"...thrown their towel in the ring :P"

I don't know how many hats are thrown at a boxing match?

No.

The idiom 'to throw one's hat into the ring' originated in the early 19th century. When a rival wished to challenge a boxer, he would literally 'throw his hat into the ring'.

This is thought to have been necessitated by the crowds and noise; you'd be missed if you simply tried to shout out a challenge or push your way through the crowd and into the ring.

The first known use dates back to 1820. John Hamilton Reynolds wrote in 'The Fancy': "Throw in his hat, and with a spring get gallantly within the ring."

The phrase soon came to be used figuratively to mean 'to enter a contest or debate'.

Cheers,
Tim

Well then I take mine off to you sir!

And I'll take mine off to Google...

Tim

Tossing a hat into the ring indicates the instigation of a process - towel; the end of one.

Pfft.

Actually the PS2 isn't dead:/ Only few developers are moving on, but PS2 will still be on for a while until the price of the ps3 has been slashed down to death!

News games are constantly coming out for the console!
Maybe I should use a spare change (360 games) to buy a mini ps2 and play all the games I missed out: Kill Zone, Rachet and Clank, Tekken, God of War etc

In my opinion, there are two reasons the PS2 is declining sooner than anticipated. One is the unprecedented success of the Wii, obviously.

The second is the PS3. But not for the reason that the PS3 has been spectacularly successful - it's because of the dropping of backwards compatibility from the new machine.

Plenty of new PS3 owners might have dipped into the PS2 back catalogue for those titles that were most prevalent in its final days - the Singstar releases and some of the RPGs and other oddities that are finally making it over from Japan - if it had maintained backwards compatibility. But the chances are, if you're a PS3 owner, you will have either traded your PS2 in or packed it away to the loft, so you'll have no interest in the PS2 titles any more. Conversely, the late PS1 titles could still be played by PS2 owners so the market survived on all front - not just the late adopters of the next generation and kids/casual gamers.

Personally, I've kept my PS2, but it's been used once (for a Singstar party) since I got my (non-BC) PS3 simply because it isn't living under the TV in my living room any more. Sony broke the link, the natural chain of progression from PS2 to PS3 (branding aside) and whilst concerns may have focussed on what that would do to PS3 sales, I think the real impact has been on the PS2.

If Sony don't think the PS2 is worth keeping alive to PS3 owners, why should anyone else?

Well said ^^

@KB
Yep; I sold my PS2 and 40 odd games, and bought a 360 with GTA 4 (for which the 60€ has still not been sent by microsoft...:-\ ).

One of the [my] main reasons for buying a ps2 was for the DVD player and compatability with ps1 games; why oh why did this change with the ps3? If I remember correctly the eariler models were BC, and this was changed for some reason...(to bring the cost down (?))

It is a shame... I still have my PS2 but I'm literally only using it for DVD at the moment, which is a shame cos it sucks... I do have the occasional play on GTA: SA or Socom II...