The National Museum of Nature and Science in Japan maintains a special registry called "Future Technology Heritage," in which the country's achievements in science and technology are recorded. Recently, for the first time, a gaming console was added to it — the PlayStation 2.
The museum stated that one of the reasons for including the PlayStation 2 in the registry was its advanced features at the time of release. Sony's console supported surround sound, allowed internet connectivity, and had "beautiful graphics that were on par with arcade machines and realistically displayed human emotions."
In addition, the PlayStation 2 contributed to the popularity of the DVD format as it was cheaper than standard DVD players.
All of this, the museum notes, made the PlayStation 2 a "product through which the practical use of multimedia evolved."
Currently, the Japanese registry includes 381 devices. For example, it also features the Walkman player, the first calculator with an LCD screen, and the NEC PC-9801 computer.
It is worth remembering that the PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time. Its sales have exceeded 155 million units to date.