with backwards compatibility now just a fading memory. Only one week into 2010, the PS2’s outlook for the rest of the year is looking grim.

Of course, the PlayStation 2 has surprised everyone with its prolific lifespan, and it’s entirely possible that it will live to see another year or two. Even if the releases do taper off, it may still get yearly Madden installments for the foreseeable future. I also expect most movie tie-ins to get a PS2 version, especially for family-friendly fare. However, with far fewer games on the horizon for the PS2 than ever before, the time may soon come when you can’t walk into any video game store and find new PS2 games—or new systems, for that matter. As for me, I’ll hang on to my old, fat PS2 until the day it stops working for good. It has served me well.