The reason for the high sales of the PS2 was because it was a cheap DVD player at being nearly half the price of a stand alone DVD player.
Funny by the time I worked at Target when they discontinued selling VHS and a customer was arguing with me about why did we stop selling VHS and I replied, “Dude, buy a DVD player, there’s one on that shelf for $35, its cheaper than a toaster now.” My manager standing next to me wasnt too happy but the customer reluctantly bought the cheap ass-DVD player.
How was your manager not happy with this? You not only talked them into a purchase but a purchase into an ecosystem that would likely generate future revenue for the company. There is nothing but positives here?
The ps3 was also one of the cheapest blu-ray players at the time. But I’m pretty sure the 2 launched for 3 or 4 hundred, not 500 or 600 like the ps3 so that probably put a damper on sales. I know I waited for the 40gig $400 ps3 version that gen, and the ps3 price is what made me buy a 360 initially instead.
There was also a pretty aggressive format war between BluRay and HDDVD that tempered demand for a little while. I bought a launch PS3 as well, in part because of BluRay.
I also think it was a time where not everyone had an HD TV, nor did most people see a huge difference between DVD and BluRay, so there just wasn’t quite the demand compared to VHS vs DVD. Aside from the graphical stepup to DVD, it also didn’t need to be rewinded and didn’t take up nearly as much space. I think those two were big selling features, that the DVD to BluRay transition just didn’t have.
All true. I also remembered that I actually bought 2 ps2 as I bought my girlfriend’s mom one for a dvd player for Christmas I think. The vhs to dvd was definitely a bigger jump than to blu-ray.
As someone who moved on from consoles between the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo, the PS2 is the only modern console I’ve ever owned, and it was 90% for the DVD player.
The reason for the high sales of the PS2 was because it was a cheap DVD player at being nearly half the price of a stand alone DVD player.
Funny by the time I worked at Target when they discontinued selling VHS and a customer was arguing with me about why did we stop selling VHS and I replied, “Dude, buy a DVD player, there’s one on that shelf for $35, its cheaper than a toaster now.” My manager standing next to me wasnt too happy but the customer reluctantly bought the cheap ass-DVD player.
How was your manager not happy with this? You not only talked them into a purchase but a purchase into an ecosystem that would likely generate future revenue for the company. There is nothing but positives here?
The ps3 was also one of the cheapest blu-ray players at the time. But I’m pretty sure the 2 launched for 3 or 4 hundred, not 500 or 600 like the ps3 so that probably put a damper on sales. I know I waited for the 40gig $400 ps3 version that gen, and the ps3 price is what made me buy a 360 initially instead.
There was also a pretty aggressive format war between BluRay and HDDVD that tempered demand for a little while. I bought a launch PS3 as well, in part because of BluRay.
I also think it was a time where not everyone had an HD TV, nor did most people see a huge difference between DVD and BluRay, so there just wasn’t quite the demand compared to VHS vs DVD. Aside from the graphical stepup to DVD, it also didn’t need to be rewinded and didn’t take up nearly as much space. I think those two were big selling features, that the DVD to BluRay transition just didn’t have.
All true. I also remembered that I actually bought 2 ps2 as I bought my girlfriend’s mom one for a dvd player for Christmas I think. The vhs to dvd was definitely a bigger jump than to blu-ray.
As someone who moved on from consoles between the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo, the PS2 is the only modern console I’ve ever owned, and it was 90% for the DVD player.