Sony ends production of landmark games console

Industry experts claim Sony's Playstation 2 revolutionised gaming British game designer Anna Marsh has claimed the end of production for the PlayStation 2 means the end of an era in digital gaming. Sony has announced it will no longer produce the generation-defining console .
"The industry has become so fractured, I'm not sure we'll see another console that gets that sort of penetration into the public consciousness," said Marsh, who was the executive designer of the hugely popular Tomb Raider franchise.
Sony's groundbreaking PlayStation 2 was first released in 2000 and has since sold 150 million units around the world. More than 10,000 games were available for the PlayStation 2 by 2011. Games sold for the console reached 1.52 billion, The Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
Industry analysts celebrated Sony for making key decisions which would influence gaming for years to come, such as including DVD-player capacity, which meant the consoles ended up hooked into a family's primary home entertainment areas, which in turn expanded its audience of gamers. PlayStation 2 also supported popular football games, which helped it corner another slice of the gaming market.
As Sony ends production of the unit, however, the market is almost spoilt for choice when it comes to options for what to play, and how.
"Nowadays smartphones, tablets, PCs and smart TVs all have amazing industrial design, features and content, and it's much harder to stand out if everyone else looks cool as well," said Tom Bramwell, editor of the Eurogamer website.
Gone are the days when game consoles were "the only boxes you owned with any sizzle or personality," he said.

Source: UPI