PlayStation 2 launched in Japan in March 2000, followed by North America in October and Europe in November. Being able to play DVDs mattered a lot at the time. You could bring h…

PlayStation 2 launched in Japan in March 2000, followed by North America in October and Europe in November. Being able to play DVDs mattered a lot at the time. You could bring home a new game system and use it for movies without buying another machine. It also played original PlayStation discs, which meant an existing collection could come along with you. That was a pretty compelling package before you even got into what developers would eventually do with the hardware. Then look at how much range there was in its games. You had the platforming and weapons in Ratchet & Clank, the scale and violence of God of War, and the much quieter approach of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Those games could feel completely different from each other while belonging to the same generation. Online play grew through the Network Adaptor, with games like SOCOM helping introduce that side of PlayStation to more people. The slim model in 2004 put Ethernet directly into a much smaller console. Sony now puts total PS2 sales above 160 million, which gives some idea of just how far that system reached.