When the PlayStation 2 launched in America in October 26, 2000, Sony sold 510,000 units within the first 24 hours.
However, the release of several blockbuster games during the 2001 holiday season pushed the PS2 far in front even as the Xbox and GameCube made their impressive debuts.
V3 has a substantially different internal structure from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected printed circuit boards.
For some consumers this is in fact a limitation, especially for the fans of titles such as Final Fantasy XI, which requires the use of this peripheral, and prevents the use of the official PS2 Linux kit.
The new V12 model was first released in black.
Developers also complained that it was difficult to develop for the system, with little in the way of reference material from Sony for its exotic architecture.
The PS2 hardware can read both compact discs and DVDs.
Although external USB 2.0 enclosures are affordable the lack of internal hard disk has implicated a problem for users with perhaps little knowledge of the software required to enable the external disk functionality.
Another major selling point over the Dreamcast was the PlayStation 2's ability to play DVDs, which gained it a presence in electronics stores which did not formerly sell video game consoles.
As a result, although Sony and Nintendo both started out late and although both followed a decentralized model of online gaming where the responsibility is up to the developer to provide the servers, Sony's efforts made PS2 online gaming a big success.
In preparation for the launch of a new, slimmer PlayStation 2 model (SCPH-70000), Sony had stopped making the older PS2 model (SCPH-5000x) sometime during the summer of 2004 to let the distribution channel empty out stock of the units.
Many analysts predicted a close 3-way matchup between the PS2 and its soon-to-be-released competitors Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, noting that the PS2's graphics were inferior but that it had the advantage of a head start, and had a wide assortment of games of every genre (Xbox's strength was in its hardware; GameCube was the cheapest of the 3 consoles).
Only a few million users had obtained consoles by the end of 2000 due to manufacturing delays.
Since the V12 version had already been established for this model, there were some disputes regarding these sub-versions.
The PlayStation 2 had a difficult start.
V3 has a substantially different internal structure from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected printed circuit boards.
