Console gamers worldwide can once again reminisce about the early days of the PlayStation as Sony celebrates 30 years of play. From the launch of its first console, born out of interactions with Nintendo, to its current PS5 Pro, Sony has established itself as a major player in the console gaming ecosystem. Sony has now revealed that its PlayStation 2 has sold a record-setting 160 million units since its launch in 2000.
Many can remember the good times had with Sony’s first PlayStation which would undergo multiple model changes after its first release in 1994 but those early days of console designs saw manufacturers constantly endeavoring to one-up each other with new hardware improvements. While today’s consoles may truly resemble scaled-down PC hardware by using very similar parts, things were a bit different in the early 2000s when the PlayStation 2 launched.
The King is dead, long live the king
Its inclusion of a DVD player, a still somewhat new format of the time that went on to redefine home entertainment, became a major marketing point that no other competition had yet to adopt. The PS2’s processor named the Emotion Engine, took gaming to new levels with never-before-seen graphics on a console. Sony’s 2nd generation console, as impressive as it was, would have to duke it out with rivals Sega and Nintendo, with the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 consoles respectively, and eventually Microsoft’s first Xbox, but it managed to stay relevant for well over a decade even as new generations of consoles would be launched.
Optical Issues
The PS2 not only featured backward compatibility for previous games but also allowed users to enhance some older titles with the newer hardware. While not always able to provide the best results it did provide another incentive for gamers to pick the newer console. It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies for owners of the console as a common failure for optical media, namely the optical drive, would become its Achilles heel and Sony would end up settling a class action lawsuit in 2005 regarding “Disc Read Error” messages. While this phenomenon would be far from exclusive to the PS2 it was particularly troublesome for owners as they would be unable to play their favorite games or DVDs/CDs.
As Sony celebrates 30 years of play it can also be noted that the console manufacturer would launch different versions of each generation starting with the first PlayStation and continuing with its current PS5 Pro. The PlayStation 2 saw no less than three different models including the original (2000), Slim (2004), and Super Slim (2007). Sony would also expand upon the PS2’s diverse capabilities with a wide array of peripheral hardware. With over 4,000 games made for the PS2, many of which would go on to become established franchises still in production, it’s no wonder the console would manage such a feat of over 160 million units sold.