Tag Archives: PS2

VentureBeat has taken a long, hard look at the numbers and rendered a verdict. The site’s startling discovery: Wii is to PS2 as PS3 is to GameCube.

According to NPD data (U.S. only), Nintendo’s bid for the throne currently sits at 17.5 million units sold. At the same period during its legendary reign, Sony’s PS2 had only moved 15.9 million units.

Meanwhile, the PlayStation 3 is forging its own, decidedly less lucrative path with 6.79 million units distributed across the U.S. The GameCube, an odd duck in its own right, let Nintendo’s manufacturing facilities grow fat and complacent with a mere 6.75 million units sold.

As for the Xbox 360, well, you’ve probably already guessed; Microsoft’s second console is the spitting image of its first, moving only 18% more quickly at this point.

Any guesses as to who will snag the best horse on the merry-go-round next?

By Nathan Grayson

The PlayStation 2’s tenure as God-Emperor King of videogame consoles may be coming to a close, but at least it’s going out on a high note. According to a report by The Associated Press, the nearly nine year-old machine’s cash emissions are vomit-inducingly high, with 50 million units sold in the U.S. alone.

Will the PS2 break 60 million units, though? Well, that depends on Sony who – even though PS2 sales have nearly halved since last year – doesn’t plan on tossing the system aside just yet.

“We don’t intend on discarding the system any time soon,” said Sony Computer Entertainment America hardware marketing director John Koller.

More through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

Right here. It’s exhaustive stuff. This is the important slide, saying PS3 hardware and software sales for the quarter ending December 31 were up 195 percent and 391 percent respectively over the same period in 2006. It’s worth noting that PS3 hadn’t launched in the PAL regions in the earlier period. There’s a note at the bottom of the chart that says, “Beginning with Q1 FY07, the method of reporting hardware and software unit sales has been changed from production shipments to recorded sales.” This seems to suggest those figures would be even higher had Sony’re recording criteria remained the same.

California-based Buzztime Entertainment has filed a suit against SCEE, says this, alleging that the Buzz! series of games, developed by Relentless in Brighton, UK, infringes its trademarks. Buzztime makes trivia games for bars and restaurants, apparently played by 13 million people a month.

According to that Gamespot report, “The Buzztime Entertainment trademarks cover uses of the terms for ‘entertainment in the nature of interactive games played via interactive television and an interactive global computer network,’ and ‘equipment for playing a plug and play game, namely, video game machines for use with televisions, video game interactive remote control units, video game cartridges, and interactive video game programs,’ among other things.”

Buzztime wants all infringing products recalled and… destroyed. They should go the whole hog and try to get them ejected into space. More on this as it unfolds.

The PS2, Koei-published JRPG Shin Megami Tensai: Persona 3 has been given a 10 in OPS magazine in the UK and will ship in Europe in February, Koei confirmed this morning.

The game sees the player surviving a year in a school “plagued by creatures of the night”. Blimey.

Naoki Katashima, Executive VP of KOEI Europe and KOEI US, said, “Persona 3 is one of the most highly regarded RPGs of recent times and we are delighted to be able to bring this renowned title to European gamers. We look forward to continuing to work with Atlus to bring the very best Japanese RPGs to Europe.”