October 26th 2000 was the day that Sony’s PlayStation 2 hit the shelves in stores all over North America. It reached record sales of over 146 million units since then.
It sported a DVD player and cutting-edge technology to bring gamers the latest in gaming graphics that the world had ever seen. All this was for a paltry sum of $300.
I remember the first time I opened the box and took out the console, lined it up next to my PS1 and realised what kind of treat I was about to let myself in for.
It only took a few hours for retailers to run out of stock for the new console and units sold reached 1.3 million by the end of the year as manufacturers kept the PS2 in short supply. Along with an additional camera peripheral – the Playstation EyeToy, network adapter and huge franchises bringing us gamers the likes of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Metal Gear Solid 2, the console has gone from strength to strength and still doing very well even compared to today’s next-gen hardware.
Nowadays it’s a little cheaper at around $100 per unit and with retro gaming being the growing trend at the moment, Sony’s PS2 is set to cement itself firmly and rigidly in the console market and no end it sight.
Seems so long ago now and how the graphics and gameplay has improved in the last 10 years…