Background Released in 1994, the original
PlayStation proved to be a phenomenal worldwide success and signalled Sony's rise to power in the
video game industry. Its launch elicited critical acclaim and strong sales; it eventually became the first computer entertainment platform to ship over 100 million units. The PlayStation enjoyed particular success outside Japan in part due to Sony's refined
development kits, large-scale advertising campaigns, and strong
third-party developer support. By the late 1990s Sony had dethroned established rivals
Sega and
Nintendo in the global video game market. Sega, spurred on by their declining market share and significant financial losses, launched the
Dreamcast in 1998 as a last-ditch attempt to stay in the industry. Fuelled by a large marketing campaign, it sold over 500,000 units within two weeks.
Development Though
Sony has kept details of the PlayStation 2's development secret,
Ken Kutaragi, "the Father of the PlayStation", reportedly began working on a second console around the time of the original PlayStation's launch in late 1994. At some point during development, employees from
Argonaut Games, under contract for semiconductor manufacturer
LSI Logic Corporation, were instructed to design a rendering chip for Sony's upcoming console.
Jez San, founder of Argonaut, recalled that his team had no direct contact with Sony during the development process. Unbeknownst to him, Sony was designing their own chip in-house and had instructed other companies to design rendering chips merely to diversify their options. However, Sony continued to officially deny that a successor was being developed.
Chris Deering, then-president of
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) recalled that there was a degree of trepidation among Sony leaders to produce a console which would recapture or exceed the success of its predecessor. As such, Sony aimed for a consecutive market success, noting that neither Nintendo nor Sega had achieved back-to-back console victories. Deering compared the goal to winning "two gold medals in two back-to-back
Olympics". significantly boosted performance, four-fold increase in data transfer rates, and a 20-times faster serial interface. Indeed, Sony estimated the PlayStation 2 could render 7.5 million to 16 million polygons per second, whereas contemporary independent estimates ranged from 3 million to 20 million, compared to Sega's estimates of more than 3 million to 6 million for the rival Dreamcast. Later in the year, Nintendo announced their next console, the
GameCube, and Microsoft began development of their own console, the
Xbox. Rumours soon emerged suggesting that, despite its technical capabilities, the PlayStation 2 was notably difficult to develop for.
Capcom designer
Shinji Mikami, known for creating the
Resident Evil and
Dino Crisis franchises, criticised the lack of adequate development tools provided by Sony. Having worked on titles for multiple fifth-generation platforms, Mikami described the PlayStation 2 as the most challenging system he had encountered. Likewise,
Konami's
Hideo Kojima expressed disappointment with the console's power, feeling it had not met his expectations. {{Quote box The PlayStation 2 was officially unveiled at the
Tokyo Game Show on 20 September 1999, in the presence of around 1,500 journalists. Although no physical console was shown and the name had yet to be finalised, Sony presented a series of visually striking—if somewhat overstated—technical demonstrations that generated considerable media attention. By this point, the PlayStation had sold over 50 million units worldwide and become one of Sony's most profitable divisions, accounting for roughly a quarter of their operating income. Shortly after its unveiling, Sony announced a major restructuring that included workforce reductions and a shift in focus towards PlayStation as a core part of the company's future. Kutaragi, once considered a maverick for championing the original PlayStation, remarked: "We’re just going to be forced to educate the Sony Corporation a bit". Incorporating a DVD player in the console proved to be a pivotal decision. While Sony presented it primarily as a gaming device, the DVD functionality would prove influential in expanding its appeal. Ray Maguire, then-managing director of SCE UK, later said that although the DVD feature was acknowledged in marketing, the focus remained on games. In contrast, Deering noted that in regions such as Southern Europe, where gaming was less prevalent, the DVD capability was to be promoted more heavily. This strategy proved successful in increasing console penetration in markets like Spain, where the PS2 significantly expanded the installed base of video game hardware. The decision to include DVD-Video support was the result of Kutaragi witnessing a demonstration for the
Nuon, an enhancement chip developed by
VM Labs that added video game support to commercial DVD players. The original PlayStation's success had elevated Kutaragi's stature within Sony to the extent that he could overrule the company's concerns over cannibalizing sales of their standalone DVD players.
Launch Japan Sony launched the PlayStation 2 in Japan on 4 March 2000, at a price of . Reported scenes of "hysteria" contrasted with the relatively subdued launch of the original PlayStation in 1994. More than 10,000 people queued across Tokyo on its launch day, some of whom had started waiting four days earlier. Demand was exceptionally high, with all one million launch units selling out over the course of the first weekend. A
black market had quickly opened up in
Akihabara, with most consoles on
eBay selling in excess of $2000 each. One Japanese man committed suicide after failing to purchase one. Despite very strong hardware sales, the Japanese launch was not without issues. Software sales were initially low, with reports suggesting that many consumers purchased the console primarily for its DVD playback capabilities. Additionally, early complaints about faulty
memory cards contributed to a dip in Sony's stock price on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange in the days following the release. By 31 March 2000, the PlayStation 2 had sold its entire inventory of 1.4 million units in Japan. Sony's strategy of shipping approximately 100,000 PlayStation 2 units per week to the American market did little to ease consumer frustration. While the console was readily available in Japan, it remained largely sold out in the United States until March 2001 due to manufacturing delays.
Europe The PlayStation 2 had a yet more troubled launch in the United Kingdom and rest of Europe on 24 November 2000. The
BBC's consumer investigative journalism programme
Watchdog criticised the console's £299 price as part of a "
Rip-off Britain" segment. Additionally, some media outlets speculated that Sony had deliberately limited supply to create artificial demand. This perception was intensified by the decision to allocate only 80,000 preorders to the European market, despite Sony having previously identified Europe as its largest PlayStation territory, with 28 million original PlayStation units sold—compared to 27 million in North America and 17 million in Japan. The European launch of the PlayStation 2 was marked by stock shortages, which led to an unusual scene on release night as journalists searched unsuccessfully for the kind of large-scale consumer queues seen in Japan and the United States. Early resale attempts online saw ambitious asking prices of up to £1,500, though most units ultimately sold for closer to £500. Post-launch criticism emerged online, with some gaming outlets focusing on the console's lack of anti-aliasing and developers voicing frustration over the system's programming complexity. At the time, Phil Harrison dismissed the backlash as indicative of the "worldwide cultural significance" of the console's arrival. On the same day, Sony announced that over 10.6 million units had been sold worldwide. ,
Republic of China (Taiwan) Sony soon faced a new challenge from Microsoft's entry into the gaming sector with their release of the
Xbox in November 2001. Internally, Sony executives recognised the scale of the threat, aware that Microsoft held significantly greater financial resources. Whilst the Japanese team were less alarmed, SCEE's Chris Deering anticipated intense competition and took a cautious approach. However, Microsoft's US-centric strategy resulted in the Xbox struggling to gain traction outside North America, despite hiring talented staff. Sony's emphasis on building strong relationships with third-party publishers, and attractive incentives such as reduced platform fees, marketing support, and access to advanced development kits, secured key exclusives that helped maintain their market lead. This initiative was heavily emphasised by Ken Kutaragi, who advocated for a diverse ecosystem of software support. He advised that Sony should not dominate more than a third of its own software market to avoid alienating third-party developers. The former game's
open world design captured the attention of a broad audience and marked a turning point in the PlayStation 2's momentum. Market research firm In-Stat projected that Sony would sell 120 million consoles by 2006, reaffirming the platform's commercial dominance. The report highlighted the expanding scale of the video game industry, characterising it as an increasingly significant segment of the consumer electronics market. Sony cut the price of the console in 2002 from $299 to $199 in North America, undercutting both the Xbox and GameCube. Further price drops in Japan followed in the following year. In early 2004, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) reported over 25 million PlayStation 2 units had sold in North America. Of these, approximately 2.6 million were equipped for online play, with one million users actively engaging in online gaming services. While hardware sales were expected to decline as the PlayStation 2 entered its post-peak sales period, software sales remained strong. Analysts projected continued growth in the platform's game library and online engagement, particularly as new online-compatible titles were released and existing users looked to extend the utility of their consoles. In September 2004, Sony revealed a newer, slimmer model of the PlayStation 2 dubbed the "Slimline" for . An apparent manufacturing issue and underestimated demand caused initial slowdown in producing the new unit caused in part by shortages between the time Sony cleared out the old units and the new units were ready. The issue was compounded in the United Kingdom when a Russian oil tanker became stuck in the
Suez Canal, blocking a ship from China carrying PlayStation 2s bound for the
Port of Felixstowe. During one week in November 2004, British sales totalled 6,000 units—compared to 70,000 units a few weeks prior. Sony remedied the issue by hiring Russian
Antonov An-24 cargo planes to airlift units twice a week. There were shortages in more than 1,700 shops in North America on the day before Christmas. It became the fastest game console to sell 100 million units by 2008, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch; though this was surpassed 4 years later when the
Nintendo DS reached 100 million shipments in 4 years and 5 months from its launch.
Later years and discontinuation The PlayStation 2 remained the best-selling and most played console by 2008, even surpassing the
PlayStation 3. By July 2009, the system had sold 138.8 million units worldwide, with 51 million of those units sold in
PAL regions. Later that year, Sony announced that it had discontinued all console colours, however sales remained consistently strong. In 2010, Sony introduced a
Bravia television with a built-in PlayStation 2. Sales dropped significantly to 600,000 units by the beginning of 2012, partly due to the global launch of the
PlayStation Vita a few months prior. By 31 March 2012, twelve years after its launch, over 155 million units were sold worldwide. Sony officially stopped supplying updated sales numbers of the system in the same year. Production was officially discontinued on 4 January 2013 after almost thirteen years of production—one of the longest lifespans of any video game console. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 reached an "astonishing" 1.6 million units, totalling to 5 million units sold that year, surpassing the previous year's sales of 4.1 million units. Repair services for the system in Japan ended on 7 September 2018 due to a shortage of parts. In February 2024, Jim Ryan (CEO of
Sony Interactive Entertainment) confirmed on the Official PlayStation Podcast that the PlayStation 2 had sold 160 million units worldwide. This statement was not directly corroborated by Sony themselves until eight months later, when this figure officially appeared on the PlayStation 30th Anniversary website in November that year. == Hardware ==