Sony Japan Is No Longer Going To Fix PS2s
28 minutes ago
The end of a very long era in gaming is finally coming to a close as Sony Japan announces it will be discontinuing repair support for the PlayStation 2. That's a pretty impressive feat, considering the fact that the console itself was discontinued back in 2012, a full 12 years after it first hit the market.
The PlayStation 2 is finally riding off into the sunset, with Sony Japan explaining that both customer support and official repairs for the console are coming to a close. This news comes to us from IT Media (via Kotaku), who outlined the itinerary for the final days of PS2 support. Folks were supposed to fill out online forms for repair requests by the end of August, with consoles arriving at the service center after Sept. 7 being returned without repair. At this point, you can probably just buy a PlayStation 2 for $35, so, hopefully, the conclusion of the support program won't leave too many gamers out in the cold.
Originally launched in early 2000 in Japan, the PlayStation 2 went on to become the best-selling home console of all time. That's primarily due to the insane amount of support the console received in terms of both first and third party development, including continued support for the machine even after the PlayStation 3 arrived.
The launch lineup for the PlayStation 2 was a solid mix, including games like Unreal Tournament and Tekken Tag Tournament, as well as SSX, Ridge Racer V, Madden NFL 2001 and Street Fighter EX3. The system was home to many extremely influential games over the years, including titles like Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy X, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Metal Gear Solid 3, the first God of War games and Silent Hill 2, just to name a few. Oodles of PS2 games have gone on to be remastered on future consoles due to their large fanbase, with Okami getting an HD remaster that just launched on the Nintendo Switch.
That's only the tip of the ice berg when it comes to PS2 hits, so it's not hard to understand why so many people are still gaming on that particular console, even all these years later. Still, it's pretty wild to think that Sony Japan was still handling repairs for the console 18 years after it launched. That means there's a good chance someone working at the factory started their job back at the turn of the century and has been fixing PlayStation 2 consoles, day in and day out, for nearly 20 years. In that time, Sony has launched two more home consoles, two portable devices and a VR headset. Again, that just shows how impressive the PS2 really was; a console that barely offered anything in regards to online gaming and launched well before the era of online marketplaces.
