[ac2u]

I believe the PS2 marketing hype was further bolstered by great initial sales in Japan, because it was a reasonably priced DVD movie player.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps2-primarily-used-as-dvd-...

[perardi]

Oh I so remember that, and can even find mainstream media articles to back that up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/26/technology/playstation-2-...

Same thing with the PS3—it was a lot of bang-for-the-buck for Blu-rays when it debuted. (Not that Blu-ray took the world by storm like DVDs, but still.)

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/4/20992215/playstation-3-ps...