Believe me, I know all about that.

And a required memory card, which could multiply when you maxed out that 8MB limit, plus if you bought that Sony brand you paid a pretty penny.  For online you had to have the modem to hook into the back which was like another 40 dollars (unless you bought the slim, but then you couldn't play FFXI online, which required the hard drive which was 100, fyi) then you had the multitap if you wanted to play 4 players on PS2 plus those extra controllers.

Yep nothing extra there

If you read his actual column, he didn't return it just because he needed to buy extra games and accessories. Part of his reasoning for returning it was that him and his wife couldn't determine some sort of system for rationing play time. They are both notably resistant to giving their kids access to their home computer (each gets 30 minutes of "screen time" per week) so I can see their apprehension in this regard. As he noted, their kids can play games on the internet for free, so he and his wife seemed to prefer that on their established model to introducing a game system and the ensuing desires of the kids to play it all the time. He did specify that he intends to buy one again sometime in the future.

For someone who isn't tech inclined, I can definitely see where he's coming from. However, advertisements of all kinds are misleading in product representation and even cursory research on his part would have revealed that you need extra things when purchasing a game system.

"It only does everything... if you pay extra"

Like I already said, cost of peripherals has exploded this gen compared to last gen ( batteries, wireless, HDMI, extra new peripherals) compared to last gen...SO the console might look like they are the same price as the PS2 was but the experience is a lot more expensive..

On a related note: "Accessories costs money".

Brb, buying my DDR mat, Guitar Hero Guitar, Logitech Racing Wheel and Memory Cards for my PS2.

If he wanted free games, no need for batteries and no extra controllers he should have gotten a PSP.

Don't forget the batteries for your wireless guitar and controllers