This is some funny stuff.
FF, MGS, and GT did not make the PS2 successful, SingStar, Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, and sandbox-style 3rd person violence sagas did.
But the real keys to the kingdom are actually held by EA, and have been for nearly two decades. As goes EA, so goes the console war, and this has been the case since the days of the Sega Genesis. EA's M.O. is giving their franchises a facelift and re-releasing the same IP every year with a few tweaks and bilking $50 a pop per title from casual gamers.
That's how you build a franchise and laugh all the way to the bank in doing it (while likely determining the outcome of a consoles' launch in the process).
EA abandoned the N64 after a few years and doomed the GC when they were forced to finally reconsider their product strategies with the PS2s launch, because they were staring down the very real threat of getting buried by 1st party studios on both consoles: 989 @ Sony and the groundbreaking 2K Sports @ Sega.
Madden 2001 was most observers' 'eureka moment' in viewing the PS2, so the real catalyst in the PS2's smashing success, which started really from the day it launched, was not FF, MGS, or GT, it was the fact that Madden, FIFA, Nascar, Tiger Woods, SSX, Need for Speed ... etc, etc ... all became PS2 exclusives by default.
Sony + EA + no competition = winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Things are substantially different this time around.
