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.
It is backwards compatible with older PlayStation (PS1) games, allows for DVD Video playback, and will play PS2 games off of cheap CD-ROMs or higher-capacity DVD-ROMs.
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.
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As of V4 everything was unified into one board, except the power supply.
Later, Sony gained steam with new development kits for game developers and more PlayStations for consumers.
It was not until late 2001 that the Microsoft Xbox became the second console with (non-standard) USB and DVD support.
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.
