Today is a momentous day in the history of gaming, as it marks the 20th birthday of thePlayStation 2console. Being Sony’s second console, this machine set a lot of precedents for the future of console gaming as a whole. The year 2000 was an interesting time for video games, set in a landscape completely different than what fans know now, but the basis of current generation consoles is founded in the developments made for this console. Its effect on the market for gaming consoles cannot be denied, as even thePlayStation 5 certainly draws some inspirationfrom 20 year old gaming system.
For those unaware, thePlayStation 2released worldwide on March 4th of 2020, and was the successor to the original PlayStation which released six years earlier in 1994. In just these six years, the culture surrounding video games as well as the market that sold them changed dramatically, but the PlayStation console series, somewhat surprisingly, did extremely well, and has since persisted for quite some time. Today makes for a good opportunity to reminisce on the console, the games available for it, and its profound effect on the gaming industry as a whole.
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Generations of Gaming
Although gamers often refer to consoles as being part of a generation, not many know that there are actually distinguishable generations which group together certain consoles based on the technological level of each one. In fact, the current generation, consisting of the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch, and the Wii U is actually the eighth generation of consoles. These consoles are characterized not just by better hardware and software, but particularly by a greater connectivity to outside media. This is exemplified by the PlayStation 4’s share button or the beginnings ofvirtual reality support. Currently, the console business is effectively monopolized by Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo, but that wasn’t always the case.
The first two generations of consoles are characterized mostly by the Atari and its various incarnations alongside many different game systems that most today probably have never heard of. These unfortunate consoles simply fell to the wayside over the years. The third and fourth generations sees the rise of Sega and Nintendo while the Atari starts to decline in popularity, unable to keep pace. Eventually, Sega also falls to the wayside, leaving Nintendo as the undisputed console leader. Finally, the fifth generation sees Sony enter the race with their PlayStation in 1994, which would compete with theNintendo 64, released in 1996.
Although Sega was stillhanging on with the Sega Dreamcastin 1998, the sixth generation truly began with Sony’s PlayStation 2, ushering video games into a new era with discs instead of cartridges, much better graphics, longer games, and the beginnings of online capabilities for consoles. In the year 2000 when Sony released the PlayStation 2, there was no Xbox, and Nintendo’s latest console was the noticeably inferior (in terms of technological level, not content) N64. It was the PlayStation 2’s innovation which pushed Nintendo to release the GameCube in 2001 and Microsoft to enter the console race with the original Xbox in 2002.
PS2’s Effect on Future Consoles
It was clear thatSony’s console came out on topduring the sixth generation of consoles, boasting an impressive 155,000,000 units sold. This monumental number makes the PS2 the best selling game console of all time and further proves itself by being more than all other generation six consoles combined. Developers in the seventh generation clearly took note of this. Nintendo opted to diversify; rather than competing with Sony, it decided to try and innovate new ways to play. This is exemplified by the Wii as well as Nintendo’s Eighth Generation consoles.
Microsoft went a different direction than Nintendo, determined to be Sony’s rival in the console market. Its future consoles, the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One are ultimately very similar to the PS3 and the PS4 despite theever raging console warthat surrounds them, and although Microsoft has never surpassed Sony in terms of console sales, it has certainly come close. It is likely that this rivalry ultimately has driven both companies to be more innovative and forward thinking. Competition ultimately benefits consumers more than anyone, and is the reason prices for consoles have stayed low and technological advances have stayed high.
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How to Celebrate the PlayStation 2’s 20th Birthday
The best way to celebrate this very important day in gaming’s history would be to play a PlayStation game! Interestingly enough, the PlayStation 2’sbest selling gamewasGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas, clocking in at 17.33 million copies sold on the PS2 alone and accounting for 80.6% of the game’s total sales across all platforms. This game can even still be purchased on the PS4, or fans could opt to play the more recentGrand Theft Auto Vinstead. Either way, it seems fitting that such an influential game likeGTA: San Andreaswould hold a record for such an influential console.
Some PS2 games aged better than others, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20 (pun intended). Either way, both Sony fans and Microsoft fans have a lot to celebrate about today given thePlayStation 2’s monumental impact on the entirety of the video game world, making now a good time to bury the console wars hatchet for a while and simply be thankful for the amazing technology which finds itself in more households now than ever before. Perhaps more exciting, fans don’t have much longer to wait before the ninth generation of consoles releases, and who knows what sort of innovation that will bring with it.
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