Sony’s Playstation 2 game console has practically been a staple with gaming retailers for years, and is likely found in homes of most gamers throughout the country. After nearly 13 years of production, despite newer Playstation generations, it looks like Sony is calling an end to the production of the PS2 game console, according to Famitsu.

Even though the PS3 launched in in late 2006, Sony continued to keep the PS2 alive with a major design update and a few game launches here and there, not to mention the large library of existing titles. This announcement is announcing the end of production for the PS2 console in Japan with a plan to sell of the remaining production stock, and a stop to production in the US and other countries is …

Let us be the first to welcome Brazil into the year 2000. The world’s gamers have been enjoying Sony’s PlayStation 2 since that year, but it is just now arriving in Brazil. Sure it’s been available to Brazilians by unofficial means, but not in any legit way.

If you live in Brazil, you can now enjoy last-generation’s game console champion for just 799 BRL, which translates to roughly $461 in US coin. We don’t see this flying off of Brazilian shelves. Do you?

Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? Soon. Are we there yet? Shut up and play your PS2 already. The VOD10PS2 is said to be the first fully integrated gaming system for the car. The overhead system not only features a 10.2-inch display, but it also boasts a PlayStation 2 console.

Here’s the thing. It costs $949.99, which is way expensive just to keep your rug rats busy. But for that price you get the box itself, a screen, a PS2, two wireless controllers, built-in dome light, a pair of fold-flat IR wireless headphones and a copy of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and Hot Shots Golf 3.

It’s official. Starting tomorrow you can get the aged Playstation 2 for just $99.99. Just like we told you yesterday. So stop denying yourself and go play some of those old games you’ve been missing out on.

Good news. Unless it’s Sony’s idea of an April Fools prank. Probably their way of bolstering the numbers this fiscal year. Who cares, we all win.

There’s not much to go on here. Just some guy’s word, but there’s talk that the permanent retail price of the PlayStation 2 console will soon fall below $100. It would certainly be long overdue. The console currently retails for $129.99.

It was in April of 2006 when Sony adjusted the price of the PS2 last time. Will April of 2009 be the month they get it below $99.99? The images above are from a Kmart pricing system. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but a price shift at this point would make sense.

Two brothers living in Waukesha reportedly choked, cut and stabbed each other when they fought over a Playstation 2 video game controller. Waukesha Police are recommending that charges be brought against both brothers who acted out of violent anger. When family members are freakin’ stabbed by other family members over video games, it reminds us all that despite our various awesome human achievements, there are still some turds floating around in the human gene pool just waiting to be flushed. This is exactly the kind of thing that gets government all up in our gaming bidness, when parenting could have avoided it all, by raising level-headed humans instead of ignorant savages who choke and stab, because they couldn’t get back into their fantasy world fast enough.

The incident took place on Sunday at a home on Whiterock Avenue where the two brothers got into an argument over whose turn it was to play the video game. The fighting went from yelling to one of the brothers choking the other. Apparently, the brother who was being choked pulled out a knife and cut the hands of the choker, after which the kid doing the choking took the knife and stabbed his brother and then fled the scene. The brother who ran then walked to the hospital and suffered from severely frostbitten fingers.

It took place in Melbourne, Florida. A truck carrying over 1400 PlayStation 2 systems was been stolen today. After a long trip over the weekend, the driver slept overnight on Sunday and didn’t realize the truck was gone until he woke up on Monday morning.

Apparently, the thieves were smart enough to disable the truck’s GPS before leaving with the goods. The police and the trucking company apparently had no idea where it went. There’s nothing worse then a truck full of stolen game consoles. Why do they never think of the children? The poor 30+ year old children…Now what will they play?

Once again Japan gets all the cool things. Like this latest, the Cinnabar Red PlayStation 2. It should be available on July 3rd, for the equivalent of $155 US. Perfect if you love rocking red, or if you have some sort of Hell theme happening. In fact, it would probably be at home in Hellboy’s house. Hell. Damnation. The damned. Red is the color of anger you know. I think it’s affecting me in a strange way.

The marketing research firm NPD has turned in their analysis of what the top video game titles and consoles were last month and the news is very good for the industry as a whole. Leading the top in sales of new software was Activision’s “Call of Duty 4″ for the Microsoft Xbox 360 which sold an impressive 1.57 million copies. Nintendo’s “Super Mario Galaxy” came in second place and if you combine the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sales for “Assassin’s Creed” it would actually take the silver medal. Not coincidentally Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” has emerged as the best-selling new IP for games in recent years.

Nintendo’s handheld DS gaming device sold an amazing 1.53 million units in November which was enough to give it the top of the chart for hardware sales. In second place was Nintendo’s Wii gaming console with 981,000 Wiis sold followed by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in third spot with 770,000 units finding homes. Sony moved 577,000 PlayStation Portable to give it fourth place and the price drop in the PS3 convinced 466,000 consumers to go out and buy one of the consoles last month.

Time magazine has released its list of the top ten videogames of the year. Can you take a guess at what made their number one spot? If you guessed “Halo 3″ you don’t win a prize. “Like a pebble that has been rounded over the centuries by the gentle splashing of the ocean waves, ‘Halo 3′ has become the perfect hardcore first-person combat simulator,” said Time in their idol worship of the Xbox 360 killer app. “By dint of painstaking labor on the part of its developer, Bungie, it has been refined over three installments to the point where it delivers only pure, unadulterated gaming bliss.” Who knew that the editors at Time were down with playing some Master Chief deathmatches?

Of the titles that made Time’s best of 2007 list six are exclusive to one videogame system, of which three are for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and one each for Sony’s PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s DS and Wii console systems. Why didn’t at least one PlayStation 3 exclusive title make it on Time’s list? And no “Guitar Hero III” (or is that game now redundant that “Rock Band” is out and lets you play drums as well as guitar?)

Sony has official announced the launched a new model of the Playstation 2 in Japan with the model number SCPH-90000. This new model is sans an external power brick and instead has it built into the frame. This change hasn’t made the PS2 any thicker, and also hasn’t made it any thinner as we had hoped, but it will come a bit lighter than the current SCPH-79000 model.

This new model will be unleashed in Japan on November 22 for about the equivalent of $140, which isn’t the $99 PS2 price we were hoping to see. Now word yet on this model coming to the states yet but we’re guessing it will be soon and will hopefully come a little cheaper.

The Limited Edition Playstation two bundled with SingStar Pop that we told you about a couple of months ago is hitting some stores this weekend and Sony is advising customers to “get ‘em while they’re hot”. The SingStar PS2 pack comes in ceramic white which was previously only available in Japan (maybe we’ll get the white PS3 someday too?) and is the only way you can get your hands on a ceramic white model. It comes packed with the SingStar Pop game and two microphones, retailing for the exptected $149.99. The Playstation blog says that “some” stores will have it this weekend and will reach “everywhere” on November 4.

Information on the release of the new “Rock Band” game from MTV has made its way into the blogosphere today flaunting a lower-than-expected price. The game is to be released for both the Sony PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 on November 23, both priced at $169.99. As an early surprise, Rock Star will also be available for the PS2 the following month on December 10, going for $10 less at $159.99.

The games will come bundled with a single guitar, microphone and a drum kit. Also, that guitar that comes bundled for the PS2 and PS3 won’t be tethered with any wires letting you rock out more freely but unfortunately the Xbox 360 will require you to plug it in, at least for a while. A wireless guitar model for the 360 is expected to come up sometime next year.

Sony is still thinking that there’s life left in the old PlayStation 2 and it’s probably right considering how poorly the PS3 has faired in the next gen console war. To attract any remaining consumers out there still holding out on picking up a PS2, or simply to whet the interest of the collectors market, the company has revealed that it will sell a limited edition Ceramic White PlayStation 2 bundled with “SingStar Pop” and two of its high-quality USB microphones. The new white PS2 bundle will hit stores in November and retail for $149.99, just in time for Christmas gift giving.

“SingStar Pop” is a karaoke game where you and your friends/family/American Idol wannabe friends can croon the tunes sung by old and new pop stars including hits originally sung by Alicia Keys, U2, Rihanna, Ashlee Simpson, …