This has to be one of the toughest marketing decisions that Sony has taken in recent memory. Per reports, Sony has decided to discontinue its legendary 13-year-old gaming console PlayStation 2, and the company is waiting until the current stocks run out.

While the console has already been discontinued in Japan, the same is waiting to happen all around the world until the last of its kind is sold out. Although it's not quite clear as to how that will happen with the current generation opting for PlayStation 3, which seems like a logical choice for any gamer.

The PlayStation 2 launched in Japan on Mar. 4, 2000 as the worthy successor to the original PlayStation, and the console lived beyond its 10 year expected life cycle. However, the decision may not be much of a surprise to many as it was expected that Sony would eventually kill off the PlayStation 2 although it boasted a decent sales number.

"It hadn't been a chart-topper in years, but it was always still hanging around with respectable sales figures for a system well over a decade old. Last week, however, it didn't manage four digits, and SCE has decided that 2012's holiday season should be the PS2's last. Perhaps this is what the Mayans were seeing. Truly, it's the end of an era," an emotional Heath Hindman of Game Revolution wrote while discussing the recent decision.

"Some of the most anticipated games of the past years have been HD versions of legendary PS2 games. Even now, there are PS2 games that countless fans are waiting to download on the PlayStation Network or buy in re-release form. A great many people voted for Persona 4: The Golden as the best RPG of this year, and it's a port of a 2008 PS2 game."

Sony's PlayStation 2 sold 150 million units globally making it extremely successful since it launched, and while some may think that now Sony will be concentrating more on its current generation PlayStation 3, a few may ask as to how long the company will be doing that. This is because even the PlayStation 3 is at the end of its lifecycle, and it won't be long before the company decides to replace it with the upcoming and heavily rumored PlayStation 4.

However, despite Sony has decided that it will put a rest to the PS2, it is expected that developers will still be creating games for the console due to the wide user-base it has grown over the years.