As far as I remember, Sony didn't really make much profit with the PS2... and what they made got quickly more than eaten up by the PS3

There is no way to differentiate PS2 profits from PS1/PSP/PS3/PSV/PS4 profits/loss. It's literally impossible to say how profitable PS2 was as a system because the R&D, Production costs and sales of all the other consoles are lumped together in financials.

This is not something that can ever be compared. Nintendo as a company right now is more profitable than Sony's gaming division ever was, but looking at profits of an individual console is impossible and seems like a silly detour of the topic at hand.

What you can do however is looking at the profits of Sony's gaming division when the PS2 was their main console, and it didn't really look so great at the time.

Nintendo's operating profit was terrible during the 3DS period, FY2012-FY2016 overall they lost money. Sony made money in that period. Vita more profitable than 3DS.

I did say in my post "Nintendo as a company right now is more profitable than Sony's gaming division ever was". You can say Nintendo is performing better now than Sony did during the lifetime of the PS2, but that is not a comparison of PS2 vs Switch profits adjusted for inflation as was asked for, and it would be silly to attempt such a comparison.

PS3 started development in 2001, and we all know what a financial train wreck that was. They probably spent a lot of money developing the cell processor dragging the profits of the gaming division down even before it released in 2006. There is no way to say how much profit the PS2 as a platform on it's own made.

Nothing but the truth right here! The previous greatest selling gaming machine was actually the DS.

Nah everyone bought the DS for Pictochat.

The DS sold 949m games, the PS2 sold 1537m games. But people bought the PS2 just to watch DVD's and the DS is the best selling gaming machine. I despair.

PS2 had nothing even similar to phones, tablets and good portable PCs (all at the same time) to compete against. Yes, PS2 was impressive, but there is no denying that many of the buyers thought: I either buy a gaming machine AND a separate DVD player, OR I buy just this and use it for both. I myself had at least about 10 friends that said exactly that to me at the time.

You quoted someone who said 20-30m bought the PS2 who weren't even interested in gaming and saying it was 100% facts. Now you are saying they were interested in gaming but wanted a DVD player too.

It's incredibly sad to attempt to discount the incredible achievement of the PS2 in this way and at the same time opens the door for all other kinds of BS debates. I had an Aunt that only used the Wii for Netflix and Exercise. Not a gaming machine PS3/360 beat the Wii. It's silly. The PS2 sold far more games than the DS, it's a gaming machine.

I increasingly understand the people on this site that only stick to like one thread and why this forum is almost dead the more times I have to read things like this. If this line of discussion was on one of the more popular forums it would be devoured by ravenous hordes in minutes and most likely a thread about it would be locked.

That's fair! I did do that out of impulse, but I honestly thought it was obvious that Dulfite's post was an exaggeration to make a point and for a giggle out of the people who get Buuthurtt with such an argument. Of course people would want to make use of the PS2 to play games. The fact it would be cheaper to buy it than a combo of two devices is what moved many people who would not have bought it otherwise.

Honestly Zippy is right, Im a Nintendo fan as well but there is no reason to be this hurt over PS2's astounding success. It clearly wasn't just a DVD player or else it wouldn't have moved as much software as it did. We do realize PS2 sold not that much less software than Wii and DS combined? Wii and DS moved what, 1.9 billion games combined? PS2 moved around 300 million less, thats one individual platform with far less of a userbase. It's really not that big of a deal to recognize the astounding success the PS2 was, as a Nintendo fan im not sure how I can't label the PS2 as the most successful gaming console in history. It has to me the best combination of achievements, highest in harware sales, second highest in software (which it just lost to PS4), and certainly a very profitable platform. Obviously Wii, DS, and PS4 all have their own accolades to boast but I think PS2 is the current Goat.
With that being said, there is a new threat. This is why there is no need to be so hurt about PS2's success because Switch is slowly making its way up. Switch has potential to sale more hardware and software and is likely the most profitable individual platform in history. No need to downplay PS2 because it has a threat within striking distance. Switch's software sales don't even include digital only games and its already 1.2 billion. The hardware is just short of 140 million without 2024 and beyond.