Phil Harrison Hints at New PS2 Peripherals

via 1UP

The PlayStation 2 has seen remarkable continued success after nearly eight years on the market, and has comparable graphical capabilities to the Wii. Those are about the only facts conspiracy theorists needed to envision a radical future world where Sony releases a PS2 motion-sensing controller, giving the console new life as a direct Wii competitor. Speaking to Gamasutra recently, Phil Harrison did his part to grease the rumor mill gears.

Harrison, head of Sony Worldwide Studios, was questioned about third-party motion-sensing controllers such as In2Games RealPlay Wireless controller, and the possibility of the PS2 competing directly with the Wii. His response:

"Well, I can't answer your question directly because I'm not familiar with what you're referring to, but we put USB ports on the PlayStation 2 for a reason, which was to support open technology. So anything that is based around USB can be plugged into a PS2 and could add some unique experience."

Okay, a little vague, no specific mention of anything coming in the near future -- wait, what's this? There's more? "We've done that well, [quiz show-style] Buzz controllers, EyeToy, Singstar, but there are others as well coming. We're by no means done with PS2," says Harrison. "We can't make enough PS2s at the moment, which is a fantastic situation to be in eight years into the lifecycle."

Whether it's a "Wii-killer" remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure -- you don't sell 120 million units of a console without plans to further support it. 120 million, and the PS2 still isn't at $99 dollars. The mind boggles.