I don't really get why DKII is getting his panties tied in a knot over this thread.

It is fair to assume that whoever is buying a PS2 this month isn't buying a PS3, an Xbox360 or a Wii so they do in a way compete.

Besides you do have games that come out both on Wii and PS2 I believe.

Yes, the comparison doesn't mean much for the future of this new generation but at this point Sony is still capturing a fair share of the market as the PS2 does indeed compete in a way with the Wii in the cheaper end of the market...
Besides it would be foolish to say the PS2 is dead, it still has new titles coming to it and last I checked GH3 still sold the most on PS2, not on Wii, Xbox360 or PS3.........

I think for low budgets families that can not find a Wii or can't afford one it is fair to assume some of them are buying a PS2 instead. That will push back to the future their purchase of a new gen console and may push it far back enough that when they decide to buy a new gen console the PS3 may be a better alternative to the Wii that it is now, price wise at least...

It's impossible to quantify it anyway, but any current buyer of a PS2 will at least consider the PS3 when they finally decide to upgrade, I'm not saying they will buy one, but they will consider it without Sony having to do any additional marketing toward them so it's still good news for Sony. 

Anyone buying a PS2 now and not intending to buy another console for another 5 years will have no impact on the current market, because in 5 years there will be only one system left selling and the next generation of consoles will be out. They're effectively removing themselves from the console war, so there's no point in really looking at them in terms of how it might affect Wii, PS3, 360. It's like saying oh look the SNES is still selling all those people are gonna get N64's in a few years and it'll make a comeback! Except the N64 had already lost by then so they all got PS1's instead.

If you are going to do this (grasp at straws this way) then you need to toss the handhelds in as well.

Either do it all the way,

Or don't do it at all.

The Wii plays GC games and the 360 plays original Xbox games, same as the PS3 plays PS2 games (though not the 40GB version, I believe?). The fact is that while the PS2 costs under 150 dollars, the PS3 nears the 500$ mark, reason to why Sony decided to support the console. People would much rather have the current gen console other than the PS2, GC or Xbox, but price is a mayor factor. The Wii is 250$, an affordable price, the original Xbox was 300$ when it debuted, not much different than how much the current 360 costs.

Price is a factor in this case. Why continue supporting a console (MS and Nintendo's case) that won't deliver ANYTHING new in comparison to its next console? There is NO reason to do so. In Sony's case, they have two factors: Price and brandname. The PS2 was very successfull and is still selling, Sony wasn't about to let the console go, GC and Xbox weren't very successfull.

I do think it was a good thing for Sony to support the PS2 with games like GOW2 after the PS3's release as they seemed to realise that the Ps3 price tag was too high and it may take a while to take off the ground and the PS2 would support Sony for a while. What nobody planned on though was the sheer demand for the Wii.  What this may have inadvertently done is gave these more cautious people another choice before deciding and with the Wii now proving it's not going anywhere soon and losing it's fad image it may just have backfired.  Sony's brand is not as strong as it was at the PS3's launch.

What I do find a mistake on Sony's part tthough is just how their consoles are now seen as extremes where the PS2 is seen as a casual console and the PS3 is hardcore - I dont think brand loyalty is as important as casual gamers who bought the Ps2 cos it was the only console that either was the market leader or cos it had games like sing star, guitar hero and buzz.

I also question your statement that there's 120 million ps2 owners out there - the ps2 may have sold 120 million but I bought 4 as 2 broke and I gave one away, my brother bought 2, my wife had bought 2 over the years and her brother had 4, where I work has 3 - one in each fun room and so on. I think it's safe to assume that at least 25% of the 120 million were bought as replacements or bought by people who since then just couldn't care less about games anymore then i'd say 90 million is a better number. Now the current gen has already sold 51.09 million and I know a lot of those are to a new demographic but there's still probably at least a large portion of those 90 million already jumped into this gen - can you really see a vast amount of undecided ps2 owners wanting to buy in to the hardocore ps3 or do you think it's more probable that the hardcores have jumped and the main people that are left are the people wanting buy cheaper or casuals?

So, PS2 is what brings home the bacon for Sony, while its successor is struggling. If so, what's the point in even making a successor in the first place, from purely a business perspective.

because to go forward you have to bring out a successor but everyones not going to jump and buy a new product just cos it's available. sony knew they had to price BR up and get it to be widely accepted before the benefits could be enjoyed thus bringing the price down eventually. The same happened with the PS2 and DVD - how many price cuts has the Ps3 had sio far with components getting cheaper?

This is what the 10 year plan is about - taking a year or two to get a platform built for it to thrive on, think of a relay race - the next runner starts to run before the other comes to a complete standstill then the handover takes place whilst the new runner has a little steam before it hits full pace.

Hmm to me if you compare them like this it is indeed Sony in the lead. You cannot skew numbers like those. However anyone of us could make it seem like you cherry picked the only situation in which sony indeed is the console leader in todays market. Why not just use PS3 Wii and Xbox360? If you include the PS2 why not the PSP and the DS also? I mean this is the only secnario where sony takes the lead, its a good choice though as it is indeed including only the consoles from this and last gen. We all know an embarrasing fact about the PS2 in japan dont we? Its life time sales have been out sold by the Nintendo DS in Japan. Hand-held beatting the mighty PS2 on its home ground! Insanity! Truly picking out numbers like this prooves little to nothing though, there is todays hardware leader and that is Nintendo.

Of course this also reflects how much Sony's dominance is on the decline compared to last gen as the 360 will sell more than the xbox and the wii has already beaten the gamecube - Sony is the only party who will lose ground this gen.

Kinda saying Sony is still dominant... just by not as much!!