SONY RELEASES SILVER PLAYSTATION 2 IN NORTH AMERICA

Sony has released a silver version of the PlayStation 2 in North America.

This confims the rumors that there was a special PS2 coming and as you can see by the picture from the left that the silver PS2 is real.

I picked up one from Wal-Mart today.

It comes complete with well, nothing. It come with a standard controller painted silver like the unit itself. It comes with an improved version 4 of the online software.

The finish is a little bit more elegent than the slate colour version. There is no difference in perfomance so there is no advantage to buying this other than the update online firmware/software.

I intend to keep this as a momento and eventually to use over my slate version because this is the very first time Sony has ever released a version of their hardware in a different colour than black and slate in North America.

UPDATE:

I have been doing some more research on the differences between the two versions of the PS2 and have found a new almost disturbing item having to do with a hardware change on the silver PS2.

As you know you have always had the option to use a dial-up connection for your internet connection all the way back to the original PS2. You could also connect via the network port on the back to get onto a broadband connection.

Sony has deleted the network port on the new silver PS2 obviously making the statement that no one uses a modem to connect to the internet.

Considering this, I actually can't remember the last online game that I have played that you could play over a dial-up connection. I searched through our own collection here and only found one title (ATV Offroad Fury 2; we haven't gotten rid of this because it is a "NOT FOR RESALE" title that came with our very first PS2) so I think Sony has figured that the dial-up connection is basically taking up space on the back of their trusty console.

Looking at the contents of the package I should have clued my self in when the "Online Start-Up Disc" (included with every PS2) said "Broadband Only" on itself and had a whole new version number (4.0).

Additional comments on the silver PS2 not relating to the deletion of the Dial-Up port is about the finish.

The finish like I reported in the original report was, well, exquisite. The major difference is that the exterior of the silver PS2 is no longer grained like the graphite PS2 giving the silver version a much sleeker, more metal looking finish.

Also the logos for what kind of media it can play are not engrained into the plastic and are instead painted on. The open logo has also been taken away from the flip-top as well.