History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 2

Development
Sony first announced a successor console to the original PlayStation on March 2nd, 1999. The announcement of the PlayStation 2 alone was enough to create a small boost to stock prices.

Development kits for the PlayStation 2 were said to cost around $20,000.

Launch
The PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4th, 2000. An highly anticipated launch with consumers sleeping outside in line to buy the console in spite of police orders to disperse, between 1 and 2 million PlayStation 2 consoles were sold in Japan on the first day of sales.

The PlayStation 2 saw release in the United States on October 26th, 2000.

The Slim PlayStation 2 was released in September of 2004.

In December 2010 a Sony Bravia KDL-22PX300 TV was shown, featuring an integrated PlayStation 2.

Legacy
The PlayStation 2 was followed by the PlayStation 3. Early models of the PlayStation 3 retained backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 2, with later models slowly reducing support and later drooping this system entirely. The immense library of the PlayStation 2 was a major selling point during the early days of PlayStation 3 sales, however the high price of the PlayStation 3 lead many gamers to stick to their PlayStation 2 for some time after the launch of the PlayStation 3. This, coupled with the major prior popularity of the system, lead publishers to continue to produce major PlayStation 2 games long after the launch of the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 2 had strong market performance into the seventh generation of consoles.

Manufacturing for the PlayStation 2 stopped in 2013, having sold 150 million consoles. The console maintained enduring popularity past that point however. New unofficial hardware mods were being developed for the PlayStation 2 late as 2021.

Unorthodox uses
A PlayStation 2 based rendering computer, the GScube, was made by Sony for production of movie CGI.

Compute
The PlayStation 2 uses the 128 bit Emotion Engine processor clocked at 300 MHz. The Emotion Engine includes the MIPS III architecutre CPU, two vector units, as well as DSP functions. The Emotion Engine has ten floating point multiply accumulators that help it send approprite data to the graphics processor quickly. The console's floating point unit co processor is capable of 6.2GFLOPS.

The PlayStation 2 has 32 megabytes of RDRAM and 4 megabytes of VRAM.

The PlayStation 2 had a dedicated IO processor in a MIPS R3000A processor, which was replaced by a PowerPC 405GP emulating the former on late release (~2007 and later) slim models.

Hardware
The logo on the disk drive of the PlayStation 2 can be manually rotated for either a horizontal or vertical console orientation.

Early models of the system lacked a remote control sensor.

Early "Fat" PS2's had an expansion bay, using either IDE or PC Card format devices.

Some smaller PS2 games were printed on CD-ROMs, rather then on DVD.

Ring of Red
A turn strategy game set in a unique alternate history setting where Japan is divided after World War II following Operation Downfall, instead of remaining a united country as it had in real life.

Read more about Ring of Red on Wikipedia.

2001

 * Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
 * Final Fantasy X
 * Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
 * Mister Mosquito

Metal Gear Solid 2
This game is noted for it's deep postmodern themes, especially in relation to memetics and informatics in general.

Read more about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty on Wikipedia.

2002

 * Kingdom Hearts
 * Silent Hill 2
 * Xenosaga Episode I
 * Final Fantasy XI - MMORPG with cross platform play to Windows.

2003

 * Drakengard - Action RPG
 * Beyond Good & Evil - Action Adventure
 * Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - Tactical RPG
 * Final Fantasy X-2 - JRPG
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 - Action RPG

2004

 * Spider-Man 2
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
 * Katamari Damacy
 * Xenosaga Episode II
 * Killzone
 * Phantom Brave

Michigan: Report from Hell
A unique survival horror game made by the Japanese studio Grasshopper Manufacture. The player takes the role of a cameraman on a news team as a mysterious invasion of monsters overtakes Chicagoland.

Read more about Michigan: Report from Hell on Wikipedia.

2005

 * God of War
 * Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
 * Shadow of the Colossus
 * Radiata Stories

Guitar Hero
The first Guitar Hero was a PS2 exclusive.

Read more about Guitar Hero on Wikipedia.

2006

 * Ōkami
 * Xenosaga Episode III
 * Final Fantasy XII

God Hand
A cult classic in the beat em' up genre and the final game released by Clover Studio.

Read more about God Hand on Wikipedia.

Persona 3
Persona 3 notably revamped the formula for the Persona series.

The game is known for it's artwork made by the Japanese artist Shigenori Soejima.

Read more about Persona 3 on Wikipedia.

Persona 4
Released late in the console's time on the market for a major title, Persona 4 proved to be an enduring Jungian JRPG. Set in the sleepy rural town of Inaba in Japan, this game is noted for its unorthodox plot revolving around investigating a series crimes which are connected to a rumored supernatural "Midnight Channel". Persona 4 featured a notably happier tone compared to it's predecessor.

Two major characters in the game sparked much interest and debate in the LGBTQ gamer community.

Read more about Persona 4 on Wikipedia.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 / PES2014
This late cross platform release was the last title officially developed for the PlayStation 2. This Konami made game is a landmark release due to this fact.

Read more about Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 on Wikipedia.

Updated Slim PS2
An updated slim PS2 with integrated power supply.

PS2 Linux Kit
The PS2 Linux kit was an official kit that cost $200.00, including a 40 gigabyte hard drive, ethernet adapter, and keyboard.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - PlayStation 2 page.