The Matrix was such a popular pickup alongside the PlayStation 2 that the two practically came bundled. Excitement was fueled by Metal Gear Solid 2's showing at E3 2000, which had critics raving about details like ice cubes actually melting if a bucket was knocked over. Nevertheless, the PlayStation 2 promptly shredded the Dreamcast's launch day records with $250 million in revenue.
The North American PlayStation 2 also purportedly used a different graphics synthesizer than the Japanese version, leading to manufacturing difficulties. We ended up renting Armored Core 2?, an adequate but not particularly exciting mech sim by then-obscure developer FromSoftware.īehind the scenes, the PlayStation 2 was hit by parts shortages, resulting in a mere 500,000 units being available for the U.S. It had no killer apps (unless you counted Fantavision, the greatest fireworks game in history). When it launched in the U.S., I rented one with a friend only to discover that, outside of a small number of respectable middle-tier games like SSX and Tekken Tag Tournament, there was little to play. Interestingly, for all of its subsequent success, the PlayStation 2 actually got off to a pretty poor start. Ken Kutaragi, seen here receiving a lifetime achievement award, was one of the PlayStation's chief architects. Just the prospect of the PlayStation 2 launching the following year was enough to put a damper on the Sega Dreamcast, which launched with much fanfare but couldn't sustain its momentum. A raft of exciting games were promised for the console: Metal Gear Solid 2, Gran Turismo 2000 (later retitled Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec), and Final Fantasy 10. Launching just a few months after the start of Y2K, the PlayStation 2 got an enormous headstart over the Xbox and GameCube, which wouldn't launch until the following year. An anonymous programmer described working on the PlayStation 2 like this: "There are so many amazing things you can do, but everything requires backflips through invisible blades of segfault. It was a complex machine with 10 different processors and six different memory spaces, all of which worked in completely different ways. Where the Xbox was functionally a PC built with off-the-shelf parts, the PlayStation 2 was powered by a bespoke CPU called the "Emotion Engine." Like the PlayStation before it, the PlayStation 2 reflected Sony Computer Entertainment of America then-CEO Ken Kutaragi's philosophy of putting hardware first. Flush with success after winning the previous generation, Sony displayed the same sort of boundless ambition with the PlayStation 2 that would later get it into trouble with the PS3. The launch of the PlayStation 2 in 2000 was a momentous occasion. Maybe the PlayStation 2 really is the greatest console of all time. The more I think about it, the more I wonder whether Caty is right. Its dominance in the first decade of the 21st century is matched by only a handful of platforms: the NES, the Game Boy, and maybe the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 2 isn't just the best selling console of all time it's home to a dizzying number of unassailable classics. Before the PlayStation 4 had Grand Theft Auto 5, the PlayStation 2 had GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas-the games that revolutionized the open-world sandbox genre as we know it today. Before the Wii struck out into gaming's "blue ocean," the PlayStation 2 had the Eyetoy and Singstar. Before World of WarCraft, the PlayStation 2 had Final Fantasy 11. Still, I have to admit that the PlayStation 2 had one hell of a run.ĭigging into the history of the PlayStation 2, which celebrates the anniversary of its release in Japan today, I've been impressed by the sheer breadth of what it had to offer. Nostalgia is often the beginning and the end of an argument over a particular platform's impact, and I grew up with the SNES, not the PlayStation 2. In truth, I've tended to be more of a Super Nintendo stan than anything. I had never given serious thought as to whether the PlayStation 2 was in fact the best console. It's the best console." Her reaction caught me off-guard. Senior Editor Caty McCarthy, who grew up playing Kingdom Hearts, piped up, "Me. As I was planning for PlayStation 2's 20th anniversary last week, I asked the team at USgamer if anyone had substantial nostalgia for the platform that cemented Sony's position as the dominant player in the console space.
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