Items tagged with PS2
The console wars are in full force as we head into the holidays. Yes, you can expect discounted bundles and all that jazz, but when deciding your platform of choice, it comes down to things like game selection and features. A big feature that's coming to the PlayStation 4 is the ability to play PlayStation 2 games through emulation.This is a pretty big deal for Sony and its PlayStation line. The PS4 is the company's first console to launch without some sort of backwards compatibility, a fact that was recently highlighted when Microsoft introduced an Xbox 360 emulator inside its Xbox One system. Sony's essentially doing the same thing, only it's reaching back another generation."We are working...
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Ever since Sony cut a major deal for the Gaikai cloud gaming service, pundits have watched to see how the company would integrate the technology into the PlayStation product line. At CES this week, Sony finally took the wraps off that announcement and the initial program looks amazing. The upcoming PlayStation Now service will stream games from central servers to the PS4, PS Vita, PS3, TVs, tablets, and smartphones. Sony says PSNow will be supported on "most" of its upcoming 2014 Bravia televisions, but hasn't announced any additional partnerships with specific hardware vendors. The company claims that users will be able to "stream popular hits and classic games from the PS3 library, first on...
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It's never easy to say goodbye, but if you're still sitting on a mountain of PlayStation 2 games, you're quickly running out of time to cash in one final time on the titles you may have grown up playing, at least at GameStop. As of June 1, 2013, GameStop will longer accept PS2 trade-ins of any kind, including games, accessories, or systems. A poster on Reddit snapped the photo you see below, and a quick call to one or more GameStop locations is all it takes to confirm that the new and used games retailer will no longer accept PS2 trades of any kind after the end of this month. Image Source: Reddit (eGORapTure) This is hardly surprising and really just another nail in a coffin that Sony already...
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Every dog has its day, and every rose has its thorn. And clearly, every flagship gaming console has its retirement ceremony. Shortly after Sony announced plans to axe a final Walkman cassette player, the company has just announced that the aged PlayStation 2 console has been discontinued in its homeland, Japan. Shipments of the fabled unit have finally ceased, and as soon as the remaining stock gets depleted in Japan, that shelf space will have to be filled with something else. The PS2 is one of the most storied consoles in history. It has managed to last an astounding 12 years, even lasting several years beyond the introduction of the PlayStation 3. Globally, over 150 million PS2 consoles were...
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Sony hasn't sold a PS3 that offered a hardware-level backwards compatibility mode in several years, but with the announcement of the PS3 Slim, fans of the feature were hopeful it might reappear in the new, slimmed-down version. Ars Technica recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Sony's director of hardware marketing John Koller, and the company executive was quick to dismiss any notion that backwards compatibility would reappear. "It's not coming back, so let me put that on the table," Koller told Ars. "It's not as big as a purchase intent driver as you may be hearing. We've got such a substantial lineup of titles on the PS3; most people are buying the PS3 for PS3 games. They've buying...
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Sony's newer, slimmer, sexier PlayStation 3 console is a nice piece of hardware. There's no doubt that the 120GB hard drive, lower power drain, sleeker look and $299 price tag will draw more than a few folks in, but those holding tight to yesteryear now have reason to pause. Unlike some of the first PS3 machines to hit the market, the new PS3 'Slim' doesn't support PlayStation 2 titles. Backwards compatibility was a big draw way back when, and even today it's a hot-button topic. All Xbox 360s still support original Xbox titles, though Sony seems to be fading that away from its PS3 consoles. For good. Ars Technica recently sat down with Sony's director of hardware marketing, Mr. John Koller. Aside...
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The game industry often relies on sequels as opposed to new ideas to bring in big profits. With a game like Guitar Hero, however, there’s not a whole lot you can do except add new songs to the playlist or offer a band sequel such as the Van Halen edition. Even though these new additions are great because the game concept sells well in general and because people have a certain liking to specific bands, Guitar Hero hasn’t seen a lot of new innovations. At least it hasn’t until now. Activision has officially announced that Guitar Hero 5 will be coming to the Xbox, PS2 and PS3, and Wii this fall. This latest version of Guitar Hero will offer some thrilling new features that set it apart from the...
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It's not quite as delicious as a PlayStation 3 price cut, but if you've been waiting years upon years to get your hands on a decade-old game console, now's the time. This week, Sony has officially lowered the MSRP of its long standing PlayStation 2 console to $99.99, which marks the first universal price drop on it since March of 2007 (when it dropped to $129.99). Sony's PS2 has been a raging success, no matter how you look at it. Just think -- how often do you see brand new Nintendo GameCube consoles for sale alongside the Wii? Never. How often do you see brand new Xbox consoles alongside the Xbox 360? Never. For whatever reason, the PS2 has managed to continue selling steadily despite the invention...
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68 million people played video games on a console last month, and an astonishing 42% spent that time playing on the last generation Sony console, the Playstation 2. Nintendo's Wii has garnered a lot of press for its explosive sales and fun, intuitive controller; but if you add sales of the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, they add up to about the total number of Wiis sold last month. People won't stop buying and using Playstation 2s. The numbers suggest that older machines remain popular despite last November's high-profile debut of Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3, which had 4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. Nintendo's GameCube ranked fourth with 5.8 percent....
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According to Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata, sales of Nintendo’s innovative Wii video game console has the potential to surpass the Sony’s PS2, which is still the biggest hit in the history of the video game industry. In fact, Nintendo became one of the ten most expensive companies in Japan last month. As for Sony’s admirable moves of cutting its prices on the PS3 and introducing a thinner PSP, Iwata announced in an interview that Nintendo’s business would not be threatened significantly by such actions. “‘Sony's PS2 sales of 100 million units is an extraordinary number that our home game console business has not achieved,’ Iwata said. ‘But if we can make our bid to expand the gaming population...
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Sony's taking a beating with their latest generation console, the PS3. In an effort to save money, the european version won't have a PS2 chip in it to make it backwards compatible for existing games and will rely on software to achieve the same result. "The method used for playing PS2 games is going to be different," he said. "We also want to concentrate on developing PS3 games." It's still undecided whether PS3 machines for Japan, U.S. and elsewhere will also be sold without the PS2 chip, but the option is being considered, Nakata said. The U.S. and Japanese version PS3 machines had also failed to deliver full compatibility with PS2 games. There are almost no titles for the new...
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Sony Computer Entertainment wanted to make sure you could play your PS2 games on a PS3. So they put PS2 hardware right in it. That won't last, and an emulator will eventually replace it. So will all your PS2 games work on the PS3 emulator? Beats me. Beats them too: SCE has so far set out the principle to secure the PS3's compatibility with the PS2 using an emulator that works on the Cell. According to SCE, it decided to mount the EE and GS on the PS3 to guarantee operation of certain game titles, which do not use the library recommended by SCE. The company, however, said the EE and GS will be "removed before long" (Kutaragi), indicating...
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