PlayStation 2 Retrospective: The DVD Player That Outsold Every Console Ever Made

The PlayStation 2 was a games console with a built-in DVD drive, which made it worth more than its games alone. On top of that, full backward compatibility with original PlayStation games gave it a launch library far bigger than any rival's. It went on to sell 160 million units, nearly triple the combined sales of the other consoles of its generation, and it remains the best-selling video game console of all time.

It also refused to retire. The PlayStation 3 arrived on November 11, 2006, yet the PS2 stayed in production until January 4, 2013, one of the longest lifespans in video game history. Even then it was not quite done: its last game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, came out in Europe on November 8, 2013.

Key facts

Released

March 4, 2000 in Japan, October 26, 2000 in North America, November 24, 2000 in EuropeSource

Launch price

¥39,800 in Japan, US$299 in North America, £299 in the UKSource

Units sold

160 millionSource

Games sold

1.54 billion copies, across over 4,000 gamesSource

Best-selling game

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 17.33 million copiesSource

Processor

Emotion Engine, co-developed with ToshibaSource

Media

DVD and CDSource

Discontinued

December 28, 2012 in Japan, January 4, 2013 worldwideSource

How Sony went for two gold medals in a row

Ken Kutaragi reportedly began work on a second console around the time the first PlayStation launched in late 1994. Sony knew how hard the follow-up would be, since neither Nintendo nor Sega had ever won two generations back to back, and SCEE president Chris Deering compared the goal to winning "two gold medals in two back-to-back Olympics". Meanwhile the press reported on the successor from early 1997, while Sony kept officially denying it existed.

Along the way, Argonaut Games designed a rendering chip for the console without any direct contact with Sony, unaware that Sony was designing its own chip in-house and only wanted other options on the table. (Some jobs are just a backup plan with a contract attached.) The first official details came on March 2, 1999, and Kutaragi promised that the new console would let games convey "unprecedented emotions".

Developers, however, had some emotions of their own. Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, criticized Sony's development tools and called the PS2 the most challenging system he had worked on, while Hideo Kojima felt its power fell short of his expectations. Even so, the library grew past 4,000 games, and in 2004 Sony revised the console with the smaller, lighter Slimline.

The best PlayStation 2 games

Ranked by how often players recommend them, with picks other players backed counting extra. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas takes #1, and Ratchet & Clank is second.

Every PlayStation 2 list

Handhelds for PlayStation 2 games

The PS2 is one of the hardest consoles to carry around, and only about a third of the handhelds in our database play its games well.