Sony announced today that sales of the PlayStation 2 reached a milestone as of Jan. 31, by selling their 150 millionth one since the console was released in Japan in March 2000.
The PlayStation 2 ‘s ability to stick around in the market this long has been seen as surprising, and it’s even still available to buy for less than $100. Even with reaching this milestone, it is still trailing behind the Nintento Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and their own PlayStation 3 in sales. However, it appears to still be going strong in places such as the Middle East, South America and other places across the globe.
It’s thought that part of that success is due to the fantastic support given to it by third-party developers. Sony says there are now more than 10,800 titles that have been developed for the PlayStation 2. By the end of last year in 2010, it was estimated that more than 1.5 billion PlayStation 2 games had been sold worldwide.
Sony says that they always planned to keep the PlayStation 2 around for more than a decade, so they aren’t surprised at its continued popularity. Sony officials said that all three of the PlayStation consoles are expected to have a life cycle of more than 10 years, and that part of their company philosophy was to provide hardware that can stand the test of time in giving customers a fun experience from day one of purchase and over the next decade.
Whether the PlayStation 3 will follow in those footsteps of the other units is yet to be seen. Even though the PlayStation 2 has dominated console sales, the PlayStation 3 has not. PS3 has always been behind the sales of the Xbox 360 and Wii in the U.S.
But, the PlayStation 3 isn’t done yet. By the end of March, which is Sony’s fiscal year, they expect to sell 15 million units, which would be a two million increase in the amount they sold in the previous year.
