(プレイステーション2, Pureisutēshon Tsū?, abbreviated "PS2") is Sony's second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. Its development was announced in March 1999, and it was released subsequently after a year in Japan. Released little more than a year after the Sega Dreamcast and a year before its main competitors Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, the PS2 is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles. As of March 2007, 117.89 million PS2 units has been shipped worldwide.[2]