Sony PlayStation2
PS2, confounded Microsoft's competition to the bitter end of the sixth gen lifespan
Sony launched into the games console industry in 1995 (US release of PlayStation) like a rocket. At the time of release, nearly every genre of game was represented by a variety of games developers. Sony took the 32-bit generation of consoles by storm and their dominance of the industry is still evident.
PlayStation2 was released to an American audience in October 2000 to much the same fanfare. It had been a long- anticipated entry into console gaming's sixth generation and literally took the nearest competitor Sega right out of competition. Sega Dreamcast, released a year earlier than PS2, was a significant piece of hardware by the incumbent leader in the games console industry. Although Dreamcast had a lot of technology it didn't gain the momentum it needed by PS2's release. When Dreamcast was discontinued, Sega announced it would pull out of the console hardware market. Sony towered over the competition Sega and Nintendo with PlayStation and had taken over with the PS2 in 2000, a unit that was fully backward compatible with the original PlayStation.
At the time of release, the PlayStation2 was the most sophisticated gaming console ever. In terms of processesing power it has been outdone by Xbox since its release but not even Microsoft has garnered the same games development industry support as Sony, resulting in unprecedented variety. No other platform has as many games, genres and different development companies routinely release ported games and exclusives to PlayStation2.
- A look under the hood of the PS2
- Emotion Engine CPU 300MHz 128bit
- 150 MHz Graphics Synthesizer
- 32MB
- 3.2 G/sec
While the specifications look lean in direct comparison to the Xbox, the numbers don't tell the whole story. It would be incorrect to assume the Xbox is twice as fast the PS2 because of the CPU processor speed. The Xbox uses the basic PC architecture but the PS2 does not and has the benefit of being a dedicated games platform.
The PS2's Emotion Engine processor can perform Mpeg2 decoding with additional floating point vector processors. The Emotion Engine chip powering the PS2 is comparable to a Pentium III class CPU from Intel that operates at many times the speed of the PS2's engine. PS2 has added DVD support and high- speed network gaming online. The PS2 network adaptor upgrade kit is required for online gaming. The online solution offered by PS2 is much less polished than that that of the Xbox. There is no centralized service, so every game requires its own online account. One advantage to PS2's online support is that the upgrade kit opens online gaming to dial up internet users as well as broadband.
Sony's games machine platform stands to get a major overhaul as rumors trickle in about the plans for its next step, PS3 with support of HD and online gaming. But since PS2 remains a product at the tail of its consumer curve, it should be found at some bargain prices - less than $150 is common. PS2 is still king of games consoles despite being outdone technologically by Xbox, and the largest library of games available is still playable only on PS2.