Every hardware generation in the past consisted of a runaway winner, with a few competitors limping behind. Were it not for a failed deal to bring a CD drive to the dominant Super Nintendo, Sony might never have gotten into gaming with the PlayStation, and then the PlayStation 2. While the first PlayStation brought many innovations to the home gaming business, it was the PlayStation 2 that cemented the company's place at the head of the pack, and today Sony has announced that the PS2 is the first system to sell over 50 million units in North America.

The importance of DVD, an eBay money maker, and a storm of criticisms

The launch of the PS2 was masterful. The company had fended off the Dreamcast by promising better graphics, more third-party support, the ability to play your old PSone games, and of course the system was launching with a new whiz-bang technology that would help to justify the high entry price of the system: the DVD drive. The PS2 wasn't just a gaming console, you see, it was a media box. DVD players were incredibly expensive at the time, so mixing the follow-up to the popular PlayStation system with the promise of a built-in DVD player proved an appetizing combination for consumers; the system was impossible to find at retail after its October 2000 launch, and prices soared on gray market sites such as eBay.

Sony is upfront with the importance of this decision. "The inclusion of DVD technology in the console enabled not only enhanced gaming experiences, but also offered DVD playback, bringing the DVD movie experience to millions of homes in North America for the first time," Sony claims. "The PS2 quickly became the best-selling DVD player on the market, helping to establish the DVD format as the de facto movie standard."

The criticisms came quickly. The system was too expensive. The "PS9" marketing message was nonsensical. The graphics, after all the promises, didn't look much better than the system's nearest competitor, the Sega Dreamcast. Software support was lacking. Sony was more interested in releasing a media player than a gaming console. The proprietary chip, the Emotion Engine, was hard to code for. Does any of this sound familiar?

A new leader was born

Consumers didn't listen, and franchise after franchise helped to keep the PS2 firmly on top. Think of what the PS2 did, culturally, to gaming. The system shipped with the Dual Shock, one of the most iconic controllers ever created. Gran Turismo 3 was one of the most graphically stunning and realistic racing games every created, on console or PC. Grand Theft Auto 3 took the top-down 2D franchise and brought hyper-violent action along with stinging social satire to gaming. The Madden series, updated yearly, became an event. Jocks and the popular kids from school invaded the gaming stores, buying the titles in huge numbers.

Final Fantasy X built on the success of the PSone Final Fantasy titles, adding even better-looking graphics. Final Fantasy XI brought true MMO gaming to consoles, even if it required the net adaptor as well as an add-on hard drive. The first time anyone played a Guitar Hero game was on the PlayStation 2. Vice City was less of a game release than a mainstream media event, with all the controversy that brought with it. The God of War series brought an epic, and surprisingly dark, story to life. Shadow of the Colossus felt like art, a moving painting. There were more culturally important gaming moments on the PS2 than perhaps any other system in the past twenty years. These are just the obvious hits; If I dug into the catalog to bring up fan-favorites like Ico, we'd be here all day. Sony made gaming cool to the mainstream.

If you write about games, and people find this out, you get two questions asked of you in perpetuity: what is your favorite game, and which game console should I buy? Everyone is interested in the idea that there is some insight into what the "best" console is, and people tend to be surprised by my answer. Go into a video game store with $200 and get yourself a PlayStation 2 and a huge stack of games. It's simply the best possible gaming value at the moment and, according to the Nielson ratings, the PS2 was the most-played console of last year.

What made the PlayStation 2 special may be hurting the limping PS3. Consumers may not have been ready for the inclusion of the expensive Blu-ray drive. Asking developers to come up with their own online plan, leading to differences in features across games, is a hard sell in the days of Xbox Live. The Cell is another piece of technology that some developers struggle with. Software support, in the early days, was rough. Sony quickly ditched backwards compatibility as being too expensive. Microsoft is poaching once-PS2 specific franchises the same way Sony once did with Nintendo's hits. The Wii's success is bringing us back to a world where people "play Nintendo."

With these milestones however, Sony still has the name and the will power to turn it around. But looking back we can see just how much gaming owes to the PlayStation brand. You did good, PS2, and we still love you. Thanks for the memories, and I'm sure you'll be a big hit again next Christmas.