“We’ve joked about its refusal to die before, but today, finally, the console begins its march into the history books. Having sold over 150 million units since its release in 2000, the PlayStation 2 has today ceased shipping to Japanese retailers, meaning once remaining stock is gone, it’s gone. The console was first released in Japan on March 4, 2000, and in those twelve years has become – by a longshot – the biggest-selling home video game console of all time.” I should play Shadow of the Colossus again.
To be honest, I never really like the PS2. But for reasons that many might view as rather petty: The PS2 was evolutionarily* behind the Dreamcast and yet the PS2 is what eventually killed** Sega.
* The specs were comparable between the DC and the PS2, but the DC is what first brought internet play to console gamers. It was the first console to make good use of a keyboard and mouse. First to promote homebrew games (a community Sony still turn their backs on even today) and first bring us audio and display on the controllers. The DC had memory cards that were consoles in their own right and did a whole boat load of other cool stuff too. It’s taken the games industry 10 years to catch up with the DC in terms of the vision Sega started.
** metaphorically and over dramatised I know. Sega are still releasing games and arcade machines, but their consoles used to be kickarse.
Edited 2012-12-29 01:14 UTC
The Dreamcast is awesome. A huge improvement over the Saturn. I wouldn’t say it was awesome just because of the hardware though, it had some of the best games and definitely the most fun and unique games I have ever played on any console.
Ya, I think the Dreamcast was the last console released that actually had a soul. Everything that came after it has been pretty much garbage. The one saving grace of the last gen has been the downloadable titles, which is where most of the fun could be had. That is, unless you REALLY like military shooters and rehashed shit
Edited 2012-12-29 02:47 UTC
I literally bought a used Dreamcast this week to play Shenmue and Shenmue 2. It’s bloody awesome!! A shop in my town still sells used Dreamcast games cheaply and if you want to go the shady route, burning DC games is child’s play. Love the console, love the games, totally sold. I paid a good wedge of cash for mine, but as it came with 2 controllers and VMU’s, both the Shenmue games, Soul Caliber and Dead or Alive 2, it was a pretty sweet deal by eBay prices.
I’m really happy to read comments like yours. DC was incredible.
Yeah, PS2 had a huge game catalog and 3rd party support but It was the worst console of his generation. More of the same, zero innovation.
DC had online, DC had VGA output, DC had Shenmue. Even Xbox 1 and Gamecube were better products than PS2.
Playstation created a videogame monoculture very similar to PC/Windows monoculture… and for me that’s a really bad thing. I’m very happy to see PS2 dead. The end of a really mediocre era (IMHO).
The console is only as good as the games released for it are.
The PS2 hardware wise was a faulty POS (the drive mostly), but it did not matter because it had the most and biggest games of its generation.
DC and Xbox had a couple of decent exclusives and Gamecube… well, it’s nintendo, it has its fanbase but personally I’m not feeling the whole mario thing (I guess it’s mostly popular in japan and usa).
please name 3 that are not FF, ico or shadow of the colossus
Ok, from the top of my head:
– GTA3, ViceCity, SanAndreas
– GranTurismo series
– Metal Gear Solid series
– Tekken series
These are, excluding FF as you wished, what I would call system sellers for the PS2.
Also noteworthy (my picks):
– AceCombat series
– Yakuza series
Some of those were later ported to PC (GTA and MGS 2).
ok, i take it that our tastes in games don’t overlap at all
That may be true, although I would not say that the above list represents my taste in games – I’ll play almost everything from hardcore simulators (think DCS A10/BlackShark 2) to indie games like Bastion. The only genres I refuse to touch are sports and fighting games.
What I was trying to do is (at least for the 4 main examples) was to compile a list of titles that were:
– at least at some point exclusive for the PS2
– sold REALLY well / were generally high quality games with good reviews
– were not poor knock offs of games available on other platforms (looking at you Killzone)
People bought PS2s to play these games. You might not like them, but the majority of gamers did and these games (among others* of course) made PS2 the best selling console.
*worth mentioning is the metric f–kton of jRPGs and dating sims (although they are rarely translated from japanase)
Edited 2012-12-30 02:07 UTC
okami is bloody awesome. I only have two game for my ps2. this one and shadow of the colossus.
The ps2 certainly had a ton of games, but 70% of them were turds ( 90% if you live in japan ).
I’ll add to that list of great games that was started by Ultimatebadass and dvhh by looking at my game shelf:
Kengo: Master Of Bushido
Zone Of the Enders series
Armored Core series
Siphon Filter series
God Hand
Castlevania series
Kingdom Hearts
Baldur’s Gate
Guilty Gear series
Burnout 2
Soul Caliber series
Megaman / Megeman X series
King Of Fighters series
Xenosaga series
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Samurai Warriors series
Onimusha series
Dynasty Warriors series
Melat Slug series
Devil May Cry
Suikoden series
Face up to the fact that the PS2 crushed the DC, GC and XBox due to the massive library of games. DC and GC had some good exclusives, but they weren’t enough to float the DC. The XBox only had a Marathon sequel that was supposed to be released on Mac and Microsoft willing lose billions on the console market just to have a presence outside of Windows/Office.
The VGA output was fantastic at the time, playing the games on a monitor was so much crisper than on a TV. It was also a boon for people with limited space (like me and everybody else in a cramped college dorm room) who could share one monitor between a PC and the Dreamcast.
Games win, not hardware.
And PS2 has the best selection of games imo.
This. PS2 is one reason I have a deep hatred against Sony for their arrogance attitude. PS2 was argually the most overhyped console hardware, initial sales was mainly for the DVD play.
Although some games look better thanks to the updated middleware, the visual quality did not truly match the Dreamcast (echoing the last true console gaming by far missed by previous generation. Trying to play on a HDTV hurt eyes once you are used to the clean and crisp visual quality.
So good riddance.
It’s sad that the PS2 production has now ended. Not because the H/W is somehow really good or anything, but because it’s probably the last no-fuss games console to have been in production. In the olden days when you wanted to start gaming you just turned the TV and the console on and slapped the game inside and away you go — that was the whole appeal of console gaming and it was what separated consoles so well from PCs. Games, not online services or spying on gamers, were the primary focus.
These days games consoles require jumping through hoops just to get a game running, let alone the fact that you can’t just loan the game disc to your friends so they, too, can enjoy it. Back in the day I really liked the PS2 and the games that were available for it, and when the PS3 came out I shortly got one, naively expecting similar experience to the PS2 but with increased image-quality and even more depth to the games. Boy, was I ever wrong; it’s a hugely inferior experience with things like very slow operation general operation, if the console detects there’s an update available for your game you can’t start the game unless you update — there is no way of skipping that –, games tend to require entering serial keys and doing random online activation, things get locked to your PSN – account and so on and so forth.
These days I game on the PC, I don’t see the point in going for consoles anymore, the appeal is gone. I miss the last gen and I am afraid the future human generations will never know what a truly hassle-free console gaming could be at its best.
Huh? I loan and borrow games all the time for my Xbox 360.
Including the games you bought through the online store?
There’s a possibility that the next generation of consoles won’t use discs. It’s messy and ineffective. Retail will get product key cards, Microsoft have been doing that with Office for years now.
That’s your own choice. Nobody is forcing you (yet!) to do so.
The next generation will use discs. The one after that – not so sure.
Consoles need to last up to 10 years. Sure having discs now would be more convenient, but in 5 years time it’s going to hurt. Remember the N64? It languished with expensive cartridges whilst CD took off.
Nintendo took the safe bet by sticking with CDs for another generation, but both Sony and Microsoft are poised for all out thermonuclear war with their next generation offerings and both know that net-support can’t be lacking (as it was with the first PS3s).
“If you see a disc-drive, they blew it.”
Maybe I’m old school, but when I pay and don’t get a DVD box to collect, I’d rather be downloading from torrents instead of xbox.com
unfortunately some of the ps3 best pearl are download only title (I own an xbox360 and I am current hooked on XCOM, but I seriously want to buy a ps3 to enjoy the experience offered by Journey )
Unplug internet cable – pop a CD and play. No more patches (although throwing an update is a very good thing in my book). That’s for xBox, with PS you will still need to install games because of slow drive.
I still enjoy console gaming more than PC. Not much because of more games or that PC version come like a year later, but because you don’t need to jump through the hoops (see what I did there?). Going to sound settings and changing default format, editing .ini files, editing registry, downloading dlls and placing in executable’s directory, changing keybinds to ESDF movement for every single god damn game, changing graphics settings to yeld 60 fps, install some wtf software like steam, origin, games for windows live, uplay, NCSoftsomething… Now that’s jumping through the hoops.
Edited 2012-12-29 22:36 UTC
I really enjoyed my PS2, even bought the PS2Linux support for it, back in 2004, before it was discontinued.
Sony let me down with the PS3 locking out Linux users, when considering the openess that NetYaroze and PS2Linux enjoyed.
Nowadays I only care about DRM free games.
Here in Brazil PS2 still sells a lot, even if xbox 360 and PS3 dominate the sales. Reason are two, small kids that still do not take care and can break an expensive console, and people with little money, that can’t pay for games (yes there is a economic and social side in piracy).
Edited 2012-12-29 18:14 UTC
Same story here in Buenos Aires. I think PS2 and Wii are the two more popular consoles by far.