20 years ago, in March of the two thousandth year, Sony I launched the most successful console in history to the Japanese market – PlayStation 2. For some, she became a faithful fighting girlfriend. For someone-remained a pipe dream. But what the “second curling” certainly did not know how to cause indifference. No wonder this baby under a walnut cut all competitors in the sixth console generation. During her long life, PS2 diverged with a circulation of 155 million devices. This is three times more total sales Sega Dreamcast , Nintendo GameCube And Microsoft Xbox , three other pillars of generation. What is the secret of such a success? Now we will tell.
Sony announced work on the new prefix in 1999. The project was led by Ken Kutaragi – the head of the development of the first PlayStation , who was later engaged Play S Tation Portable And PS 3. Under its leadership, the console received not only powerful iron with a modest price tag, but also somewhat very cool chips for its time.
Say, PlayStation 2 was the first home prefix in history, which could be put not only horizontally, but also vertically. The usual opportunity at that time made an already unusual, “cosmic” design at that time even more futuristic. U Microsoft A similar option appeared only after five years, in Xbox 360. In general, I wanted to have such a thing in the living room. Especially cool PS2 looked against a background of some GameCube that looked like an absurd children's toy made of purple plastic.
In short, PlayStation 2 fell in love with one appearance. But she was not the most interesting outside, but inside. Under the hood of this beauty, a truly powerful heart beat. It was a 64-bit central Emotion Engine processor with a clock frequency of up to 299 megagez. The company was 32 megabytes of operational and 4 megabytes video memory. All this provided very solid performance by the standards of zero performance. Of course, six with kopecks giga flips do not reach the four tera flops PS4 Pro, but 20 years ago looked very seriously.
At the same time, on the launch of PlayStation 2 cost only $ 299. With such a modest price list, the technical parameters looked not just impressive, but just suspicious. In the United States, after the tragedy of September 11, rumors even began to spread that the Arab terrorists were buying the console with might and main to build cluster supercomputers on its basis. As a result, Sony had to carefully monitor the sales of his system so that PS2 certainly would not fall into the hands of the Osama Ben Laden. The story of supercomputers for Islamic radicals does not sound too realistic, but quite legal western scientists were the same, so the basis of rumors was definitely.
PS2 can generally be called the most open console for experiments in the line of the Japanese giant. For her, there was even a special set with the Linux operating SuperNova Casino system, a keyboard, a mouse, a network adapter and a hard -based disc of 40 gigabytes. Yes, console games in this system did not work, and the package itself soon disappeared from the sale, but the precedent cannot be forgotten. Accessories that can legally turn the console into a full -fledged computer – this is not dance rugs and other guitars with buttons. On PlayStation 2, even its own interpreter was one of the Basic versions available at a demo in Australia and Europe.
Unfortunately, an attempt to make a gaming prefix home PC failed. Of course, the opportunity to engage in programming on the console expensive cost, but few were actually interesting. But the ability to lose DVD is another matter. At the time of the release, PS2 turned out to be one of the most affordable DVD players on the market, so even those who squealed it with games bought it. Later, the same trick repeated PS3 with BLU-RAY standard disks.
By the way, you could watch a movie at PS2 not only from the disks. In 2006, Netflix was even launched on the console for Brazil. Almost a full-fledged streaming service during the universal dial-apa is a thing that has been ahead of its time.
The main thing is that Sony in the pursuit of new ones did not forget and fans of the classics. PS2 was back compatible with almost the entire game of the predecessor. That is, directly from the box, I did what PlayStation 4 today can only with a huge creak and a wagon of online crutches. Moreover, PS2 even supported controllers and memory cards with preservations from the previous console. So the transition from the fifth generation to the sixth for fans of the "curling" was very smooth. And no "who will play it?".
All this perfectly attacked the popularity of the console, which in 2004 received a slim version. It has become smaller, quieter and prettier. In addition to the updated design, the fresh revision brought the built -in network adapter, which had previously been a separate option. These are now several versions of the same prefix, which are sold at the same time, are considered the norm. But before PS2, such deep innovations within the framework of one generation of consoles did not meet.
PlayStation 2 had and another version called PSX, but it is somehow not accepted to remember about it. The fact is that, although she could reproduce games, she was rather a digital videoReraxorder. Not the usual DualShock gamepad was complete with PSX, but a remote control. So the controller for games to the game console had to buy separately. This giddle also looked far from as impressive as the usual PS2. PSX was more like a hybrid of a video recorder and Xbox on E. But she knew how that the eighth generation of prefixes did not even dream. For example, record DVD-Bolvanes, edit videos, audio and photos, and even play analogue television. The thing was a failure, but unique in its own way.
But no technical and design tricks will make the game console popular without the main – games. For a long life PS2, four and a half thousand releases came out on it. And some of them have determined the modern appearance of the gaming industry.
First of all, of course, you should thank the internal studios. Sony Santa Monica They gave the world a series God of War. Naughty Dog , Future authors Uncharted And The Last of Us , created three parts JAK & DAXTER. SUCKER PUNCH long before Infamous They became famous for platformers Sly Cooper. Insomniac Games Started a series Ratchet & Clank. Team ICO forever entered themselves in history with their ICO And Shadow of The Colossus.
Orthodox publishers and studios worked no worse. It was on PS2 that they first went out Devil May Cry And Okami from Capcom , Kingdom Hearts from Square Enix and the first three -dimensional parts GTA from Rockstar..
Listing all the top games that came to the PlayStation 2 is difficult – and it is pointless. The main thing is that these were excellent projects, many of which can be played with pleasure today, 20 years after the release of the console.
It is not surprising that both dramas and melodramas were played around PS2. Even on the very launch, during an acute shortage of new prefixes, Japan even received reports that one of the fans of Sony committed suicide. The reason for the tragedy was that the guy could not buy a fresh console. Very sad and at the same time strange story.
And in 2002, the incident happened more funny than a tragic. British fan of PlayStation Dan Holmes loved his console so much that he even decided to marry her. Having received a logical refusal from the priest and secular authorities, Holmes went the other way and changed his name to Mr. PlayStation 2. It is not known whether this brought him personal happiness. But the collection of games at a price of 7,000 pounds – for sure.
In general, both sad and ridiculous in the fate PS2 was enough. Unfortunately, any story ends sooner or later. At the turn of 2012 and 2013, the last conveyors launched PlayStation 2. And on September 24, 2013, the premiere of the last game for our heroine took place. Swan song PS2 became FIFA 14 from Electronic Arts.
PlayStation 2 lived a long and rich life. Thirteen years – almost a console record. Was she a good bailiff? Oh no. She was the best.
And what memories are related to PlayStation 2? Be sure to tell in the comments.
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