New low-price 'compact' PS2 to arrive in 2008
Redesigned model boasts built-in power supply; 25 per cent price drop likely — Thought PlayStation 2 hardware sales were going to quietly disappear after the revenue frenzy of Christmas? Think again - Sony is preparing to introduce a new …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony's console lineup is being repriced from the top down this autumn: the confirmed US launch of a cheaper 40GB PlayStation 3 positions the brand against Microsoft and Nintendo for the 2007 holidays, and MCV now reports — unconfirmed by Sony — that the seven-year-old PlayStation 2 is next in line. Per the report, a redesigned 'compact' PS2 with an integrated power supply could arrive in 2008 at roughly 25 per cent below current pricing.
If accurate, the move would extend the life of what remains Sony's highest-volume hardware rather than retiring it in favour of PS3, echoing the price-cut cadence Sony applied to its handheld line when a PSP price cut was mooted in 2006.
First-order effects
- Budget-console buyers get a smaller, cheaper PS2 option in 2008 if the redesign ships as reported, keeping Sony's installed-base and software revenue engine running while PS3 adoption builds.
- Sony's own portfolio gets an internal squeeze: a 25 per cent cheaper PS2 narrows the price gap to the newly launched 40GB PS3, forcing clearer positioning between its two living-room machines.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft and Nintendo's entry-level offerings face renewed pressure at the sub-$150 tier where the PS2 has long undercut them, likely prompting their own holiday and 2008 bundle responses.
- Retail shelf space and accessory/peripheral partners re-weight toward the compact model, since a built-in power supply removes one component category from the attach market.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward consoles managed as long-tail platforms — successive cost-reduced hardware revisions stretching each generation's commercial life well into the successor's tenure — a playbook Sony would be formalising here.
- If the rumour holds, it signals Sony treating the PS3 transition as gradual rather than hard-cutting legacy hardware, shaping how publishers plan cross-generation software support through 2008.
The trend: Console makers are extending generation lifecycles through repeated low-cost hardware revisions, letting incumbent platforms keep selling beneath the successor instead of being retired.