The Sony Playstation 2 was released on March 4th of 2000. It's predecessor, the PS1, was immensely successfull, so the PS2 had a lot to live up to. Little did anyone know, it would MORE than live up to the pressure
It's original games lineup was slightly lackluster. While there were some decent titles, like SSX, Unreal Tournament, TimeSpiltters, Madden 2001, and Midnight Club, there weren't any knockout games that were clearly above others. That is, until the 2001 Holiday Season hit. Sony secured temporary exclusitivity for games in the Grand Theft Auto series, as well as Metal Gear Solid 2. Around this time, many great PS2 titles arose, such as Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry, Ico, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Ratchet and Clank and Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City. By the time of it's discontinuation, Sony added even more impressive games to its lineup, such as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Bully, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, God of War, Beyond Good and Evil, Need for Speed Underground and Most Wanted, the Sly Cooper series, SOCOM series, and Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain
One hiccup to the Playstation 2 was it's mediocre hardware specs. Of it's competitors at the time, it had the weakest. However, this turned out to not be a big issue, as the PS2 ended up putting the Dreamcast out of the market, and outsold the Xbox by miles. It's sales are simply staggering, and the PS2 currently the best selling console of all time. Contributing factors include DVD functionality, stellar game lineup, timing, and marketing
The Playstation 2's successor is the Playstation 3. While the PS3 had nice features, the race of console superiority was much closer this time around. The Xbox 360 had a lead for a while, until the Playstation recently shot ahead.
Controversies:
Manhunt controversy
Bully controversy