The end of an era. The Playstation 2 Retires

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost 13 years since the Playstation 2 released, and production has been going non stop on it…until now.

Famitsu reports that new PS2 consoles will no longer ship to retailers in Japan, meaning that once the current inventory is sold, they will be gone for good.

The Playstation 2 has sold nearly 22 million units throughout Japan, and over 150 million units worldwide.  Backwards compatibility, along with the change to DVD as the primary disc format were two major factors in propelling the PS2’s popularity.

New games have been released on it all the way through 2012, and a few are still scheduled, including Final Fantasy 11: Seekers of Adoulin, which will release in Japan in 2013.