Sony halts production of original PlayStation

PS2 News | Plug finally pulled on best-selling console.

More than eleven years after it was originally launched, Sony has finally announced that it is to stop manufacturing the original PlayStation, as well as the updated version of the console, the PSone. Over the past decade, the machine has become the best-selling home console of all time, shifting in excess of 100 million units. It's also played host to countless classic games, ranging from Metal Gear Solid to Final Fantasy VII, though it's not quite broken the record of the longest lifespan for a games console - that particular honour goes to the Nintendo Famicom (known as the NES outside Japan), which was manufactured from July 1983 to October 2003 - over 20 years!

The decision to stop the PlayStation production line comes a little over a week after Sony announced a global launch for the PlayStation 3 in November.

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26 Comments

Bitchacho

6 years ago

i had no idea they were still being manufactured. well i suppose i assumed they still would be subconciously. It was obsolete the second the ps2 come out. Does anyone know how much they cost brand new these days?

Gtpod

6 years ago

A PSOne over here'll cost you ~£30 (so ~74 AUD) with loads of games.

'Tis the end of an era. RIP PS1. *salute*

Bitchacho

6 years ago

our psx **** itself after chipping it and playing it a billion times. *salutes MGS3 style*

Qbert

6 years ago

Wow, I didn't know the PS1 was still being prodduced! How long did the NES have? Would have to be around 10 years?

838 La

6 years ago

Well I think they sell PSone to the less... known countries.
but I'm just as shocked as you guys.

sonicwired

6 years ago

Qbert wrote

Wow, I didn't know the PS1 was still being prodduced! How long did the NES have? Would have to be around 10 years?

Dunno about the NES but I'm pretty sure that the SNES was still being made in Japan well into N64's lifetime. The Mega Drive is still being made in Brazil 15 years after it first came out and I think the same company was selling Master Systems along side it up until recently.

Frozencry

6 years ago

R.I.P. to the PsOne.

Chris-Leigh

6 years ago

'The Mega Drive is still being made in Brazil 15 years after it first came out and I think the same company was selling Master Systems along side it up until recently.'

Hmm, can't see that being true, to be honest - excess stock Mega Drives may still be sold in Brazil (and, for all I know, other countries). But actually manufactured? When Sega announced it was withdrawing from the hardware market when the Dreamcast hit the rocks, I seem to recall the company saying all hardware manufacturing would cease?

Bitchacho

6 years ago

^when did dreamcast hit the rocks?

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-u-49-en-70-17a4.html

they're selling 'refurbished' dreamcasts with gamepacks on play-asia.

Chris-Leigh

6 years ago

Yes, but what I meant (as well you know

) was that Sega manufacturing Dreamcasts has definitely stopped. Therefore, the chances that Mega Drives are still being put together at a plant somewhere are, IMO, slim.

Must grab me one of those DCs though; saw 'em a while back and forgot about them.

ZNMS

6 years ago

Mitchacho wrote

Does anyone know how much they cost brand new these days?

The Mr. Toys GameWorld in the City has one PSOne in stock with a $79.95 price tag.

Bitchacho

6 years ago

wtf? gamecubes are 90 bucks now, and they're still flogging psones for 80?!

David

6 years ago

Qbert wrote

Wow, I didn't know the PS1 was still being prodduced! How long did the NES have? Would have to be around 10 years?

The NES (or the famicom) was manufacured from early 1983 to about 2002, so about ninteeen years. It's still being manufactured en-masee if you count unlicenced hardware. In fact, if you combine the estimated 40+ million famiclones (pirate NES hardware) sold with the 80 million* units of official hardware, the has NES easily outsold the PS1, and is still being manufactured legally, since the NES patent expired last year, and now anyone can make an NES if they want.

(*I don't know where Wikipedia gets their '60 million NESes sold' figure, but with 35 million NESes sold in the USA and well over 20 million sold in Japan, it's basically impossible for it to be only 60 million, since it was very popular in many major european countries like France and Italy as well. 60 million is most likely only the 'NES' branded hardware, and does not count hardware branded 'Famicom')

Chris-Leigh wrote

It actually is still manufactured, but not by Sega - it's licenced to a local company.

sonicwired

6 years ago

Chris-Leigh wrote

Hmm, can't see that being true, to be honest - excess stock Mega Drives may still be sold in Brazil (and, for all I know, other countries). But actually manufactured? When Sega announced it was withdrawing from the hardware market when the Dreamcast hit the rocks, I seem to recall the company saying all hardware manufacturing would cease?

It's not actually Sega itself doing the manufacturing, it's another company called Tec Toy.

David

6 years ago

I just checked up on it - the Famicom (NES) was actually produced for over 20 years in an official capacity by Nintendo, so I've updated the article to show that it was 20 years.

arbok

6 years ago

if i find one i'll definitely pick up one new. could be worth a bit.

k1dcharm

6 years ago

Must be due to 2 reasons:
1) Dual Shock
2) Need to concentrate on PS3

admeister

6 years ago

PS1 is dead, I owned one for a brief period, but sold it when Dreamcast came out! I didn't like it much, loading times were bad, I idn't like many games, I loved the N64. I did buy a PS2 though, so I didn't hold a grudge.

k1dcharm

6 years ago

Based on today's standard, of course the loading time on PSone is bad. However, based on PSone's era, the loading time was consider pretty good... definitely better than PC Engine CD & Sega CD.

Infested Jibbs

6 years ago

No matter the loading time, loading time itself is bad.Cart was still the way to go back then imo.

ObsoletE

6 years ago

^ i disagree, optical media was always going to translate to consoles and somewhere along the line some company needed to take the plunge and completly embrace it.

likewise, there was always going to be a crossover or CDs and Carts.

i'm not saying either was the correct media for the time, they were both necessary.

David

6 years ago

k1dcharm wrote

Based on today's standard, of course the loading time on PSone is bad. However, based on PSone's era, the loading time was consider pretty good... definitely better than PC Engine CD & Sega CD.

Wrong - PC engine and Mega CD both had far better loading times (in general) then PS1 games. PS1 and PS2 (both with poor load times) are easily the slowest loading major consoles ever (3DO and Neo Geo CD are not major).

Infested Jibbs

6 years ago

Jibbs wrote

No matter the loading time, loading time itself is bad.Cart was still the way to go back then imo.

Oh no dout obs, no doubt that cd's and later dvd's would need to be used as a medium for games what with the increase in quality (and therefore size) of textures and music/sfx and such, and also the popularity of in-game fmv's, but that's why i said back then, as such high quality music and graphics etc couldn't be fully utilised anyway.

I reckon it was prolly the last generation that could fully get by without an optical medium.In all fairness, the n64 was becoming constricted by storage constraints nearing the end of it's life cycle....