Sony Ends Its Repair Service For the PlayStation 2 More Than 18 Years After the Console Went On Sale (bbc.co.uk) 69
Sony has decided to end its repair service for the PlayStation 2, more than 18 years after it first went on sale. The best-selling gaming console ever produced was first released in Japan in March of 2000. Sony stopped manufacturing the device in 2012, roughly six years after the PlayStation 4 was released. The BBC reports: Sony said it was no longer able to offer repairs because it was running out of replacement parts for the aging console. In a statement, the company thanked customers for their "continued patronage." Gamers seeking repairs will now have to try their luck with unofficial services. More than 150 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold.
Unbelievable... (Score:2, Funny)
I work hard and pay Sony good money for their PS2 console and this is how they repay me. Unbelievable. I guess I'll take my future business somewhere else. - Soccer mom
Re: (Score:2)
From my point of view, Sony ended their repair the day they removed the Linux install. And I haven't bought anything from them since, and won't.
Re: (Score:2)
OK, it's been awhile. I still won't buy anything from them.
PS4 is not that old. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Not necessarily, as PS4 pro was released, and that's effectively the next gen console. It's just that now consoles are effectively x86/amd64 PCs, so they can be easily made to be fully backwards compatible with all of their old games made for the x86/amd64 consoles. For all we know, we'll simply see hardware bumps every few years, PC gaming style from now on. And eventually standard PS4 will go away and in its place we'll have PS4 mega, ultra, or whatever, which will be to PS4 pro what PS4 pro is to vanilla
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, Sony retooled hardware manufacturing capacity for the tiny market that is VR. It had nothing to do with the massive resolution boost, addressing the "60fps" complaints and trying to look less outdated compared to the PC gaming scene.
It's all about VR.
2016 called. They want their VR marketing BS back.
Re: PS4 is not that old. (Score:1)
Don't we already know it will be Zen + Navi?
Easier to market PS5 and ray tracing could be the excuse.
Re: (Score:2)
Not necessarily, as PS4 pro was released, and that's effectively the next gen console. (...) Or they might even call [the one after PS4 pro] PS5.
I think the main reason it was called the PS4 Pro was to assure all current PS4 owners that they weren't being left behind. As far as I know there's no PS4 Pro exclusive games and there probably never will be. Whenever they release the PS5 it'll be a new platform with games that may or may not be available for PS4. It'll be interesting to see when they do if you'll have PS5 games with PS4 Pro support or if they go all or nothing, you're either on PS4.x or you're not. I would think maybe the latter so people
Re: (Score:2)
You could be right. It could be that they will make it different enough to resell the old games to the people on the new one.
Internally however, it's almost certain to be of the same architecture, to make running said "resold" games trivial. So a change would be a marketing one, rather than engineering.
Re: (Score:2)
ARM SOC is there for added internal OS functionalities such as monitoring and downloading updates while system is in standby mode. AFAIK it's in no way relevant to the actual process of running games.
Does not compute (Score:1)
"Sony stopped manufacturing the device in 2012, roughly six years after the PlayStation 4 was released."
So the PS4 was released in 2006?
Re: (Score:1)
So the PS4 was released in 2006?
... roughly....
Dang, I effed up (Score:4, Funny)
New title (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony ends its repair service for Playstation 2 5 years after selling it.
Impressive - Wish Sony did that for ALL Products (Score:2)
I've had some horrific experiences with having Sony products repaired - so much so, I haven't bought a TV or major consumer electronic device from them since 1988 (seriously). I did buy a Sony clock radio from Walmart about ten years ago.
The point of this email isn't to bitch about Sony or show what a stubborn old fart I am, just point out the importance of good service. The experiences I had were with a TV and a VCR - I've negatively influenced many thousands of dollars in potential sales for Sony all be
Re: (Score:2)
Sony is a Japanese conglomerate [wikipedia.org]. Each division is run as a separate entity, which is why in the year 2000 this happened [upenn.edu].
It explains why a PlayStation could get repaired for 18 years while their TVs will never get 18 years of support.
Re: (Score:2)
Good point - doesn't matter to me because I just look at the "Sony" label and think that the policies for one business unit are used in all of them.
I am still using PS3 as a media player (Score:4, Interesting)
It plays Blu Ray and its hard drive can store and play MP4 (H264) and mp3 files. It runs Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, HBO Go, and Youtube apps. Not bad for such an old device. I know a 30 dollar Roku express can do most of this better, but I still like being able to play an occasional optical disk. 802.11g wi-fi is the only disappointment as it can take a long while to transfer a media file to the disk over http.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
I believe your nostalgia is misdirected, since you are describing a PS3, not a PS2. PS2 had no hard drive, apps, or a BluRay drive (it was DVD).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Planned obsolesence (Score:1)
Most PS2s were built to fail. The disc laser will slowly come miscalibrated and you'll get disc read errors, but you can fix this yourself by opening the console, opening the disc drive and usually adjusting the laser chassis up (or you can jam something in as a spacer).
Re: (Score:2)
The Windows XP of games consoles (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's almost certainly why they want it to go away and die. They want you to buy their new, shiny, expensive console, not continue to play your 10+ year old console that they no longer make money off off (they don't give a damn about the rest, this is SONY after all). So, if it won't die naturally, they'll kill it with any method at their disposal.
Re: (Score:2)
How to make homebrew PS2 discs bootable? (Score:2)
How long until third parties can manufacture CDs and DVDs with the specific wobble or whatever that the PlayStation 2 console's drive chip needs? True, the Checking Integrated Circuit in the NES and Super NES has been cracked, allowing production of new NES carts. But I imagine that mastering and pressing an optical disc with nonstandard features is a lot more involved than programming CIC emulation on an off-the-shelf PIC MCU.
Re: (Score:2)
A test kit for the developer, and what for the end users playing the game that the developer has developed? Or should developers be developing for Linux and Windows instead of PlayStation 2?
FreeMcBoot on 9xxxx (Score:2)
All consoles feature standard USB ports and there's a software exploit that you can put on a memory card which will allow you to run executables straight from the memory card
For one thing, I thought the exploit used by FreeMcBoot was patched in newer (model 9xxxx) slim PlayStation 2 consoles. What's the new exploit that works on 9xxxx? If there is one, the FMCB FAQ on Reddit [reddit.com] hasn't been updated.
If the suggested solution is to replace a 9xxxx PS2 with a pre-9xxxx PS2, the supply of these is likely to dwindle even faster. My pre-9xxxx slim PS2 no longer stays on reliably because of a loose power jack, and the used one I bought at a garage sale to replace it is 9xxxx. How would I
Re: (Score:2)
anybody? (Score:2)
did anybody still use sony services for repairing a broken ps2?
except for the dvd drive, not much failed on it, by all means it is quite a basic console.
all parts you could ever want are available through many different channels and it never crossed my mind to check sony's.
Japanese Ethics and Workmanship (Score:2)
Then they worked hard and got a reputation as making some of the best products.
If Sony and the other Zaibatsu's can keep up this level of commitment to products they will destroy the built to break conspiracy and Japan will get more respect than ever for making great products which are well supported.
Re: (Score:1)
TYPO in description of article (Score:2)
It says "Sony stopped manufacturing the device in 2012, roughly six years after the PlayStation 4 was released. "
The Playstation 4 was released around 2013 December, if I can trust a quick google. They probably meant Playstation 3 in that sentence.
How often do PS2s break down? (Score:1)
I still have my original PS2 Fat model and it works. I knew a few people who had lasers stop working and some minor issues but overall they seem reliable.
Nintendo stopped repairing the Famicom only because they were running out of parts, so I wonder if this is part of the issue as well as service hours and Sony no longer wanting to pay repairmen and for new parts,
mostly the console is just no longer supported. A lot of amazing games were on the PS2 and PS1 was still pretty popular.