PlayStation 2: It Came, It Saw, It Kicked Ass... and Still Does Ц Part 1

Written by Adam Woolcott  on October 24, 2005

Specials: I bet the PS2 will be quite popular in kindergarten.

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2002 Ц PS2 Evolves...Online
After a mesmerizing 2001, it was a tall task to repeat the process. With the Xbox and GameCube going into their first full years in 2002, Sony had to really keep up the pace if they wanted to continue their dominance of the business. In early 2002, there really wasn't much to fall back on, however. Final Fantasy X got its 'real' release in January, after the limited December print. Thus, the most notable game of the first month was State of Emergency, Rockstar's hyped beat 'em up. After the tremendous success of Grand Theft Auto III, SoE became the next big game on the radar, expecting an encore of that game. And though the game sold a tremendous amount of copies in a short period of time, it wasn't anywhere near the same quality as Rockstar's previous phenomenon. The game became the butt of many jokes immediately, and trade-ins were so abundant most stores wouldn't even take them back just a few months after release. Good luck getting anything more than a couple bucks even today, though it did end up going Greatest Hits due to the nearly 1 million copies sold. Arguably the biggest game of the earliest months of 2002 was Sega's Virtua Fighter 4, which was a tremendous title that was by default the top PS2 fighter at the time.

Speaking of Greatest Hits, Sony used the early part of 2002 to unveil the PS2 version of the popular PlayStation line of best sellers. Initially, Sony had a handful of games christened Greatest Hit Ц ATV Offroad Fury (a game that sold a million copies yet managed to stay far under the radar of most gamers), Dark Cloud, Gran Turismo 3, Twisted Metal Black, Midnight Club, and Smuggler's Run Ц 5 of the most popular titles of its inaugural year for a nice price of $20. Like the PS1's program, a game needs 500,000 copies sold and must be available for 8 months before it can become GH. As of 2005, there's well over 100 GH titles, though a handful have been phased out and are no longer in production (such as Metal Gear Solid 2). With this move, Sony finally began targeting the budget gamer with the PS2, a sign they were ready to make the next step and attack the mass market like they did with the PlayStation a generation prior.

The next move in this strategy? A price drop. While Sony took a gamble and didn't drop the $299 price in 2001, sticking with the initial price for a 2nd holiday season despite new competition, the system was still a huge success despite the decision. However it was expected that at some point in the year, Sony would drop the price, as the hardware began to move into its prime. At E3 2002, Sony did just that by dropping the price of the PS2 to a more friendly $199 Ц and prompted Microsoft and Nintendo to drop their prices as well, to $199 and $149 respectively. In addition, Sony dropped the cost of the memory cards and controllers to a more reasonable $24.99.

Meanwhile, Sony finally moved their online plans forward, after fumbling the original 2001 promise Ц gamers might recall Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 being online compatible, but there was no official network adapter around, requiring a 3rd party USB adapter to participate in the game's numerous competitive modes. In 2002 however, things took shape, even if it was overshadowed by Microsoft's more straightforward service in Xbox Live. The PS2 Network Adaptor, retailing at $39.99 (with a coupon for a free copy of Twisted Metal Black Online), would connect to the back of the PS2, and you could use either a dial-up or a broadband connection to play in a PC-style setup, and eventually a hard drive would release for downloading content off the Internet Ц a plan that ultimately never really took off as the HDD became a forgotten tool. With killer apps in both Madden NFL 2003 (beginning a run of EA Sports games online-enabled) and SOCOM: US Navy Seals, Sony's online plans got off to a great start, though it's arguable that aside from SOCOM, few of the games that were playable online had much staying power at the time Ц especially compared to the strong Xbox Live launch titles.

Despite all this, 2002 was actually a slow year for PS2. At E3, Rockstar announced the newest entry in the white-hot GTA franchise, the 80's throwback Vice City, which wound up being the cause for many games being delayed into 2003 Ц nobody wanted to release a game with that juggernaut around. Thus Vice City was the only really notable title to release in an awkward holiday season. Only Sony seemed to be interested in putting out a wide selection of games, as the company unveiled two new 'mascot' games Ц the action-oriented Ratchet & Clank, and the more traditional platformer Sly Cooper. Both were successful, but like Jak & Daxter the year before, neither gathered much steam until well after their respective releases. Sony also unveiled a sequel to cult hit ATV Offroad Fury, which to this day still has the most pitiful online setup for any game in history Ц you couldn't even get back to the main menu once you went online; you had to turn off the PS2 itself. Lame.

SquareSoft released their hyped yet cautiously watched Kingdom Hearts/ game in the earliest part of the fall season, to rave reviews and the accolades of both Disney and Final Fantasy fans around the world. Namco took the time to release Tekken 4, though it couldn't match the glory of the amazing Tekken 3. Even Onimusha 2, which released the same day as Sony went online, failed to make much impact despite the original being such a success. The fall of 2002 also saw a few emerging franchises, such as Burnout 2: Point of Impact, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. Though NFS was always a hit, it was the final 'traditional' game in the series before EA took it underground and became the best selling game of 2003. Vice City was definitely the king of the PS2 however; backed up by a monstrous marketing scheme that included 7 soundtrack CD's of top 1980's music, the game was a massive success, outselling GTA3 by a large margin and singlehandedly carrying a competent, but mostly faceless holiday lineup.

In many ways, 2002 was a setup for the forthcoming years; setting the table for something special. 2003 was the beginning of this philosophy. Tune in Wednesday to see how this came to fruition.