Sony holds a major birthday party for its first handheld gaming platform--but were the guests impressed?
On October 26, 2000, Sony joined the Sega Dreamcast in ushering in the current generation of consoles with the launch of the PlayStation 2. Debuting with under 30 launch-window titles, the console"s future was, at the time, uncertain. In fact, some experts believed the device"s price--then $299--would be prohibitively expensive.
Five years and 20-million-plus units later, the PS2 has become the console cornerstone of the world, bringing hundreds of titles into the homes of hundreds of millions of gamers. The PS2 also helped spread the popularity of the DVD format by saving its owners the trouble of buying a separate DVD player. At E3 2003, Sony announced it would try and leverage the PS2"s success into the handheld market, revealing it was working on a portable with near-equivalent gaming power, called the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which could fit in the palm of a player"s hand.