Ask any PlayStation fan worth their salt about Sony?s console history and, specifically, which system they consider the most important ? the one that signalled a watershed moment, if you will ? and they?ll likely revert to the PS1.
More than two decades ago, the original PlayStation birthed a gaming ecosystem that continues to thrive to this day, with the PS4 Slim, PSVR and the oncoming PS4 Pro being the latest additions to the burgeoning family. But as this is October 26, our attention is drawn not to the trailblazing PS1, but rather its wildly successful big brother, the PlayStation 2. Welcome to This Day in PlayStation History, your window into the archives of all things PlayStation. In the time since this original feature began, we?ve placed the spotlight on entire franchises, industry icons, and bona fide gaming mascots in Sly Cooper and Crash Bandicoot. Now, 16 years after it first landed on these shores, it?s about time we ushered PS2 into the limelight. So crack out those rose-tinted glasses and get ready to bask in some nostalgia. Cast your mind back to an era when 8MB memory cards were your most treasured possession; a time when booting up the system often involved praying to gods old and new that your scratched disc made it past that iconic PS2 start-up screen. Cue the Tiger Woods celebration.

When PS2 touched down in the market at the turn of the millennium, it introduced the concept of backwards compatibility to the PlayStation faithful, ensuring that all ...