The PS2/GameCube/Xbox era is over 20 years old and we feel ancient

The year is 2002. It’s a Saturday morning, and you’re sat on the floor right in front of the TV playing Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex on your PS2. Your friends are coming over later to hang out and eat pizza. Life is simple. Life is good.

I hate to tell you this, reader, but that was 21 years ago. Two decades have passed since those nostalgic times, where we could get lost in our favourite games without a care in the world. We’re old, reader. I can feel my bones crumbling to dust.

Take a look at some of our favourite PS2 games below.

This is a shocking realisation that gamers on Reddit have been coming to terms with this week, after user TheUndeadGunslinger hit us all with a reality check: “Just a friendly reminder that the sixth gen consoles are over 20 years old and are now retro.”

In the world of video games, the ‘sixth generation’ refers to the era in which the Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube and original Xbox were released - four iconic consoles which truly shaped a generation of gamers. They each had their own strengths, as the original Reddit poster summarised.

“The sixth gen truly was something special as each console was unique and distinct from one another[,] that gave you a legitimate reason to invest in them,” TheUndeadGunslinger wrote. “GameCube had killer first party games, Xbox was an absolute unit; both in size and power, Dreamcast was like having an arcade in your living room (I still have my copy of House of the Dead with the light gun) and the PS2 arguably has the best third party support of any console.”

Understandably, everyone is in denial that this era was so long ago: “You take that nonsense somewhere else! The PS2 came out yesterday, $5 is enough to feed two people at McDonald's, and I am not almost 40,” thetavious commented. “Impossible. 20 years ago was the 80s, always will be,” wrote ChulaK. “This reminder was not friendly,” added radarradish321.

Just to make this a bit worse, the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii were all released around 15 years ago, meaning that they're arguably retro, too. Sorry.