The Playstation 2, the console that dominated it’s generation. It was, The Era of PS2. Here is a look back at the Era of the PS2.
The PS2 was released in 2000, and was supported until January 2013 by Sony. Since it’s release, PS2 sold over 102.49 million units, yes, millions. Overshadowing Microsoft's Xbox (24 million) and Nintendo’s GameCube (32.93 million). What caused it to to take off? Well it did have a nice jump with the sales of the first Playstation, Playstation sold 102.49 million units. Since Microsoft didn’t technically exist in the prior generation, we can’t use their numbers. I know technically the Dreamcast was a Microsoft console (ran on Windows CE), but it wasn’t Microsoft’s console. With Nintendo coming off of the next generation with the Nintendo 64 (32.93 million units), you’d thought Nintendo would come off trying to increase sales, but lost. BUT this is not about Nintendo, it is about the Playstation 2.
One of the things that strongly helped the PS2 was the exclusives it had. Games like Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, God of War, Gran Turismo, and others. The Playstation 2 had a lot of great games, they had these exclusives as well as great third party games that showed up on the other consoles; games like Grand Theft Auto III, Manhunt, and other games. Something that seems to help a lot of consoles is the exclusives (duh) and the availability of the third party games on their console; and doing it well. On a personal level, as a wrestling fan, the better games were released on the Playstation 2. Smackdown was a lot better than anything other WWF/WWE game.
Something else that Sony had was online play, something that Xbox had but not the GameCube. This is a big deal for some of the RPGs that could play one line. Like the Final Fantasy games. Sony did take this idea from Sega Dreamcast that was released a year earlier. Frankly, lets be honest Sony did develop the PS2 to kill the Dreamcast, which it did. Xbox did push the Xbox live, a little more than Sony did the Playstation Network, but as shown by the numbers above, that was not a nail in the coffin. I mean, Sony did outsell Microsoft by about 75 million.
Now the specs, a lot of die hard gamers are the graphics and how “powerful” each console is. But let’s look at history, the most powerful console never wins the console war. Even in this generation of gaming. PS2 outsold their competitors by at least 70 million. But how does it match up specs. It fared well, but believe it or not, the specs show Xbox to be ahead of everyone else. PS2 and GameCube were closely matched, where in some aspects the GameCube was ahead and in others the PS2 was ahead. Surprising huh? The Playstation 2 won because they did everything right. No 2 ways about it.
The Playstation 2 etched out itself in history as one of the best consoles of all time. It is well deserving, the console was great, everyone had it, including myself. Now with the Wii winning the generation after the PS2, let’s see who wins the generation we are in (Wii U, PS4, Xbox One). It is still up for grabs since we are in just the start of it.
The PS2 was released in 2000, and was supported until January 2013 by Sony. Since it’s release, PS2 sold over 102.49 million units, yes, millions. Overshadowing Microsoft's Xbox (24 million) and Nintendo’s GameCube (32.93 million). What caused it to to take off? Well it did have a nice jump with the sales of the first Playstation, Playstation sold 102.49 million units. Since Microsoft didn’t technically exist in the prior generation, we can’t use their numbers. I know technically the Dreamcast was a Microsoft console (ran on Windows CE), but it wasn’t Microsoft’s console. With Nintendo coming off of the next generation with the Nintendo 64 (32.93 million units), you’d thought Nintendo would come off trying to increase sales, but lost. BUT this is not about Nintendo, it is about the Playstation 2.
One of the things that strongly helped the PS2 was the exclusives it had. Games like Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, God of War, Gran Turismo, and others. The Playstation 2 had a lot of great games, they had these exclusives as well as great third party games that showed up on the other consoles; games like Grand Theft Auto III, Manhunt, and other games. Something that seems to help a lot of consoles is the exclusives (duh) and the availability of the third party games on their console; and doing it well. On a personal level, as a wrestling fan, the better games were released on the Playstation 2. Smackdown was a lot better than anything other WWF/WWE game.
Something else that Sony had was online play, something that Xbox had but not the GameCube. This is a big deal for some of the RPGs that could play one line. Like the Final Fantasy games. Sony did take this idea from Sega Dreamcast that was released a year earlier. Frankly, lets be honest Sony did develop the PS2 to kill the Dreamcast, which it did. Xbox did push the Xbox live, a little more than Sony did the Playstation Network, but as shown by the numbers above, that was not a nail in the coffin. I mean, Sony did outsell Microsoft by about 75 million.
Now the specs, a lot of die hard gamers are the graphics and how “powerful” each console is. But let’s look at history, the most powerful console never wins the console war. Even in this generation of gaming. PS2 outsold their competitors by at least 70 million. But how does it match up specs. It fared well, but believe it or not, the specs show Xbox to be ahead of everyone else. PS2 and GameCube were closely matched, where in some aspects the GameCube was ahead and in others the PS2 was ahead. Surprising huh? The Playstation 2 won because they did everything right. No 2 ways about it.
The Playstation 2 etched out itself in history as one of the best consoles of all time. It is well deserving, the console was great, everyone had it, including myself. Now with the Wii winning the generation after the PS2, let’s see who wins the generation we are in (Wii U, PS4, Xbox One). It is still up for grabs since we are in just the start of it.