I think a lot of the criticism of the PS2 launch line up was for the Japanese launch. Somehow that got mixed in with the narrative surrounding the overall launch of the console.
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The PlayStation 2 Launch Lineup Being "Bad" Seems Apocryphal, In Retrospect
- Thread starter KalBalboa
- Start date
The Japanese launch is the real launch of the PS2. It came out half a year earlier, with fewer games and even more crap than the western launch.
Anyone that tells me PS2 had a bad launch lineup is smoking some good green. IMO there only needs to be 1 amazing game and 3/4 good ones for a decent launch and to sustain for a month or two until games start rolling in.
PS2 could've had only Tekken Tag and SSX and it would've been a great launch lineup.
IDC about "opinions", you're a fool if you think the lineup in the eyes of millions of players was bad. It is a hard fact that a decent portion of the lineup has reached classic status.
PS2 could've had only Tekken Tag and SSX and it would've been a great launch lineup.
IDC about "opinions", you're a fool if you think the lineup in the eyes of millions of players was bad. It is a hard fact that a decent portion of the lineup has reached classic status.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. There were some solid titles but nothing that wowed anyone like Halo, BotW or SM64 for their respective launches. you bought the machine for the machine and picked up some launch titles to play on your new machine while you waited for the 'Wow!' games to be released. Which is basically every console launch with a few exeptions.
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Yeah, I think comparing N64 to PS2 makes for an interesting case study.
Do you get one of the best games ever made + Pilot Wings (and live with only those for months) or do you get a plethora of options day one, which includes a few B+ tier titles.
It mostly was but to be fair didn't matter I think I only touched soul calibur, tekken tag, and counter strike during that time period for the most part.
it was bad or medicore even the public felt that.
There are still sites from those eras that have opinions out or just google archive. Compared to other systems of the gen both it and gc felt weak compared to xbox or dc.
And before you say opinions GTA3 shuts you up a billion times, the system was ass til it came period.
it was bad or medicore even the public felt that.
There are still sites from those eras that have opinions out or just google archive. Compared to other systems of the gen both it and gc felt weak compared to xbox or dc.
And before you say opinions GTA3 shuts you up a billion times, the system was ass til it came period.
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I'm having trouble understanding this, but are you saying the PS2 was "ass" before October 2001?
A few PS2 games from after launch but before October 2001:
Silent Hill 2
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
Twisted Metal Black
Devil May Cry
Ico
Red Faction
Onimusha: Warlords
Dark Cloud
NBA Street
Shortly after GTA3, we got a crazy Oct-Dec lineup, including Tony Hawk 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, Max Payne, Ace Combat 4, SSX Tricky, FFX, Jak & Daxter... the list goes on.
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This is a good way of looking back at it: remember the context of gaming press circa 2000, but I maintain that the North American lineup of launch games was good. Not astounding, but certainly not bad.
SSX was mindblowing ..that alone for me at least justified the console upgrade. throw in TTT ..there was nothing ' bad' about the PS2 launch line up
Yup. Console released right around the time DVDs were blowing up. The DVD player inclusion made the spark. The games that came after the launch caused the fire.
Considering other platforms and how the platform performed afterwards, yes.
You should realize I'm am being hyperbolic but be it in hype or nuance it was luke warm to describe it as good makes doubt your sanity.
Console was hot sales but software weren't till post GTA3. Lets put that in perspective both og counter strike and dota blew up as well as halo. Are you saying PS2 was as hot them cause that's not the case. However it ended up until 18 months in it was a good selling console with lukewarm sales. It wasn't GC either.
No to the suggestion the console was fine but the content wasn't. I was addicted to one title and that's all that is need to have my launch money.
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I think it was mostly bad in context. The last two big console launches prior to the PS2 were the DreamCast and the N64. The DreamCast launched with a slew of all-timers including Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur (this was big at the time because of how it exceeded the arcade version which was unheard of at the time iirc). The N64 revolutionized the industry with Super Mario 64. Then comes the PS2 with a bunch of b-tiers like SSX and TimeSplitters, and it still sells like gangbusters. Afterwards came the Xbox with Halo on day 1 and the Gamecube with Rogue Squadron/Luigi's Mansion/Super Monkey Ball/Wave Race day 1 and Melee/Pikmin just weeks later.
Compare that to the upcoming lineups of the PS5/XSX, which will probably be a good bit worse.....but console launches haven't really mattered much in like well over a decade, outside of Breath of the Wild which was cross-gen anyways.
Compare that to the upcoming lineups of the PS5/XSX, which will probably be a good bit worse.....but console launches haven't really mattered much in like well over a decade, outside of Breath of the Wild which was cross-gen anyways.
Hold on now, SSX was not B tier, it was an amazing game and it was clearly a next gen game, how the music was integrated with gameplay was pretty cool, the rest of the linepup i'd agree.
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I do think it's worth noting how much of a barren desert the N64's library was for a while. There was Mario 64 and... Pilot Wings. You had to wait almost two months for Wave Race 64 and Killer Instinct Gold, then another month for Cruis'n USA.
There's no denying how damn good Mario 64 is, but PS2 had a wide variety of ok-to-good games to play day one. I never felt hungry for new games with my PS2.
They should've made one! Hey, I bought Fantavision on PS4. I'm doing my part!
It wasn't just the launch lineup was bad, it was also that no other good games came out for almost a year after launch. The situation was so bad that I actually finished Summoner.
I got the Japanese PS2 at launch. I played Tekken Tag for a bit and I went back to my Dreamcast for months.
I'm still scratching my head at the word you used to describe it in the thread title, OP.
That said, I got a Japanese PS2 at launch with Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament and I was happier than a pig in shit. I don't think I bought any other games for months.
That said, I got a Japanese PS2 at launch with Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament and I was happier than a pig in shit. I don't think I bought any other games for months.
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Yeah, there were releases peppered here and there, but the second half of 2001 is an almost unfair metric to compare any console library to, haha. The months after PS2's launch:
- The Bouncer (I have a soft spot for its mediocrity) was December 2000
- ATV Offroad Fury, February 2001
- Onimusha hits March 2001
- Zone of the Enders, March 2001
- Gauntlet, May 2001
- Red Faction, May 2001
- Dark Cloud, May 2001
- NBA Street, June 2001
Hmm, maybe there's a better term. I basically think the widespread claim that the PS2's launch lineup is bad enough to be exemplary is bogus. I chose "apocryphal" because I see it cited and coined as Exhibit A of bad software lineups for a launch, but I disagree with it (and provide my receipts, heh).
Is there a better word for contesting a wide-spread claim you deem inaccurate?
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I didn't manage to find a PS2 until almost a year after launch, but my friend had one and we eeked a ton of mileage out of Tekken Tag Tournament, SSX, and Armored Core 2 -- enough that we personally still to this day look back at that as a super great launch.
I definitely disagree when the notion that the PS2 had a weak launch comes up. I get that the games I've listed have relatively niche taste but my friend and I really played the hell out of those games and enjoyed doing so.
It's nothing compared to the games that would go on to drop in 2001 but still.
I definitely disagree when the notion that the PS2 had a weak launch comes up. I get that the games I've listed have relatively niche taste but my friend and I really played the hell out of those games and enjoyed doing so.
It's nothing compared to the games that would go on to drop in 2001 but still.
It might be the perfect word, I've just never heard it before. You learn something new everyday! :)
When the PlayStation 2 launched there was no such thing as Xbox so that could not have been a factor.
Wave Race 64 was around a month really (5 weeks) and Pilotwings 64 was pretty insane at the time tbh. I think the N64 droughts didn't really start hurting though until spring 1997, getting just one or two games every month stings less when they're basically best in class exclusives.
That said I think PS2 had a great launch lineup and in particular I'd put RRV up against any other launch racer. I sort of agree with the idea PS2 was more a "bad in context" versus everything else that gen (Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, even GBA) but I also feel the margin wasn't that wide either really. They were all pretty great.
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Yeah, games like Pilot Wings, Smugglers Run, and even Knack/Rise exist as those vertical slice titles to show off what your new box can do.
I think Smugglers Run, looking back, might have been the best rounded tech demo launch game I can think of. My brother and I loved split screen capture the flag and free roam.
Nope. PS2 is my favourite console of all time, but that launch lineup was bad.
Only game worth playing is SSX.
Only game worth playing is SSX.
Sure it can, I was 7 when the ps2 came out and didn't buy a current gen console until the xbox came out a year later
As a Dreamcast and Sega fan it was really easy to argue the merits of the Dreamcast's 2000 line up and early 2001 games against what the PS2 was offering. Especially helpful were some terrible ports of Dreamcast games to PS2. But in early 2001 Sega said they were discontinuing production of the machine and then the PS2 hits started rolling in.
It was tough to argue with Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2. Never mind the rest of those 2001 games.
SSX and Tekken Tag were definitely good, at least.
Launch lineup wasn't bad bad, just kinda underwhelming.
Launch lineup wasn't bad bad, just kinda underwhelming.
It was a pretty solid launch with some good new IPs (Red Faction, SSX, Midnight Club, Smuggler's Run, TimeSplitters) and some solid known franchises (Madden, NHL, Tekken Tag Tournament, Ridge Racer 5).
The entire first year of the PS2 is easily the best ever and is pretty evenly split between western and Japanese games.
The entire first year of the PS2 is easily the best ever and is pretty evenly split between western and Japanese games.
Ok but the 2001 line up a year later had like half a dozen all timers/highly influential titles so it kinda made up for that
SSX, timesplitters and Tekken Tag are all games I'd enjoy even today and those gave me many many hours of fun back in the day. Great games.
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I have so many good memories of huddling around a CRT to play 4-8 player NHL 2001, or some 2v2 Tekken Tag.
Once we got into LAN gaming in my childhood neighborhood, we even got into TimeSplitters 2 LAN play and Gran Turismo 3's firewire support.
The NA Dreamcast launch was better insofar as the wealth of available software but... its Japanese launch was even worse than the PS2's and it had a much bigger gap of time between launches than thevPS2's Japanese and NA launch.
I thought the PS2 launch was average honestly.
Games that were 9/10 tier for me.
SSX
DOA2
8/10
Tekken Tag
Timesplitters
Didn't play a lot of the others but I don't there would have been many 9 or 10s there.
I thought the 360 launch was better. I picked up Oblivion, PGR3, Fight Night Round 3 (how next gen was that!) and I think I picked up Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter a few weeks later which was pretty good too.
Games that were 9/10 tier for me.
SSX
DOA2
8/10
Tekken Tag
Timesplitters
Didn't play a lot of the others but I don't there would have been many 9 or 10s there.
I thought the 360 launch was better. I picked up Oblivion, PGR3, Fight Night Round 3 (how next gen was that!) and I think I picked up Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter a few weeks later which was pretty good too.
Ahh, well OK as a personal story sure. I assumed we're all here talking about the PlayStation 2's launch as that's what the thread is about. If you made a decision a year after the PS2 came out then yeah, but that's different than making a launch decision.
Not sure why this bothers you but ok.
SSX ended up being one of my favorite games so that's where it's coming from.
Would have easily bought the game at launch.
Doesn't bother me in the slightest, just explaining the cause of my initial confusion.
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