PS2 Owners Should Thank Nintendo

While I still think that the Nintendo Wii is wholeheartedly underpowered, and this will be extremely evident as the years go on, I do think that it will have an unexpected effect for those casual gamers who want to wait as long as possible before diving into the next generation of consoles. The Wii is going to help the PS2 have serious developer support for quite a bit longer than the original PlayStation did.

For all intents and purposes, the Wii can probably be classified as Xbox level in processing power or a bit better, so its distance from the PS2 is considerably closer than when comparing it to an Xbox 360 or PS3. Due to that, I am betting that you will see a lot of developers announce Wii titles that are also going to be available on PS2 and vice-versa. The first rule of development spending is to spread it out amongst as many SKUS as possible, so it makes sense to develop a game on PS2 and then figure out an interesting way to integrate the Wii controls while sprucing up the textures a bit. It’s basically the same as building a PS2 game and then porting it up to the Xbox. The only difference now is that a bit of time needs to be invested in coming up with an appropriate use for the Wii-mote.

EA has already announced a Medal of Honor title for PS2 and Wii and I bet that other developers will follow. Building upon this idea, I bet you will see a lot of PSP/PS2 titles, as well, like the new Burnout title that Criterion just started talking about. With such a large PS2 userbase out there, there is still a ton of money to be made. Being able to port the games to Wii or PSP only adds to the equation and makes it a no-brainer.

So, all you PS2 owners out there still have a lot to look forward to, such as the likes of:

• Rogue Galaxy
  
• God of War II
  
• Test Drive Unlimited
  
• Lumines Plus
  
• Medal of Honor: Airborne
  
• Shining Force EXA
  
• Dawn of Mana
  
• Burnout Dominator
  
• Medal of Honor: Vanguard
  
• Raw Danger
  
• Tomb Raider: Anniversary
  
• Persona 3
  
• Indiana Jones
  

As well as the awesome onslaught of EA and 2K sports titles that will be coming out for the next 2-3 years, for sure. And, when you’re finally up to upgrading to a new console, the prices should just be in the sweet spot and the available games should number in the hundreds with plenty at Greatest Hits prices.