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.
With a price of $299.99 per console, Sony made gross sales of roughly $153,000,000.
One of them includes the old EE and GS chips, and the other contains the newer unified EE+GS chip, otherwise being identical.
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.
The new V12 model was first released in black.
When the PlayStation 2 launched in America in October 26, 2000, Sony sold 510,000 units within the first 24 hours.
Since the V12 version had already been established for this model, there were some disputes regarding these sub-versions.
Although Sony placed little emphasis on online gaming during its first year, all that changed because of the launch of the online-capable Xbox.
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.
In September 2004 Sony unveiled the third major hardware revision (V12, model number SCPH-70000).
When it was released, the PS2 had many advanced features that were not present in other contemporary video game consoles, including its DVD capabilities and USB and IEEE 1394 expansion ports.
