On this day in 2000, Sony released the PlayStation 2 in Japan. It was the sequel to the highly-successful PlayStation 1 and it once again competed with Nintendo and SEGA1 for generational supremacy.
The PlayStation 2 featured an “Emotion Engine” CPU, a 48-channel sound processor, 36 MB of total system memory, and that iconic bold tower shape in charcoal black (there were other colours released and a “slim” version which was much flatter).
I didn’t get a PlayStation 2 until 2010 but I still got to play on it via my friends and family. The GTA games, Def Jam Vendetta, Need for Speed: Underground 2, and FIFA Street were some of my favourites and of all the consoles Ive enjoyed, the PS2 was the most immersive in terms of the experience and feel. The graphics were better than anything we had seen before at the time but not hyper-real like things are now which made it a good middle ground between fantasy and realism.
Articles and videos
As with my other birthday posts, I’ll list some other retrospectives and birthday celebrations as well as some cool PS2 videos and articles for you to enjoy.
- Happy 26th birthday ps2 🎮🎮
- PlayStation 2 Retrospective
- VGC on “PlayStation 2’s chaotic Japanese launch”
- K. Thor Jensen on how the PS2 “launched with terrible games but still won the generation”
- Austin Evans bought EVERY PlayStation 2
- PlayStation 2 30th Anniversary page from Sony
- 50 Underrated PlayStation 2 Games
- The Rarest and Most Expensive PS2 Games
- 2001 was the year of the PlayStation 2
- Project Deluge: PlayStation 2
- Why Did the PS2 Look So COOL?
- PSBBN – the Japanese-only “PS2 Pro” upgrade
- The PlayStation 2 chronicles, redefine modern consoles | A PlayStation 2 Documentary
- How the PS2 Became the Best-Selling Console
- No Wonder This Was The Best-Selling Console of All Time
- Wasn’t much competition against SEGA at this point but I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the Dreamcast in this era lol ↩︎