Death of a legend: PSX production halts

There are reports doing the rounds today that claim the PSX, Sony Consumer Electronics’ PlayStation 2/DVD recorder hybrid was a white elephant, as news breaks that its run of production has come to an end.

SPOnG disagrees. Although wildly overpriced with an asking price of around £500, the PSX filled its place in the market perfectly. “So rich that you can afford to throw out your old PlayStation 2 and replace it with an overpriced DVD recorder and HDD? Style your prime concern? Then buy one of these!” Releasing the PSX was, in a way, Sony daring the upper echelons of electronics adopters to make a purchase that arguably was foolish and unnecessary.

And they took up the challenge in droves. Massive pre orders saw the unit sell out straight away and in spite of some well–documented issues with early reworks, initial support was strong.

However, as with every occasion the emperor gets a flashy (there’s a brilliant pun in there somewhere) wardrobe, some punk-ass kid has to shout up. Only this time he was shouting, “Look mummy, those stupid people are paying twice the price they need to for a DVD recorder and hard drive combo and they’re going to throw their PlayStations away to boot!”

There is an upside for those still lighting a nightly candle in hope of the PSX’s emergence into western territories. Sony Consumer Electronics always maintained that the device would see retail outside of Japan. Sony Stores in the UK received preliminary information on the PSX. Add this to the fact that SCE has not (yet) stated production will end forever and you’ll begin to see that actually, we’re just keeping your thin hopes alive. Some would argue rather sadistically.

If the situation changes, you’ll be the first to know.