Hepburn: Pureisutshon, formally abbreviated as PS) is a video game company with a number of products, including five home consoles, two handhelds, a media center, a mobile phone, as well as a web service, and a number of periodicals. PlayStation was founded in Japan in 1994.
First introduced in Japan in December 1994 and then internationally in 1995, Sony’s PlayStation brand is a subsidiary of Sony’s entertainment company, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE).
Origin
The first console in the series sold over 100 million copies in less than a decade, making it the first of its kind. PlayStation 2 (PS2) was introduced in 2000 as the successor to PlayStation. In 2012, the PlayStation 2 was the best-selling home system ever, with 155 million units sold worldwide.
Since its debut in 2006, Sony’s PlayStation 3 has sold more than 87.5 million copies. PlayStation 4 sold a million copies in one day when it was launched in 2013, making it the fastest-selling system ever.
The PlayStation 5 was launched in 2020 as the series‘ most recent system. Since its release in November 2013, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) has sold an estimated 80 million copies.
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Since its release in Japan in December 2011 and throughout the majority of the main markets a year later, the PlayStation Vita has sold over four million copies. A micro-console and non-portable version of the PlayStation Vita handheld gaming console, PlayStation TV is the PlayStation Vita.
Additionally, Sony has produced the PSX, which was a digital video recorder that was integrated with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 but was short-lived owing to its expensive price and was never distributed outside Japan, and a Sony Bravia television set that has an integrated PlayStation 2 built-in.
Sony’s PlayStation series uses the DualShock, a vibration-feedback gamepad that had sold 28 million controllers by June 2008, as its primary controller.
History
Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who led one of the company’s hardware engineering groups, created PlayStation. Sony had limited direct engagement with video games until 1991. Sony Imagesoft ran a video game studio and contributed components for other systems, such as the sound chip for Nintendo’s Super Famicom.
In 1988, Nintendo and Sony collaborated on a CD-ROM version of the Super Famicom, yet Nintendo denied the Sony arrangement until March 1991. Sony unveiled the “Play Station” Super Famicom at the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (also known as SNES-CD).
A day after the CES announcement, Nintendo stated it was ending its collaboration with Sony and replacing it with Philips, albeit employing the same technology. Nintendo broke the partnership because they couldn’t agree on how the money would be distributed between the two firms.
Sony President Norio Ohga was enraged and assigned Kutaragi the task of building the PlayStation project to compete with Nintendo. The only known “PlayStation” prototype, a Super NES with a built-in CD-ROM drive
After the negotiations finished in May 1992, a meeting of Sony President Ohga, PlayStation Head Kutaragi, and top Sony board members was convened in June 1992. Kutaragi showed the board a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been working on that played video games with 3D graphics.
After being reminded by Kutaragi of his humiliation by Nintendo, Sony President Ohga opted to keep the project.
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To keep the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project, Kutaragi and his team had to relocate from Sony’s headquarters to Sony Music, a completely separate financial entity owned by Sony.
Playstation
The first PlayStation system and handheld gaming device were introduced in Japan on December 3, 1994.
In addition to the Net Yaroze (a special black PlayStation with tools and instructions to create PS games), the “PS one” (a smaller version of the original) and the PocketStation have been released (a handheld which enhances PlayStation games and also acts as a memory card).
It competed with the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64 in the fifth generation of video game systems.
The PlayStation and PS one sold 102.49 million copies by December 2003, becoming the first video game system to reach 120 million units.
Playstation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game system that was released in 2000 and is backward compatible with most original PlayStation titles. It was released 15 months after the Dreamcast and a year before its rivals, the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube.
It has gained a thinner design, like that of its predecessor. As of December 28, 2012, it has sold over 155 million copies, making it the most popular console in the world.
Playstation 3
The “Super Slim” PlayStation 3 was unveiled by Sony in 2012. The new console weighs 4.3 pounds, which is nearly three pounds less than the previous “thin” model, thanks to a sliding door that covers the disc drive.
In addition to the 12GB of flash memory, the console has either a 250 or 500GB hard drive. There are a number of packages available that contain both a Super Slim PS3 and a selection of games.
Playstation 4 Pro
The PlayStation 4 Pro, often known as the PS4 Pro, was launched on September 7th, 2016, under the codename Neo. The CUH-7000 is the model number for it. PlayStation 4 Pro comes with a 4.2 teraflop GPU and a faster CPU than the PlayStation 4 model it is replacing.
PlayStation VR will benefit from the higher resolution, as well as the enhanced quality of certain titles that are compatible with it. All PS4 and PS4 Pro games are backward and forwards compatible, although optimized titles will run better on PS4 Pro.
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PS4 Pro can stream 4K content via the internet, however, it does not allow Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback.
Only the PS4 Pro is capable of remote play at 1080p on the PS4. The resolution on the other variants is capped at 720p.
Playstation 5
The user interface of the PlayStation 5 has been totally redesigned. Playing PS4 and PSVR games on the forthcoming PS5 should be a smooth transition, according to the console’s creator, Naughty Dog CEO Michael Cerny.
A subsequent interview with Jim Ryan revealed that, according to his estimation based on a sample size of “thousands,” the PlayStation 5 is compatible with “99 percent” of PlayStation 4 titles. Sony released the platform’s official logo at CES 2020.