PS2's startup screen Easter egg is surprising players all over again

Gaming fans who were in the hobby in the early 2000s are having their mind blown now that an Easter egg from the PS2 startup screen is making the rounds on social media.

If you remember the PS2 boot screen from back in the day (or you're an old-school type who still keeps old consoles at the ready), you might recall that a number of towers appear under the "Sony Computer Entertainment" text when you start the console. The number of those towers is determined by how many games you've played, and their height is determined by how much you've played of them.

According to community researchers at The Cutting Room Floor, a wiki "dedicated to unearthing and researching unused and cut content from video games," the towers actually appear based on each game you've booted, and increase in size based on the number of times you've started a given title. Only a certain number of towers can be displayed, however, and the towers representing the games you've gone the longest without playing will start disappearing once you hit the limit.

If you're looking for some classics to enjoy, check out our list of the best PS2 games.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.