Sony to Cut PlayStation 2 Price to $99.99 03.31.09

Sony said Tuesday that it plans to cut the price of its last-generation PlayStation 2 to $99.99 on April 1, allowing a greater number of consumers to play PlayStation gamesSome sort of Sony announcement had been expected for several days, although the news may underwhelm gamers, most if not all already own a PlayStation 2. The move was announced by Sony's John Koller, director of hardware marketing, on a company blog.

By cutting the price, Sony apparently wants to take advantage of a principle called elasticity of demand, which says that unit sales increase as the price decreases. However, Sony has already sold over 50 million PlayStation 2s in the United States alone. The PlayStation 2 is also nearly a decade old, having launched in Oct. 2000 in the United States.

"Well most importantly, this new price means that more people than ever will be able to join in on the fun that so many of you PlayStation 2 owners have been enjoying for years, which means new families will become part of the platform's record-breaking install base," Koller wrote. "With this new price, we intend to introduce a new generation of consumers – some of whom weren't even alive when the system was first introduced in 2000 – to the immense entertainment value offered by PlayStation 2."

Koller also acknowledged that while the typical lifespan of a game console is five years, the company also redesigns them over time. Moreover, he said, consumers have held interest in the platform for a number of years: "[It] speaks to the technology and features that were packed into PlayStation 2 from the beginning, as well as to the ongoing support the platform enjoys from the publishing and retail communities and, well, all of you fans," he wrote.

The PlayStation 2 already boasts about 1,900 games, and the company plans to add MLB '09, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Guitar Hero Metallica and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge this year, he wrote.