PlayStation 2 Release Date, Lineup, and Sony’s $299 Trojan Horse
The PS1 opened the door. The PS2 ripped it off its hinges. Historic shortages, endless lines and the DVD masterstroke—here’s the full story of the most ambitious console launch in gaming history, region by region.
PlayStation 2 release date by region
The road to the PS2 release date
In 1994—the PlayStation 1 release date—Sony had everything to prove. By the time the PlayStation 2 release date arrived in 2000, Sony had everything to lose. With over 100 million PS1 units sold, the pressure was immense: the PS2 didn’t just have to succeed a phenomenon—it had to surpass it.
Development of the PlayStation 2 began in 1997, while the original PlayStation still dominated the market. Ken Kutaragi, now nicknamed the “Father of PlayStation,” envisioned something far beyond a gaming console. His vision: a home entertainment hub capable of playing DVDs—a format surging in popularity, yet still too expensive for most households as a standalone player. The gamble was bold: by pricing his console as the most affordable DVD player on the market, Sony slipped the PS2 into millions of homes that would never have bought a gaming console. For many families, the PS2 was a movie player first. Games came second.
The console was officially announced at E3 on May 11, 1999, and its monolithic black design unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show that September. At its core, the Emotion Engine—a 128-bit processor co-developed with Toshiba, clocked at 300 MHz—promised a generational leap in processing power. Sony also made a crucial call: the PS2 would play the entire PS1 library, granting instant access to thousands of titles on day one—a devastating edge over Sega’s Dreamcast, which had launched a year earlier. Long before the PS2 release date, the console war was already shifting in Sony’s favor.
PS2 release timeline: three years to conquer the world
The $299 DVD player
In the US, a standalone DVD player cost between $400 and $700 in the year 2000. The PlayStation 2 came in at $299—a hundred dollars less than the cheapest player on the market, with the added bonus of playing video games. The impact was immediate: from the very first PS2 release date in Japan, the console’s presence in households fueled an estimated 250% surge in DVD sales. For millions of families, the PS2 wasn’t a gaming console that played DVDs. It was a DVD player that also played games. That inversion of perception was Ken Kutaragi’s masterstroke—and the weapon that finished off Sega’s Dreamcast.
PS2 launch lineup: day-one games by region
How the PS2 release reshaped gaming
By bundling a DVD player at a price lower than standalone units, Sony got the PS2 into millions of homes that would never have bought a gaming console. Video gaming graduated from niche hobby to household staple.
The PS2 could play nearly every PS1 game, offering a library of thousands of titles from day one. An unprecedented edge that turned the generational leap into a no-brainer.
The best-selling console of all time. Over 4,000 games, legendary franchises—GTA, Final Fantasy, God of War, Gran Turismo—and a production run that lasted until 2012, six years after the PS3 release date.