Let's face it PS2 really is breathing it's last in the major markets. This weeks EMEAA numbers are dismal for PS2 with all the main Europe countries selling <1000 and all the "minor" Europe count4ries combined eeking out 2000. PS2's only substantial region is Middle East / Africa / Asia. It is substantialy more than 50% down YoY this week, which means it's not just the summer lull. This is surely PS2's last Christmas, at least in a world wide sense. Last week the combined Americas and japan sales were a paltry 10K.

Now that PS3 can stand on it's own 2 feet Sony don't really need the cross subsidy that the profitable PS2 sales have brought them in the past, and there must be some diminishing returns still having factories churning out PS2's that could be re-tooled to produce something else.

But there's no denying that PS2 is selling competitive numbers in ME/A/A. It regularly outsells PS3, often comes close to Wii and normally outsells 360 (even now after 360s launch and clearance sale of old skus). There's certainly a case to be made that in the ME/A/A markets PS2 could easily see out the whole of 2011 and possibly beyond with respectable sales.

I can see PS2 withdrawn from all major markets, Aussie, and NZ Q1 2011, discontinued in the non-major Europe Markets Q2 2011, and ME/A/A Q1 2012. Though if PS3 gets another $100 price cut in late Q3 or Q4 2011 (which is pretty certain if there's no price cut this year) that could coincide with PS2 being discontinued in all remaining markets. If b/c emulation is to ever reappear in PS3 it'll be around then. Hmmm, PSN+ exclusive feature PS2 b/c emulation?

I do like that (PS2 emulation as a PSN Plus Feature). That would bring a good deal of people to PSN (something Sony wants) as well as revenue from PS2 downloadable games.

If I had to venture a guess tho, I would say the day PSP2 is announced is when they really start talking about canceling the PS2.  I have no doubt the PSP2 will support PS2 games (gotten from the above mentioned PSN) so this seems like a perfect time as any to cancel the PS2.

So long as its selling a few million a year they'll probably keep it on the market. I think perhaps they will fit it with some storage and use it as an experiment in high piracy markets to offer say kiosk or direct downloads for ultra cheap.

Although it just shipped 1.6 million this quarter(more than PS3 last year same quarter!!!) it really does some like an end of an era. :( We had some good times PS2

There's got to come a point where it's no longer economic to have a factory producing PS2's. I'd like to know what the optimal daily production rate for a PS2 factory is. Once the demand drops to substantially below the optimal factory output then PS2 becomes  less economic to produce, and the unit profit for the system starts to go down. It might not be there yet, but I get the feeling this holiday is going to be pretty rough for the PS2 in most places.

They could stop producing it directly and license it to Asian, African and South American producers reliable enough and wishing to make and sell them, getting a royalty on HW small enough to allow them to price it competitively on their markets and keeping the most of SW royalties, but giving a part of them to licensees as incentive. Almost zero expenses (a small team of engineers and programmers will still be needed as long as PS2 is sold) and almost pure profit.

Well there are 8,700 hours in a year. They would have to still produce them at a rate of 114 an hour or one every 30S to keep up with that demand if they were to only make 1 million per year. They'll need more than one factory line to produce at that rate so all they have to do is repurpose/shut them down as they start to idle. Whilst the PS2 is dead in the west, its still got a while to go in the 2nd/3rd world and producing this cheap system is to Sony's obvious advantage as these emerging markets will be much more positive towards playstation because of it. Even if they didn't make much, it still makes sense as an emisary of their brand.

Phasing out??? It sold more than Xbox 360 last quarter... PS2 is eternal.

In Brazil? Explain...

Yeah. Brazil is an emerging market and it was was PS2 released just two years ago.

But the demand of PS2 in EU and US is good yet... Brazil only couldn't sell 1.6M.