Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation 2 Timeline, From Launch to Present
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpy has posted a timeline charting the history Sony's PlayStation 2, the third part in a series previously covered on Slashdot that includes similar retrospectives for the Xbox and for GameCube. The timeline traces the PlayStation 2's history from its initial boom, through its period as 'a repository for bad sports games, giant robot games, and other disappointing releases,' and up to the console's revitalization by such games as Gran Turismo 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, Devil May Cry, and Grand Theft Auto III." How has the PlayStation 2 measured up to your expectations?
...began with me standing in line at Compusa around Christmas, in the cold, just to get be one of the lucky few allowed to make a purchase.
Major market hype along with supply shortages created a lot of long lines that Christmas.
Never had. So, my expectations herein are solely based on where I work, a game store.
Sony, by far is the poor mans system. There are more poor people who buy this thing and its games. Why do I know they are poor? They never buy the new games, always the cheap 2 year old useed ones, or once in a while a greatest hits.
This leads me to beleive that it was marketing, not games and a quality system that drive the system today. Studies have shown that the lower economic class watch more TV. Sony has lots of TV ads and thus, marketing blitzes the poor to death.
It may have started out as a Rich system, primarily because of its huge price tag, but, I see more of the poor buying it now.
Also, I would never buy an old used PS/2 I would buy the new + version, we simply get too many used PS2's back after selling them in trade. We also get 5-10 people a month asking if we repair the things. We have only had 6 broken XBox and 3 Broken Gamecube the 6 Months I have worked at the store I work at. I stopeed counting the broken PS2's at 50.
So, in short, no, I dont think they lived up to expectations. I dont own one, but from a retail standpoint, they are hell to deal with.
Ok, I'm sure I'm the 800th person to say this, but the PS2 has been a huge dissapointment ever since it's initial release. I worked at an EB from Jan 2000 - May 2002, so I saw the launch of all 3 systems and can vouch for alot of stuff that happened. Out of the few PS2's we got (although our store got the most in our district) at least 1 in 10 came back defective within a month. Then when they released the 2nd version about 6 months later it slowed to about 1 in 20. I'm sure it's much better now, but what were they thinking!? 1 in 10 consoles not working but maybe a month? How could they release such a faulty piece of hardware? Not only that, but I was a big Dreamcast supporter at the time and saw many people come in and want a PS2 purely for namesake, not actually for quality. Any of the real gamers that would come in the store and owned both said they never used their ps2 except to watch DVDs and then some of them wouldn't even work on it. Not only that but with it's weird architecture it's the hardest of the 3 consoles to develop for...that's the same reason the Saturn failed, but obviously Sony had enough financial pull to convince developers to work on it anyway. Then when the Xbox and GC came out people kept buying PS2s like they were selling 'em for $20 or something. I would point out to my customers that the PS2 was a flawed machine and severely outmatched by both the GC and the Xbox and they would still buy it simply b/c of the Playstation name. I can not believe how stupid so many people are. Well, now PS2 has some good games finally, but 99.9% of them are out on Xbox and GC too. The ONLY game PS2 has that I need is FFX...so I guess I may break down and buy one after they go to $99. As for now, my Xbox and GC are kicking ass in it's place.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."