I haven’t read this entire thread, but I would suppose the real question should have been, “Should third-party developers stop supporting the PS2”? Sony hasn’t published a first-party game since 2007 (correct?), so they really aren’t putting any energy into support the platform. Just because they re-release the PS2 slim model in various configurations or lower the price doesn’t mean they are investing any resources into the model, just harvesting profit of a product that’s at the end of it’s life cycle. If the product should have a particularly “long tail,” then all the better for Sony. Nothing wrong with making money.
The answer to the question I posed above is a resounding “NO!” Simply because the install base is ginormous and because the demographic that continues to game on the PS2 is completely different than those buying and playing the PS3. If the markets are separate, then developers and publishers should keep making games for the system until customers no longer want products for it. And it’s not like there’s a lot of publishers spending a huge amount of time on their PS2 games (except for NIS and Atlus). Most are taking their most popular brands and porting over new SKUs from the lead platforms (PS3 or X360) for those casual gamers who aren’t inclined to buy a PS3 until the price point is lowered into their casual gaming price bracket ($150 or less).
The only time you want to completely cut off support for an older model is when it would cannibalize the profitability of your newer model. Microsoft did this properly when the Xbox 360 came out because the customers for each system are the same (core gamers). However, the PS2 market is now dominated by the “casual gamer” customer type, who tend to NOT spend as much as the core gamer. Sony should milk out this market for as long as possible… even if it means butting up against the 8th generation systems.
