While the world is currently waiting for the launch of the PlayStation 5, the best-selling console in the world is turning 20 years old – the PS2. On March 4, 2000, the PlayStation 2 was launched in Japan.
On March 4, 2000, FC Bayern Munich lost 0:2 against VfB Stuttgart and Lothar Matthäus retired from the Bundesliga. That same year, I, as a little boy, was about to proudly go to school for the first time.
How was I to know that at the other end of the world, the most successful console in the world would begin its triumphal march: the PlayStation 2.
At that time, there was still no talk of VR or cloud gaming. The first smartphone with multitouch for the mass market, the iPhone, was only launched in 2007. Windows XP also only came out on October 25, 2001.
There wasn’t much visible of all the modern technology surrounding us today in the year 2000.
When was the PlayStation 2 available in Germany? The console was initially only available for purchase in Japan. It wasn’t until six months later, on November 24, 2000, that the console was released in Germany for 869 DM, which was a lot of money for many of us. There is also currently talk about the price of the PlayStation 5 being discussed.
PlayStation 2 – The best-selling console of all time
What competition was there for the PlayStation 2? Sony’s new console had no trouble asserting itself against its competition. The main competitor was Microsoft’s Xbox, while the other competitors faced problems:
- Nintendo’s GameCube sold only about 20 million units by 2007. That is considered a flop for Nintendo. The console offered only a few exclusive titles and Nintendo spent more time developing new games for the far more successful Nintendo DS.
- Sega’s Dreamcast launched in 1998, but could never really gain ground. The Christmas business in 2000 was very poor, and after three unsuccessful years, Sega finally ceased production in 2001.
How many PlayStation 2 units were sold? According to Statista, the PlayStation 2 is at the top of the best-selling consoles of all time:
- The PlayStation 2 was sold more than 157 million times by its discontinuation on December 29, 2012.
- The Nintendo DS is in second place with 155 million units sold.
- In third place is again a console from Nintendo, namely the Game Boy with 119 million units sold.
- The PlayStation 4 ranks fourth with 107 million units sold.
Its successor, the PlayStation 3, could not build on the success of the PlayStation 2. The price was too high for many, and they preferred to go for Microsoft’s competition.
What performance did the PlayStation 2 offer? The PlayStation 2 offered modern technology under its hood in 2000 that makes us today smile rather lazily:
- The CPU clocked at 294.912 MHz, which is of course no comparison to today’s processors, all of which clock in the GHz range. The CPU was jointly developed by Sony and Toshiba and was based on a MIPS core. This processor was also used in the first version of the PlayStation 3 for backward compatibility; it disappeared in the first revision.
- The GPU was the “Graphics Synthesizer”, which was developed by Sony itself and clocked at 147 MHz. In comparison: The GPU of the regular PlayStation 4 has a base clock of 800 MHz in 2020.
- The overall performance of the PlayStation was 6.2 Gflops – the new Xbox Series X is said to offer 12 Tflops. That is a significant difference.
- At the time, the PlayStation 2 had 32 MB of DRAM, 4 MB of Embedded Video RAM, and 2 MB of Sound RAM.
- The controller featured the Dualshock 2, which current Sony controllers are also based on. And the Dualshock 5 Controller is said to get a whole new function.
What distinguishes the PlayStation 2 from the new generations? At the time, the PlayStation 2 offered full compatibility with PlayStation 1 games through emulation. Sony is likely to offer backward compatibility again with the PlayStation 5 after it was not possible with the PS4.
What was the best-selling game of the PlayStation 2? The best-selling game for the PlayStation 2 is still Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with around 18 million copies sold. Today, most users tend to play the online version of GTA.
Who among you has played on the PlayStation 2 or even still owns the old console? Or did you only start with the new generations?
- PS Plus offers you two of the best titles for PlayStation 4
- On Christmas 2020 the PlayStation 5 is finally expected to officially appear from Sony.
