At the 24. November 2000 the Playstation 2 was launched in Europe. The successor to Sony’s first game console was launched in Japan in March, the USA was on 26. October turn. Despite the delayed start, Europe becomes the most important market for the PS2: Over 55 million times the game console is sold there.

The total sales of the Playstation 2 are over 155 millions – it is up to today the best-selling game console of all time, just ahead of Nintendo 3DS. The limit of 100 million consoles sold was cracked by Sony’s second console after just five years and 9 months. The Playstation 2 was manufactured much longer: First 2013, 13 Years after the market launch, Sony has stopped production of the console. At this point in time its successor, the PS3, was already seven years old.

Success thanks to DVD The Playstation has had enormous success 2 not only thanks to their longevity. The DVD drive also made a significant contribution: At a starting price of 155 DM, the Sony console offered not only gaming fun, but also a DVD drive. This combination made the Playstation popular as an alternative to the pure DVD player. With its performance of 6.2 gigaflops, the Playstation 2 was weaker than the somewhat later Xbox from Microsoft. The Sony console also competed with Sega’s Dreamcast and Nintendo’s Gamecube.

Games for the PS2 were available on either DVD-ROM or CD-ROM for the PS2 released. The console’s launch lineup, however, was considered weak: the titles available at launch included “Evergrace” by From Software and EA’s “SSX”. In addition, PS players could play the “Unreal Tournament” already published for the PC. Like the Playstation 5 today, the PS2 was backwards compatible: it could play almost all Playstation titles.

In the years after its release, the range grew of PS2 games: “God of War”, “Devil May Cry” and “Ratchet & Clank” made their debut on the Playstation 2. The best-selling game was “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”. Just in time for the launch of the Rockstar game, Sony also launched the slimmer slim versions of the console. Selected games such as “Fahrenheit”, “GTA: San Andreas” and “Max Payne” can still be played on the latest hardware. They have been ported to the PS4 and will therefore still run on the PS5.

Sony only finally said goodbye to the PS2 two years ago: since September 2018 the company no longer offers repairs on the Japanese home market either.

(dahe)