Report: PlayStation 2 Relaxes Content Approval For Emerging Markets

According to new media reports, Sony says it will no longer insist on content approval for PlayStation 2 titles, in a similar way to the DS and Wii's lack of detailed concept approval, making it easier to create titles for the console. Speaking at the Casual Connect conference in Kiev, Ukraine, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe developer relations manager George Bain confirmed the move and indicated that it was primarily taken as a means to encourage local developers in emerging markets such as Russia and India. As reported by website GameDaily, there will also no longer be any licensing fees involved in becoming a PS2 developer, although it will still be necessary to purchase development kits. Even here, though, Bain indicated that in some cases, Sony was willing to loan development kits, which are otherwise priced at $10,250. For smaller casual titles, developers would also be able to use debug PS2 consoles instead, which are priced at around $1,000. Bain also provided an update on statistics -- a total of 131.3 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold worldwide, making it the most successful home console of all time. Total software sales currently stand at over 1.4 billion.