50 Million PlayStation 2 Consoles Sold in North America

50 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold in North America. Despite being nine years old, the console is still selling well and is the most played console of 2008 according to a Nielsen study. In November, 206,000 PlayStation 2 units were sold.

According to NPD numbers, the original Microsoft Xbox sold 14.5 million consoles and the Nintendo GameCube sold 12 million consoles. In the United States alone 43 million PlayStation 2s have been sold.

In an interview with Gamasutra, John Koller, director of hardware marketing at SCEA, explained the PlayStation 2s continued success is a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. The PlayStation 2 continues to do well because they continue to support the console and there are no plans to discontinue support.

Koller discussed how the key to the PlayStation 2’s success was the inclusion of a DVD player and its “incredible software lineup”. Sony has been unable to duplicate this success with the PlayStation 3 despite the inclusion of a Blu-ray player.

As time has passed the demographic of who is buying PlayStation 2’s has changed to “young families and lower income play,” according to Koller. As a result Sony has been focusing on social family oriented games for the console.

According to Koller, the PlayStation 2 2009 software lineup is “still fairly significant” and Sony plans to encourage publishers to continue develop for the console for the foreseeable future. Koller also ruled out the possibility of a price drop for the PlayStation 2 from $129.99. He stated, “We’ve looked at a variety of options, and I think we’re pleased with where we are; it’s a significant financial contributor for us and it sells very well at $129.99. We’re comfortable with the current price.”