Sony has ceased shipping PS2s in JapanFollow

The beginning of the end?

It's still going to go on for a while. There will be lots of them on Ebay and such even after they're not made anymore.

Ofcourse the actual point would be that sony should never have ripped out backwards compatibility from the PS3 so they could continue to sell two consoles at the same time, but they're not going to fix that anytime soon. And once the PS4 or whatever comes that -does- support PS2 games again (doubtful), none of those games are going to be relevant anymore. Let alone available for purchase from anywhere but Ebay or whatever people will be using.

But since Sony only profits from console sales and not from the games themselves, there really is no point for them to make PS2 games playable on newer consoles. No one is going to buy a PS4 just so they can play PS2 games. And i very much doubt having that backwards compatibility is going to be the deciding factor for a lot of people when it comes to purchasing one.

Game developers should simply re-release their PS2 games on the PS3. (Here's a clear and obvious hint for you SE). I'd love to play Xenosaga, i never got to play anything but the first one, which did get re-released, but the other ones i didnt play never did. Same for a bunch of obscure PS2 games that simply had its own charm and uniqueness.

Well, I've always said that SE will likely support XI on the PS2 as long as Sony supports the PS2 itself.

They're ending shipments, but not support. However, ending support tends to follow a few years after ending shipments.

Yeah I keep imagining an expansion where they update the physics of the game (jumping, flying swimming). .. But I am, as usual, dreaming in technicolour.

FFXI: Seekers of Adoulin (or perhaps another future expansion [hopefully SE decides to make more]) may be the last PS2 game ever released. Yeah, it's Japan-only, but it's the last official PS2 game. Had Sony not screwed the HDD in NA, Seekers of Adoulin might have seen a NA release.