With all the brouhaha over the new generation of game systems, what's to become of the 100-million-unit-selling lord of the last generation -- the PlayStation 2? Well, it depends on who you ask.

On the one side is this Reuters report, which is positively bubbly about the system's enduring sales and impact in light of more powerful competitors. Indeed, the $130 system outsold the Xbox 360 and PS3 in January, and had two of the top ten selling games that month.

On the other side, you have this post on Dubious Quality which notes that the big-five publishers only have ten combined games announced for the system from June onward this year. Electronic Arts alone has ten games listed for the PlayStation 3 in the same period, despite the newer system's much smaller installed base.

So is the PS2's future rosy or ruinous? The determination really hinges on how many of those 100 million PS2 owners worldwide are still actively using their systems and how many have traded them in or boxed them up in the closet. The sales of God of War II, due to be released next week, will give a good indication of just how much oomph this aging system has left.

Read - Thriving
Read - Failing

OK, we were willing to believe that PS3 pre-orders were regularly going for over $2,000 on eBay. We even entertained the possibility that selling prices of over $30,000 might actually be legit. But someone willing to pay just short of $100 million for a PS3? That's nearly half the gross domestic product of Tonga!

The sad part is that it's hard to tell from the bid history exactly when the auction went from serious pre-order offer to joke-bidding extravaganza. Our best guess is that by the time eBay user mrsophistication placed the first six-figure bid, all logic and good sense had gone out of the proceedings. We can't help but feel bad for jason_138, who bid Sony's asking price of $600 only to be outbid by tens of millions of dollars. Better luck next time Jason.

Now that the PS3 has gone from pre-order possibility to actual retail product, will we see average auction prices decrease, or will short supplies lead to continued bidding frenzies throughout the holiday season?

[Thanks Justin Roiland]