In that wonderful year of 2004, my grandfather bought me a PS2 from his friend Uncle Kraus, a PS2 that he bought for his daughters in their thirties, who by then already had children and miraculously didn't want to play the game. My old man has always been crazy about technology, like every FER member, and he used to buy me miracles that the team from my village could only dream of, and even though he got on his nerves that I spend so much time on games, I think he's glad that I moved to that technological side.
I happily turned on the console and the first game I played was Silent Hill The Room. You could say that the eleven-year-old me was not too enthusiastic about that idea, but I soon acquired new games that were my top, such as the legendary Sony's Spiderman, World War Zero, of course Vice City and later San Andreas.
PS2 is definitely my favorite console and to this day it is proudly in my collection, I will probably never throw it away because it always visits my dad who was so happy that he managed to get it for me, although I still loved the Playstation 1 that he got for me a couple of years ago.
But what made her so popular? Why did it dominate the market? How did she conquer the world? Let's find out!
The beginning of an era
Sony launched the PlayStation 2 in March 2000 in Japan, and soon after in the West. Expectations were huge as the original PlayStation was already a global hit with over 100 million units sold. But the PS2 brought something that no other console had before, a DVD player.
It was a top high-tech solution at the time, I remember watching Chicago on a record player with my sister, who is an opera singer and has always been crazy about music, and we didn't have to buy a DVD player.
At the time DVDs were a new technology, people were slowly moving away from VHS to DVD movies. Just one DVD player cost almost as much as the entire console. Sony took advantage of this and offered double value: buy a PS2 and get both a gaming console and a premium DVD player. It was a genius decision that immediately made the PS2 desirable, not only among kids, but also among parents who wanted a new way to watch movies.
The PS2 wasn't just a game console, it was the entertainment center of the living room. And that's where Sony hit the nail on the head, transforming the PlayStation from a "toy" into a serious device that anyone could justify buying.
I still sell that money to my wife to this day.
Games to remember
The real strength of the PS2 was not only in the DVD player. She was in the games. To a huge, amazing, endless library of games. Sony secured the support of almost every major publisher and developer, and due to its popularity and massive sales, everyone wanted to develop games for the PS2.
On that console you could find everything from epic RPGs to sports simulations to open world adventures and experimental titles. Final Fantasy X and XII, Kingdom Hearts, Persona 3 and 4, redefined the RPG genre. Devil May Cry and God of War showed how brutal and spectacular action games can be. Sports games like Pro Evolution Soccer or NBA Live were an absolute hit with the after school or work teams.
Of course, the most memories are associated with the Grand Theft Auto series. Vice City and San Andreas weren't just games, they were a cultural phenomenon. For the first time, we could freely roam the city, listen to radio stations, choose what to do and create our own stories. The kids of the 2000s remembered what it was like to ride a bike like CJ with the crew down Grove Street or fly planes over Los Santos. These were the experiences that shaped us.
Backward compatibility
One of the big advantages of the PS2 was the ability to run games from the PS1. People who had the first PlayStation console didn't have to throw away their old CDs because they could play them on the new device. This created a sense of continuity and eased the transition for millions of players.
Another important moment was Sony's first attempt to enter online gaming. Although Xbox Live was technically better and more organized, PS2 gave players the first steps in online multiplayer. We played SOCOM, Resident Evil Outbreak, Final Fantasy XI and other games that connected us globally. It was a revolution, albeit a bit clumsy, that paved the way for what would later become the standard.
Of course, I didn't have the Internet at the time, but I played in the arcades and it was a tough game.
The best selling console of all time
The result of all those decisions was spectacular. By the end of its lifetime, the PS2 had sold more than 155 million units, making it the best-selling console of all time. That's a number that neither the PS4 nor the Nintendo Switch have yet managed to reach.
The PS2 was different because, above all, it was something special. He was the first gaming global phenomenon. Generations of kids grew up on it, parents used it to watch movies, and developers had a platform where they could create anything they could imagine. It was an ecosystem that brought everyone together, both gamers and ordinary people.
If the PS1 opened the door to the world of video games to a wider audience, the PS2 broke them open and proved that games are not just a hobby for geeks and kids. Games have become a global phenomenon, shaping culture, inspiring movies and music, and the PlayStation has become synonymous with entertainment.
The PS2 wasn't just a console that dominated the market, it was a console that changed the world, and for a kid like me, it changed the world for the better.
