PS1/2 Why did iLink fail?

[supernintendo128]

Why did Sony scrap iLink on later PS2 models (besides the obvious reason of the network adapter hitting the market)? Did nobody use it? Did regular LAN overtake it in popularity?

 

[Uiaad]

I think at the end of the day it came down to people rarely used it and out of the whole ps2 library there were only a handful of games that supported it ( i think just 19 games in total 6 of which being armoured core games and 2 time crisis games). It was only a matter of time with how infrequently that sony would remove it in later hardware revisions.

 

[Ryccardo]

No official uses other than multi-console local multiplayer (on a more limited number of games than PS1 serial link ones) outside of possibly the PSX, the fact firewire was/is patented by Apple (with a licensing cost per port), and of course the corner-cutting reputation of the company

The fact you could use ethernet for local networking is more of a consequence of removing firewire (network adapters weren't cheap at full retail price, in Europe it's still cheaper and better to import an American one with 56k modem since they have no known clones)

 

[KiiWii]

iLink required 2 consoles, 2 TVs, 2 copies of the game, just to effectively play 2 player.... it would have been too expensive of a set up for most people to play against each other back then.

As you say the network adaptor came out after and nullified the need for a proprietary-esq iLink in favour of widely used RJ45 (or whatever).