PS2 25th Anniversary: ​​”This was truly the beginning of narrative-driven gaming”

The PlayStation 2 quickly became the best-selling console of all time, changing not just gaming but the entire culture. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, God of War, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty ushered in a new era of interactive storytelling, in which games competed with movies for prestige and attention, and were discussed not only in professional magazines and forums, but also in mainstream newspapers and national television shows.

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the PS2's launch in Europe, IGN spoke to two people who have witnessed the console's launch and meteoric rise from different perspectives – one insider and one outsider. Shawn Layden was vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and later held some of the most senior positions at Playstation, while Daniel Griffiths served as deputy editor of the UK's official Playstation magazine.

They spoke to IGN about their personal memories of the period: Griffiths recalled the panic at the console's surprise reveal, how the Xbox “awed” the press, and how a Sony party ended with a river of melted chocolate coins; Redden described his surprise when he first saw the PS2 demo, his fear of the console's failure in its first year, and how it made gaming a hobby you could discuss “in polite company.”

Insider – Sean Redden

IGN: What was your first impression when you saw the PS2?

Sean Lydon: The first thing I saw was the Gran Turismo demo on the PS2. We were at a company meeting and they had a video. It makes us fall off our chairs. Sadly, Gran Turismo 3 isn't launching with the hardware as it took the team a long time to complete their game, but this gives us a sneak peek. I don't think the jump from PS1 to PS2 has happened again in any generation of game consoles. It takes you to a different fucking planet. Everything on this planet runs at 60 frames per second.

IGN: How did the development team react when you found out the PS2 was coming?

Sean Lydon: You have to start stripping teams down and put them in a double-secured locked room that no one can enter without security clearance because we have the prototype development kit there. The rest of us just try to do our day jobs. If someone who fails sees the dev kit, then you have to transport them to an island. So there was a passion for secrecy and secrecy, but the excitement was off the charts.

IGN: Is there competition between teams choosing to work with PS2 and other developers?

Sean Lydon: It’s not so much a competition as it is a feeling of awe and wonder. Among them are our top engineers, top designers, and top physicists. They will all enter a room in the studio that no one else can enter. But everyone knows what happened there, right? It's like an alien spacecraft has landed in our backyard. We are trying to analyze the technology it brings to us.

IGN: How has the PS2 changed the types of games you make?

Sean Lydon: At[PlayStation's London studio]it created the opportunity for us to make games like The Getaway, which was, in my opinion, the first cinematic gaming experience anyway. It's a Guy Ritchie movie, except you're in it. It's not exactly Hollywood, but we know there's more to this game than just the gameplay itself. In order to make this story engaging and realistic, you have to find real story writers. You have to hire people who score movies to score games. In the studio, we had four or five actors from London coming in to do voiceovers and motion capture, which was crazy. Trying to get them used to using motion capture equipment is like trying to teach a bear to scuba dive. It's fascinating. You realize that the game you're making is actually more than just a shooter, it's a story. This was probably the most exciting PS2 moment I've ever had in London.

The PS1 generation was great, wonderful, brilliant, but it was kind of like your dad's console. The PS2 became a completely different way of creating and enjoying games – it was truly the beginning of narrative-driven gaming.

IGN: How significant is a DVD player?

Sean Lydon: We were selling bundled PS2 hardware and copies of The Matrix movie. We chose the DVD format for the PS2 early on to give us more memory and give us more space to build our games on. As it was getting ready to launch, we recognized that DVD was this emerging format and people were moving away from their VHS players. I don’t think there was a lot of intention in linking these two things, but serendipity is a wonderful thing, right? Lucky chance. It turned out to be a huge accelerator because a lot of people could convince their spouse or parents that, hey, this is a gaming console and you can watch DVDs on it too.

IGN: Did you know early on that the PS2 would be a success?

Sean Lydon: This is not preordained. We launched the PS2 based on Ridge Racer, Tekken and Fantavision (fireworks simulator). Later we became more optimistic about it, but at that moment, it was like, 'Oh, dear God, are we going to be okay? We can't just sell three games in 10 years. “There was a learning curve, so it took some time for some of the team to figure out how it worked. The first few years of the PS2 were pretty intense, riding it out and hoping more games would come out, right? It would be great, right? The first year was almost driven by fear. Once the team got into the groove, the games got thick and fast. There were a lot of adventures, a lot of games where you'd look at it and go, “What is that?” “And you want to discover it.

IGN: How has it changed the way gaming is viewed in wider society?

Sean Lydon: People are starting to embrace gaming, and it's not just a bunch of spotted teenagers in a basement. The PS2 was when gaming truly became a cultural phenomenon. For the first time, you can talk about your console in polite company without feeling awkward. Before that, with the PS1, you'd hear someone say Tomb Raider at a party and you'd be like, 'Oh, you know Tomb Raider? Oh, great? But with the PS2, we can go all out. Our t-shirts have our logo printed on them. We talk about the new games we're playing in bars and pubs and everywhere.

When we launched The Getaway, we premiered it in Leicester Square and showed a 27-minute trailer for the game. It was like a full movie premiere, the red carpet, the whole thing, those searchlights going up in the sky and The Times of London reporting on it. It really gives a sense of, wow, gaming has now reached a new level. This isn't just happening in electronics boutiques, it's also happening in Leicester Square.

The Outsider – Daniel Griffiths

IGN: Do you remember your first experience with the PS2 console?

Daniel Griffith: Got a call saying there was a big announcement in Japan. When my editor, Mike Goldsmith, went[to Japan]we were guessing what it would be, but not sure it would be the PS2. The cover game for that issue was Ridge Racer Type 4, and then there was the PlayStation 2 announcement because we weren't sure[that was going to happen].

Mike attended the PS2 reveal press conference. He doesn’t have a laptop, he doesn’t have a computer. He got some slides and went to a Japanese printer and tried to fax them, but he couldn't. Then he called me. We’ve got the (Ridge Racer Type 4) cover, the magazine is all done. Whatever Mike saw in Japan, the double spread of news was suppressed. He said, “I have a PlayStation 2, I've seen this.” We'd be like, 'Oh, shit, what are we going to do? '

He said, “I'm going to describe to you what I saw, and then you write it down as if you saw it with your own eyes.” So he read it from his notebook, and I just typed out what he said, word for word, based on his description. I'd never seen it, but I wrote the whole thing: “We've been to Japan and we've seen this.”

IGN: What happened when you got it?

Daniel Griffith: We almost had the first one in the UK. (PlayStation magazine owner) Future Publishing makes football magazines, knitting magazines and kayaking magazines, and even the needlework magazine people came to see (our) PlayStation 2. Everyone was completely floored. There is a game called “Bodyguard” with depth of field, focus and airplanes. This is incredible. Fantasy has layers and clouds, and light bounces off objects. All these tricks that the PS1 couldn't do, they pulled out all the stops on the PS2. It was real to me at the time and it was progress.

Because it's a DVD, the sound is much better. It has real music, real spoken word and acting. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, for example, has an orchestral score by Harry Gregson-Williams and a brilliant, albeit questionable, script and voice acting. This is the next level. PS1 to PS2 is like going from brick phone to iPhone, you can see everything is going to be better from now on. Those who have been put off buying a PlayStation 1 can see that this isn't going away.

IGN: How extravagant is marketing?

Daniel Griffith: The PlayStation 2 was the age of money, and it made perfect sense to spend tons of cash on pointless things. Today, I don’t think it exists at all. I remember attending a party where the theme was “Ladies and Gentlemen, Pulp.” They played a full show from 20 feet away and they were the hottest band at the time

For parties, they would take over these weird venues, like abandoned parking lots, and they would have art exhibits and have a stage and a band and a huge free bar and it would be just Red Bull and vodka all night, full of cool people and gaming journalists, and everyone would come out and be like, “Sony, they're the bomb.” I remember going to one and there was this perfect pyramid of gold chocolate coins, like 12 feet tall… and then on the way out, it was torn down and it had melted and there was just a layer of chocolate and people were slipping on it. So funny.

IGN: What happened when Microsoft got involved?

Daniel Griffith: I was transferred from OPM deputy editor to GamesMaster editor. I remember Microsoft came to Future Publishing and they took some PC magazines and GamesMaster (the staff) to a luxury hotel in Bath. They unzipped the box and pulled out this shiny, X-shaped metal box. They were in awe of us, and that's the weird thing. They pulled me aside and said, “We've seen how your gaming magazine sells[games]to gamers, we're brand new to the gaming industry, and we need you on our side.” It seemed crazy, but it was what it was.

They were terribly frightened. You can see them kind of being like, “This is probably the biggest mistake we've ever made, but we're making a console.” PlayStation's marketing team promoted this on TV and in fashion magazines, and had football players talking up their favorite PlayStation games in the media. It's everywhere… So I think for Xbox, “We have a console,” it's like, you have to really prove it. To their credit, they work extremely hard and I have nothing but admiration for that.

IGN: When do you think the PS2 solidified its historic reputation?

Daniel Griffith: I think part of the reason it's loved is because they made a mess of the PlayStation 3. PS1 is a gaming console. With the advent of DVD players, the PS2 became home entertainment, then the PS3, God knows what they were thinking. This will replace your computer, your TV, everything about you. The PlayStation 2 is revered because they screwed up the PlayStation 3.

player – you

Do you have fond memories of the PlayStation 2? 25 years ago, did you wait in line at midnight to buy something? Are you getting it for a DVD player or for a tech-unlocked cinematic narrative game? Or are you a fan of its early advances in multiplayer, perhaps with SOCOM US Navy SEALs online, or split-screen play with Timesplitters 2 via the Multitap adapter? Tell us your stories from the PS2 era in the comments below. For more PS2 stories, check out How Sony ensured GTA became a PlayStation exclusive.

The interviews in this article have been edited for length and clarity.