>DVD
>HDD

Was PS2 ahead of its time?

>>11858004 (OP)
Nothing ahead of its time here.
HDD was not needed for 99% of the games, just a foresight by Sony. A strategic foresight that didn't pay off.
DVD was a must considering the evolution of game complexity through the generation. Some games even needed a dual layer to fit everything.

>>11858126
>HDD was not needed for 99% of the games, just a foresight by Sony. A strategic foresight that didn't pay off.
The US version was neutered to fuck because of the PocketStation and Everquest.

Due to the mess that was games in the US having PockerStation features and sometimes locking content behind them, but Sony eventually deciding not to release the PocketStation in the US after all there were many people not happy about the situation. So in response Sony declared that publishers may not add features for hardware that is not available in that region.

The PS2 HDD comes out in Japan, it includes software to download demos, play music, view photos, and many games support it either for installing for faster load times and/or for using it as a massive memory card. FF11 is basically the only game that requires it.

However, Sony was working on their own PS2 MMO, Everquest Online Adventures, which did not need the HDD, but it was nowhere near ready to launch. So they kept delaying the release of the HDD outside of Japan, for years, to the point where S-E stopped bothering with their plan to release FF11 on PS2 first and released it on PC first in the US. Due to these delays the HDD was pretty late outside of Japan, so the software to do all of this was never released (even though there was several pages in the HDD manual telling you how to use it) and many many games had their HDD support stripped outside of Japan because of that PocketStation rule. Then eventually they released a slim version that removed HDD support altogether because people were using it for hacks, much like later PS1s removing the parallel port.

That being said, the Xbox came out just a year after the PS2 with Xbox and a built in HDD so...

>>11858004 (OP)
this is a painfully dumb question I hope you werent serious

>>11858004 (OP)
I never had one but it's fascinating how the HDD and ethernet port seem to be combined into one unit.

>>11858004 (OP)
The DVD feature was right at the perfect time, not ahead or late.

>>11858585
The PS2 basically had a proprietary expansion port, the modem would plug into that port and had both ethernet and dialup 56K, because of this was basically the only expansion port and the modem was covering it up, the modem also had an IDE and Molex connector for hard drives, it was basically breaking out the pins on that port.

>>11858004 (OP)
No, just the right hardware at the right time for two entire generations in a row. Maybe vision, maybe luck, probably a bit of both.

It's ironic how now snoys are obsessed with superior hardware just like PCfags when the entire Playstation brand was built on inferior hardware still managing to be the most successful and influential.

>>11858614
Interesting how most concepts of their logo basically had the German flag colors and it wasn't until the final one that they decided on RGBY basically.

>>11858004 (OP)
The inclusion of an optical audio port always seemed unnecessarily high end to me. A pretty ahead of its time feature for a console I'd say.

>>11858126
>HDD was not needed for 99% of the games, just a foresight by Sony.
There is over a 100 games that use the HDD in japan for faster load times. Including big names like Final Fantasy X, Dynasty Warriors, Dark Cloud, Resident Evil, Ace Combat etc.

>>11858681
I think the main reasoning was probably DVD 5.1 audio. Most receivers at the time did not have HDMI input, but they did have optical input for surround sound.

>>11858004 (OP)
DVD was timed perfectly.
HDD, not so much, especially when they cut it for the PS2 Slims. Definitely a good option to have nowadays for modding.

>can't put in hdd without network adapter
>port gets legacy among stoners as "the weed compartment"

>>11858624
>RGBY
Same colours as the Super Famicom, and probably not an accident considering how similar the controller is too.

>>11858004 (OP)
It's was of its time because it existed during its time.

>>11858738
anon HDMI didn't even exist when ps2 released

>>11858004 (OP)
Basically yes, you could run Linux on it. Massive flex right there. The HDD was basically for FFXI, which is fair. But people at the time used it for HDLoader, which alone justifies it. THPS3 and MGS3 had some of the best online at the time. Sony kept online support way longer than it needed to, which helped unofficial third party servers. The PS2 network adapter is the greatest console expansion and it isn't even close, it succeeded where others failed.

>>11859189
This isn't how trends work.

>>11859170
You're right, it wasn't an accident:

https://tokyotreat.com/blog/playstation-1-the-history-behind-this-iconic-console