CRITICAL MASS: THE STORY OF THE PS2
DAVID REEVES
Former president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. David is now cofounder of E Fundamentals.
DAVID AMOR
Cofounder of Relentless Software, creator of the multi-million selling Buzz! franchise. Now a games industry consultant.
DAVID DARLING
Cofounder of Codemasters, which published many PS2 driving games. Now CEO of Kwalee.
It was Mark Twain who said, “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable,” and yet in the case of the PlayStation 2, both stacked up rather nicely. You can give or take the odd hundreds or thousands, maybe millions, when discussing the sales stats of Sony’s second console – 980,000 sold on its first day in Japan on 4 March 2000; 158 million worldwide over the course of its 13-year lifespan – but the fact remains: this was the biggest-selling console of all time and, handhelds aside, nothing else has ever come close.
PS2 was, without doubt, a huge success, coming hot on the heels of a revolutionary debut console. That first PlayStation smashed the stranglehold Nintendo and Sega had on the videogame market, introducing gamers to blockbuster, arcade quality 3D titles. And when Sony saw it had sold 3.4 million by 1996 and was well on its way to achieving 10 million by Christmas, there was only one option: to create a sequel bettering it in every way.
Ken Kutaragi played a key role in developing the debut console, earning the title ‘Father of the PlayStation’. His expertise (which also saw him create a new sound chip for the SNES) ensured he was tasked with spearheading the follow-up. “Kutaragi started on the development of PlayStation 2 in 1996 and it was clear from the outset it was being designed with entertainment in mind,” says David Reeves, former CEO and president of Sony PlayStation EMEA.
To aid development, Sony approached third-party companies, including LSI Logic Corp, to see what they could come up with. LSI Logic manufactured the microprocessor used for the PlayStation and had a stake in Argonaut which worked with Nintendo on the SuperFX chip used in Star Fox. It was asked to work on a rendering chip for the PS2 and so the task fell to Argonaut founder Jez San.
“Sony gave the company the specifications it wanted which was for the chip to achieve two million polygons per second with texture mapping,” Jez tells us. “We designed the most efficient way to deliver Sony’s desired performance but then LSI Logic told us
