Love it or hate we all own or owned one, and with the highest sales figures of any console in history, one has to ask, can anyone even touch it? Even if the Wii is more popular and more individuals buy the Wii than the PS2, can the a relatively quality ensured product like the Wii ever compete with the PS2 of the last gen whose infamous lack of quality control coupled with cheep parts forced many consumers to buy multiple units over the last seven years. Granted, I know people who have only ever had to buy one PS2 and have never had any problems with it but I also know people who have had to buy six, yes six, PS2s due to their constant breaking, and anyone not blind knows this was no small trend (albeit not always quite so many PS2s per individual). Can the Wii ever reach the PS2's grandeur in sales with a console that isn't built to break and forces the consumer to buy a new one? Arguably more people could own a Wii than people who owned a PS2 and the PS2 could still beat the Wii in sales by the end of a respective 7 year run for each.

Certainly the Xbox and other consoles in the past have had similar problems, but none ever to the extent the PS2 has become known for. And while there will always be consoles damaged due to user error and lack of common sense, the sheer numbers can't account for this as the only cause in the PS2's production run.

Spam. There is already topic about Wii and PS2 sale...

Edit:

... and even someone (Shams?) pointed quality problems with PS2... 

well, if lack of quality makes for great sales numbers (which is definitely true), then x360 has a good chance =)

This is a topic exclusively about quality and how it affects sales, not Wii vs PS2. I'm more ales using the Wii as a comparison to draw to the central focus of this topic which is the PS2 and it sales vs its quality.

True True! It makes you wonder how many 360s they've sold by virtue of the Red Ring of Death alone. Or do they replace that for free?

Seems kind of unfair Nintendo is handicapped in sales for making a reliable product.

I think the resales percent has been blown out of proportion. The number of people who buy multiple consoles are the ones who play it all the time, ie, a relative few.

the reason PS2 has sold so many (and the reason the PS3 won't), is because of the huge number of consoles sold to casual gamers. These people make up a huge portion of the market (>> 50%) and they play the PS2 rarely enough that it won't be anywhere near dying.

Only relatively few gamers will have gone through multiple PS2's

Also remember the gaming market is expanding all the time, the DS will outstrip the PS2 in time, and it is much more reliable (no moving parts == greater reliability) 

damn you editing your posts after I quote you! =p

I doubt those numbers are counted in NPD values, since they're shipped out by MS. But they're probably counted as part of the 10.9 million "shipped" by MS. Most likely they fix the problem with the console and then send it out as a replacement for the next red ring, etc. They definitely won't count as NPD data since it's sent directly to the customer by MS and NPD tracks retailer sell through.

As for Nintendo, their first batch of Wiis had some software issues from what I heard, it's pretty customary that launch consoles have problems, it's usually a good idea to wait a month or so first.

That might be true but by that very virtue you're in no more a position to claim its the minority's problem then I am in claiming its the majority. All I know is the infamous reputation the PS2 has earned at console repair shops and game stores. One game store refuses to buy them back because they are either broken or will break soon, and I garantee you this is no small number of people. However this doesn't speak for an exact cross section of the globe but I feel its a pretty good indicator of common trends. Its perhaps also not fair to assume hardcore gamers are the only ones that experience these problems as I've known people who've bought the PS2 played it a little bit, left it sit for a year or so, picked it back up again and it broke. There's really no ryhme or reason outside of the fact each production wave seemed to have its own personality as to how they broke down.

And yes there have been some bad Wiis and probably will continue to have about a 3% rate of defects as that's standard in any electronics industry. But there is no arguing Nintendo's reputation for quality, which I don't think makes them perfect, I just think that means they're doing what everyone else should be at the very least.

People who need to hate on Sony exagerate the PS2 lack of quality issues. True, the original bulky version was not the durable system out there, but it's not like every other system ended up breaking down. And when a PS2 does break down there are places you can take to get it fixed (or try to) so it's not like it automatically means another PS2 sale if you want to keep playing the system.

Topic really made me lol. =P But seriously though, we already have a topic for almost exactly the same thing. Since there's already a topic for PS2 vs Wii sales, looking at PS2 vs Wii sales from the angle of product reliability is really something you should bring up there. That, and your choice of words is a bit trollish. We Nintendo fans should be civil and polite about winning the console war. =P

True people exagerate but that doesn't excuse the undeniable truth that persists. And while the slims had a far better track record than the originals, they still had their own myriad of issues, in particular, over heating. Call it Sony hating if you want but I expect a console to meet a certain standard for the money I'm paying for it. There's no excuse the PS2 couldn't meet the same level of quality as the Gamecube when they were designing it, it's not my fault people are so willing to accept the mistakes of big companies as unavoidable facts of life that should be embraced. There's also a great differences between someone who indiscriminately hates on a Company and someone who rolls over and accepts whatever that Company feeds them, where ever you think I stand on that scale is your call, but don't use it as an excuse to hide from the truth.