Slimline version
PlayStation 2 or PS2 is a game console made by Sony.
The PS2[]
The PS2 is a home game console made by Sony. It was released worldwide in March 2000. It is a commercial success, up to 154 million units sold, making it the best-selling console to date.
The console was announced at the start of 1999. Then in March 2000, it was released. It was released with high anticipation, with the console being sold out in shops before it was released through pre-orders.
The console received universal and critical acclaim. The console was praised for its games, high quality graphics, and the console being a CD and DVD player, but it was criticized for its high price of $399 and its vulnerability to overheating.The console received further controversy, especially the "Disc Read Error", in which the console can't read the game, even if the game is in mint condition.
The PS2 was also a CD and DVD player, which made the console more successful. It was even backwards-compatible with the PlayStation, which made it more successful. Even when the PlayStation 3 came out in 2006, the PS2 remained widely popular throughout the seventh generation of gaming.
The console remained outright popular, until 2013 when the console was starting to be overshadowed by other consoles. Sony discontinued the console, with the last game released for it being FIFA 14 in October 2013.
The console is still a popular console even after its discontinuation.
Advertising[]
The console received mass advertising, which furthered the anticipation for the console. Many advertisements highlighted the console's power and it allowed the console to become popular before release. A teaser TV advertisement featured in the United Kingdom which was released in 1999 features a girl with a distorted head talking about advancement of mankind in a Scottish accent. The advert became an Internet meme, with the girl appearing in many memes.
Red screen of death[]
The red screen
The console is also known for its infamous red screen of death. When a disc that the console cannot read is placed into the system, which can either be a non PS1 or PS2 game, or a blank disc, then the red screen of death can be triggered.
The screen is known to frighten players who encounter it, as the startup to the console will proceed as normal, but it suddenly turns into an angered red color followed by a distorted version of the browser loading music and the text; “Please insert a PlayStation or PlayStation 2 format disc”. Simply ejecting the disc will end the screen and take the player back to the browser. If the screen is encountered even if a format disc is placed into the console, then it usually means that the internal laser is faulty and the console cannot correctly read the disc.
Startup[]
A blue shaded cloud appears with floating transparent cubes and passing red and green lights floating around on it. A text reading "Sony Computer Entertainment" then appears, before the screen then plunges into the blue cloud. After a few seconds wait, the PlayStation or PlayStation 2 will then appear. The cubes in the startup represents saved data on the memory card. More cubes will appear if the memory card contains a large amount of saved data.
Trivia[]
- The PS2 surpassed the PlayStation and is fully backwards-compatible with it.
- It even surpassed the PlayStation as the best-selling game console ever.
- The best-selling game for the console is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at 20 million copies sold.
- The PS2 is known to scare younger players for it's browser music which sounds eerie and the red screen of death music which sounds even eerier.
- The PS2 got discontinued in 2013 after nearly 13 years in production.
- Despite it being discontinued, games were still being produced for it such as FIFA 14.
- The grey Dualshock 2 controller might be confused for the first Dualshock.