PlayStation 2
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 3 of 23 game consoles by recommenders
Recommended for its huge game library, low price, and DVD playback; critics say its hardware was weak and its floating-point unit is hard to emulate.
31 people recommended PlayStation 2 in Hacker News comments, 9 had mixed feelings and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 41 comments.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- mixed feelings
- 9
- warn against or regret it
- 6
The record
Recommended in 10 of 12 months
In 19 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it carries the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 19 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 13% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 39 of the 48 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cheap for its time
“it was like the same price (close enough) as a regular Sony DVD player, which was nuts”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “Sony managed to bring its price all the way down to $99.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you bought” “The PS2 felt like a great consumer-focused value.”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Sony will no longer produce discs for PlayStation games starting in January 2028” - Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Anthropic’s paper smells like bullshit”
- Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Resetting Xbox”
Fans keep returning to it
“My all time favorite console. I keep coming back to it.”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “I'm still perfectly happy with my solo racing games on PS2”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future” “the reason the PS2 is having a resurgence in popularity”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation” - Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii”
Huge library of games
“the sheer number of titles made for it”
Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii” “2001 for the PS2 was one of the greatest years in gaming history.”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii” Doubled as DVD player
“the DVD player functionality was HUGE”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Segagaga Has Been Translated into English”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Complicated to program
“Powerful. Complicated to use. But, not complicated to specify.”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “nothing like the nightmarish complexity of the PS2”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Libgodc: Write Go Programs for Sega Dreamcast” “I would be having a little panic attack if I had to go back to working on PS2 only code”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Metal Gear Solid 2's Source Code Has Been Leaked on 4Chan” Quirky floating-point unit hurts emulation
“PS2 floating-point behavior is one of the few hardware misfeatures so awful it affects emulation of competing systems”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “shipped with completely out-of-spec garbage floating point hardware”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Accurate Models of AMD Matrix Cores” “The PS2 FPU has weirdness around NaN, Infinity”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “A time-travelling door bug in Half Life 2” Weaker hardware than rivals
“the PS2 was the weakest console of its generation in most respects save for its unique data streaming capabilities”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “How I launched 3 consoles and found true love at Babbage's store no. 9 (2013)” “it was outsold by Xbox and PS2”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Rise of the Triforce” Slow, failure-prone optical drive
“stationary gaming consoles have been held back by slow (optical) storage”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 devs slash install size from 154GB to 23GB”
Other game consoles people recommend
The four most recommended other game consoles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valve Steam Machine | 221 | 79 | 207 | 52% | 12 | — | — |
| PlayStation 5 | 73 | 35 | 168 | 30% | 12 | — | — |
| PlayStation 2This page | 31 | 9 | 6 | 84% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Xbox 360 | 31 | 7 | 18 | 63% | 11 | — | — |
| Xbox console | 28 | 24 | 206 | 12% | 12 | — | — |
Also compared with Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, MiSTer FPGA and Nintendo Entertainment System.
What people said
39 of the 48 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“ps2 is a solid consideration for peak gaming”
“the sheer number of titles made for it”
“2001 for the PS2 was one of the greatest years in gaming history.”
“PS2 was peak Sony for sure”
“Consoles also had performance advantages up to PS2.”
“Sony managed to bring its price all the way down to $99.”
“how "good enough" the PS2 graphics were, and how big of a deal that was”
“second best system behind PS2 in my mind”
“Worked on my fat ps2 just fine”
“shipped with completely out-of-spec garbage floating point hardware”
“I'm still perfectly happy with my solo racing games on PS2”
“that was only because eventually I could get PS2 Linux, with official access to the hardware”
“at launch they were your best value”
“I legit got my old PlayStation 2 back up and running so I wouldn't deal with this”
“the reason the PS2 is having a resurgence in popularity”
“The PS2 felt like a great consumer-focused value.”
“Incredible games on bespoke custom harware.”
“the one that Sony sabotaged and removed an advertised feature, of OtherOS?”
“I would be having a little panic attack if I had to go back to working on PS2 only code”
“our games run directly from a network share (the slim PS2 has ethernet built-in”
“These consoles are extremely reliable other than the DVD/CD drive.”
“the DVD player functionality was HUGE”
“But the PS2 had a better customer feature set.”
“the PS2 was the weakest console of its generation in most respects save for its unique data streaming capabilities”
“The jump in graphics was massive.”
“it was outsold by Xbox and PS2”
“it was like the same price (close enough) as a regular Sony DVD player, which was nuts”
“the PS2's limitations where instrumental to it's success”
“My all time favorite console. I keep coming back to it.”
“Powerful. Complicated to use. But, not complicated to specify.”
“it was a dreadful, useless computer, even then”
“the PS2's physical profile in comparison was perfect”
“PS2 floating-point behavior is one of the few hardware misfeatures so awful it affects emulation of competing systems”
“nothing like the nightmarish complexity of the PS2”
“people would assume it was intended to be a competitor to the PS2”
“stationary gaming consoles have been held back by slow (optical) storage”
“The PS2 FPU has weirdness around NaN, Infinity”
“the PS2 is an iconic member of any living room TV setup”
“it was that good for the price point”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.