Did the last PS2 game just get released?

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Major League Baseball 2K12 was released for the PS2 on March 6, 2012. It supposedly was the last PS2 release. I'm surprised there's not been much talk about it. Does anyone know if they are still releasing PS2 games elsewhere in the world, or is that it?

[The 1 2 P]

I'm not 100% sure but I think EA will still be bringing out sports games for PS2 this year.

[slapdash]

A Best Buy associate told me there would be a Madden 2013 for PS2; not sure if I believe it, but I believe he believed it.

[Leo_A]

About the last 50 or so PS2 games have been claimed to be the last at various places...

It's potentially the last, but until we go a year without a EA Sports Madden release, I'll put my money on more games. Thanks to the PSP and Wii having similar hardware capabilities and millions of PS2's still out there being regularly used, I suspect we will get another game this year on the PS2 for Madden. But no ESRB ratings or announcements on what platforms we can expect Madden on just yet so we'll have to wait.

I doubt we will know what is the last game when it's released. We will have to go a substantial amount of time with no releases to detirmine that. Even with no EA Sports release this year, we could always see Major League Baseball 2K13 a year from now. Wasn't that pretty much how the Xbox and N64 went out? Didn't the Xbox go an entire year with no releases between its last two release (Madden NFL 08 and 09)? And the Nintendo 64 went a year between Tony Hawk 2 (Itself released about 6 months after the 3rd to last game) and Tony Hawk 3 (Which came as a surprise to most everyone).

The best answer anyone can give you is "maybe". If 12 months roll by with nothing else and no Major League Baseball 2K13, I think we can safely consider it the last game for North America. The PS2 also got a new FIFA (September 2011), a new MLB The Show (March 2011 so we can likely call this series dead on the PS2), a new NBA2K (October 2011), a new Pro Evolution Soccer (November 2011), and a new THQ WWE game in 2011 (March in 2011, but judging by GameFaqs, October is the more traditional slot so we might get another). So wait and see if the 2012 entries in these series include a PS2 version.

[Kitsune Sniper]

As long as PS2 systems are still being produced, EA will continue to shit out crappy ports for the system.

[Leo_A]

I don't know if PS2 systems are still being produced. They're not stocked any longer at many places like Wal-Mart and GameStop. So I suspect they've at the very least ceased supplying the North American market with new consoles and what stock that remains is it.

[Buyatari]

A Best Buy associate told me there would be a Madden 2013 for PS2; not sure if I believe it, but I believe he believed it.

I believe it.

2012 Madden and NBA 2k12 on PS2 both outsold the wii versions of the same games at my store.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Thanks to the PSP and Wii having similar hardware capabilities and millions of PS2's still out there being regularly used, I suspect we will get another game this year on the PS2 for Madden.

That's a good point

[DOAsaturn]

Yeah it's hard to believe Madden wouldn't make one more round on the PS2 (and PSP for that matter). Madden is a guaranteed sale, and it takes no work to simply tweak some rosters and bank a load of $ for releasing another PS2 iteration. I mean, why not, right?

There must be a niche of causal sports gamers out there who don't care to upgrade, but like to get new rosters. To be honest, I actually worked with a guy who is exactly like this. He bought every NCAA Football on PS2, even well after the game became irrelevant. He was adamant about not upgrading to next-gen until he absolutely had to. Of course, he still hasn't...

Part of me thinks EA takes some pride in the notoriety of their game being the last for a console. They can claim the entire 128-bit generation if they nab the PS2 (Gamecube and Xbox both ended with Madden). They also got the Playstation with FIFA 2005.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

They are still making PS2 systems, or perhaps selling what's left of the stock. This was a Japanese sales report posted Feb 23 2012:

Weekly hardware sales (previous week)

3DS: 94,667 (67,558)
PS3: 21,993 (22,002)
PSP: 14,824 (15,860)
PSV: 12,309 (13,939)
Wii: 7,874 (8,206)
PS2: 1,433 (1,239)
X360: 983 (1,139)
DSi LL: 901 (957)
DSi: 656 (651)

As far as the last game, I found a guy on Youtube who has declared 2K12 the last game. I don't know what his sources are though:

http://youtu.be/ReU4fg7B6gc

[j_factor]

Pretty sure those are Japanese sales.

It's pretty incredible that the PS2 still has a new game after 11+ years. The NES, Genesis, and PSX all only reached 9.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I don't know if PS2 systems are still being produced. They're not stocked any longer at many places like Wal-Mart and GameStop. So I suspect they've at the very least ceased supplying the North American market with new consoles and what stock that remains is it.

Uh, my local Wal-Mart still sells PS2s and gets stock regularly.

[leatherrebel5150]

We have 2 new ones PS2 consoles at the Toys R Us I work at we recently just sold a white version with some sort of kareoke pack in.

[Leo_A]

Uh, my local Wal-Mart still sells PS2s and gets stock regularly.

Is no longer stocked at Wal-Mart's website and none of the Wal-Mart's around here have gotten any stock since well before Christmas I discovered when I went to buy a spare system recently. The same thing with GameStop both online and locally. And several other big online retailers I went to when I couldn't locate one locally also no longer were stocking the system. Only could get it from Amazon.

Even PS2 software has almost disappeared. There were about 3 or 4 games available from the Wal-Mart's around here compared with a decent bit of their budget section outside of their locked cases being dedicated to the system not very long ago.

[markusman64ds]

Even PS2 software has almost disappeared. There were about 3 or 4 games available from the Wal-Mart's around here compared with a decent bit of their budget section outside of their locked cases being dedicated to the system not very long ago.

Last year I saw 2 Poker games for original Xbox and Super Breakout for Game Boy Color at my Wal-Mart. There also seems to be PS2 software there more often than actual PS2s.

[Bojay1997]

Is no longer stocked at Wal-Mart's website and none of the Wal-Mart's around here have gotten any stock since well before Christmas I discovered when I went to buy a spare system recently. The same thing with GameStop both online and locally. And several other big online retailers I went to when I couldn't locate one locally also no longer were stocking the system. Only could get it from Amazon.

Even PS2 software has almost disappeared. There were about 3 or 4 games available from the Wal-Mart's around here compared with a decent bit of their budget section outside of their locked cases being dedicated to the system not very long ago.

Yes, Gamestop for sure is no longer receiving new PS2s. A little over a month ago they declared all new systems used and dropped the price to $40. If you got there in time, you could still get a sealed one including the Singstar white bundle or even an old fat version. Many locations unboxed them and repackaged them in the generic used boxes shortly after receiving the memo from corproate. In any event, Gamestop no longer stocks new PS2s.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Is no longer stocked at Wal-Mart's website and none of the Wal-Mart's around here have gotten any stock since well before Christmas I discovered when I went to buy a spare system recently. The same thing with GameStop both online and locally. And several other big online retailers I went to when I couldn't locate one locally also no longer were stocking the system. Only could get it from Amazon.

Even PS2 software has almost disappeared. There were about 3 or 4 games available from the Wal-Mart's around here compared with a decent bit of their budget section outside of their locked cases being dedicated to the system not very long ago.

The PS2 is still big down here. Maybe it's old stock, I dunno, but families from down in Mexico still buy the systems and their games.

[The 1 2 P]

I know that all the Targets around here clearanced out the last of their PS2 stock around the middle of last year. But you can still find systems in Toys R Us and Best Buy.

[NayusDante]

In the last Japanese sales chart analysis I read on Gamasutra, the author noted that the PS2 outsold the 360 for the month. Of course, that just means that they sold more than 0 units.

I actually really like the idea of one last AAA game on PS2. That would make for one heck of a Kickstarter campaign...

[Leo_A]

Wouldn't even need to develop one I imagine. While I can't think of anything that would be considered a AAA game at the moment, there are an awful lot of nice games for the system that never made it out of Japan or Europe.

Sega could do a standalone release of their Sega Rally port that they programmed for bonus content in Sega Rally 2006. Even something like that would be a far nicer swan song than a sports game. And the Sega fan in me would love it to have the final PS2 game be a Sega release.