More time has passed since the arrival of the Sony PlayStation 2 as between the PS2’s debut and the Atari 2600. Which might make you feel horribly old. Still, while you’re mulling over your own mortality, you can at least spare a moment to remember how great Sony’s giant (in every sense) of a console was.
Yeah, but sequels are never as good as the originals, are they?
Oh, this one was. The original PlayStation redefined home gaming, but five years later Sony unleashed another revolution. The new console’s guts packed serious clout. This enabled game makers to sculpt breathtaking efforts. We got the soulful Ico and awe-inspiring Shadow of the Colossus. Then there was the sprawling open world of GTA3. And who can forget grin-inducing racers like OutRun 2 and Burnout Revenge? This wasn’t merely shifting more polygons; it was a quantum leap in gaming.
Hurrah! Progress! Year zero! Just like gaming is supposed to be.
Except no. Sony recognised the investment millions of gamers had made in its new platform back in 1995, and rewarded their loyalty by not forcing them to lob their game collections into a skip: the PS2 was backwards-compatible with original PlayStation games, and even memory cards and controllers. Some compatibility of this sort is expected today, but back then the only telly console that had offered it out of the box was the Atari 7800. And unlike the 7800, people actually wanted a PS2.
One console to rule them all, and in the glow of the TV set bind them!
Something like that. And it didn’t end there. The PS2 also included DVD support while undercutting standalone players, removing any excuse not to buy one and further tightening its hold on the living room. Other ideas were… less successful. (One bundle turned it into a Linux PC. Another was a TV with the console jammed inside.) Still, the basics were so potent that Sony sold 160 million PS2s, swatting aside its rivals, and confusing everyone when the PS2 even outsold its own successor for several years.
This article was originally published on 4 March 2025 to celebrate the original Japan release of the PS2. It was bumped again on the 25th anniversary of the US release, because if King Charles can have two birthdays, Stuff reckons so can the PS2. Or something.
