PlayStation

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This article is about the "Sony PlayStation" brand. For the fifth-generation console, see PlayStation (console). For other uses, see PlayStation (disambiguation).

PlayStation

Type	Video game console Handheld game console
Owner	Sony Computer Entertainment
Country	Minami-Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Introduced	1994
Markets	Worldwide
Registered as a trademark in	Worldwide
Website	Japan United States Europe Canada

The PlayStation (プレイステーション Pureisutēshon^?, officially abbreviated PS) brand is a series of video game consoles created and developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. Spanning the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of video gaming, the brand was first introduced on December 3, 1994 in Japan.^[1] The brand consists of a total of three consoles, a media center, an online service, a line of controllers and a handheld as well as multiple magazines.
The first console in the series, the PlayStation, was the first video game console to ship 100 million units after 9 years and 6 months of its initial launch.^[2] While its successor, PlayStation 2, is the best-selling console to date having reached over 150 million units sold as of January 31, 2011.^[3] Sony's current console, PlayStation 3, has sold over 50 million consoles worldwide as of March 29, 2011.^[4] The first handheld game console in the PlayStation series, PlayStation Portable (PSP), has sold a total of 67.8 million units worldwide as of February 25, 2011.^[5] The PlayStation Vita, an upcoming handheld being developed by Sony as a successor to the PlayStation Portable, it is set to be released in the fourth quarter of 2011 in the US.
Other hardware released as part of the PlayStation series include the PSX, a digital video recorder which was integrated with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, though it was short lived due to its high price and was never released outside of Japan as well as a Sony Bravia television set which has a PlayStation 2 integrated. The main series of controllers utilized by the PlayStation series is the DualShock which is a line of vibration-feedback gamepad having sold 28 million controllers as on June 28, 2008.^[6]
The PlayStation Network is an online service with over 69 million users worldwide (as of January 25, 2011).^[7] It comprises an online virtual market, the PlayStation Store, which allows the purchase and download of games and various forms of multimedia, a subscription-based online service known as PlayStation Plus and a social gaming networking service called PlayStation Home, which has over 14 million users worldwide.^[8] PlayStation Suite is an upcoming software framework that is aimed to provide PlayStation content cross-platform and cross-devices, currently only Android and the PlayStation Vita devices are supported. Content set to be released under the framework consist of only original PlayStation games currently.^[9]
Current generation PlayStation products also use the XrossMediaBar which is an award winning graphical user interface.^[10] A new touchscreen-based user interface called LiveArea is being designed for the PlayStation Vita, which integrates social networking elements into the interface. Additionally, PlayStation 2 and original PlayStation 3 consoles also featured support for Linux-based Operating Systems, though this has since been discontinued. The series has also been known for its numerous marketing campaigns, such as the It Only Does Everything commercials in the United States.
The series also has a strong lineup of first-party titles due to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, a group of fifteen first-party developers owned by Sony Computer Entertainment which are dedicated to developing first party games for the series. In addition the series also features various budget re-releases of titles by Sony with different names for each region; these include the Greatest Hits, Platinum and The Best ranges of titles.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Origins
  • 1.2 Formation of Sony Computer Entertainment
• 2 Consoles
  • 2.1 PlayStation
    • 2.1.1 PS One
  • 2.2 PlayStation 2
    • 2.2.1 Slimline Model
  • 2.3 PlayStation 3
    • 2.3.1 Redesigned Model
  • 2.4 Comparison
• 3 Handheld systems
  • 3.1 PlayStation Portable
    • 3.1.1 2000 and 3000 models
    • 3.1.2 PSP Go model
  • 3.2 PlayStation Vita
• 4 Other Hardware
  • 4.1 PSX
  • 4.2 PocketStation
  • 4.3 Television Sets
  • 4.4 Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
• 5 Games
  • 5.1 First Party Games
  • 5.2 Re-releases
• 6 Online Services
  • 6.1 PlayStation Network
    • 6.1.1 PlayStation Store
    • 6.1.2 Life with PlayStation
    • 6.1.3 PlayStation Plus
    • 6.1.4 PlayStation Blog
    • 6.1.5 PlayStation App
  • 6.2 PlayStation Suite
  • 6.3 Online social networking services
    • 6.3.1 PlayStation Home
    • 6.3.2 Room for PlayStation Portable
• 7 Software
  • 7.1 XrossMediaBar
  • 7.2 LiveArea
  • 7.3 Linux operating systems
    • 7.3.1 Linux for PlayStation 2
    • 7.3.2 Linux for PlayStation 3
• 8 Controllers
  • 8.1 Early PlayStation controllers
  • 8.2 DualShock series and Sixaxis
  • 8.3 PlayStation Move
• 9 Media
  • 9.1 Magazines
  • 9.2 CD ROM Magazine
• 10 Marketing
  • 10.1 Slogans
  • 10.2 Notable advertising campaigns
    • 10.2.1 It Only Does Everything
    • 10.2.2 Netherlands Ceramic White PSP Commercials
    • 10.2.3 All I want for Xmas is a PSP
• 11 Reception
• 12 See also
• 13 References
• 14 External links

History

History

[edit] Origins

PlayStation was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who had just come out of his hardware engineering division at that time and would later be dubbed as "The Father of the PlayStation".^[11][12]
The console's origins date back to 1986 where it was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-ROM for the Super Famicom/SNES console.^[13]
The PlayStation made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991 when Sony revealed its console, a Super Famicom/SNES with a built-in CD-ROM drive (that incorporated Green Book technology or CDi). However, a day after the announcement at CES, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead but using the same technology.^[14]
The deal was broken by Nintendo after they were unable to come to an agreement on how revenue would be split between the two companies.
The breaking of the partnership infuriated Sony President Norio Ohga, who responded by appointing Kutaragi with the responsibility of developing of the PlayStation project to rival Nintendo.^[14]
At that time, negotiations were still on-going between Nintendo and Sony, with Nintendo offering Sony a "non-gaming role" regarding their new partnership with Philips. This proposal was swiftly rejected by Kutaragi who was facing increasing criticism over his work with regard to entering the video game industry from within Sony. Negotiations officially ended in May 1992 and in order to decide the fate of the PlayStation project, a meeting was held in June 1992, consisting of Sony President Ohga, PlayStation Head Kutaragi and several senior members of Sony's board. At the meeting, Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been working on which involved playing video games with 3D graphics to the board. Eventually, Sony President Ohga decided to retain the project after being reminded by Kutaragi of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo. Nevertheless, due to strong opposition from a majority present at the meeting as well as widespread internal opposition to the project by the older generation of Sony executives, Kutaragi and his team had to be shifted from Sony's headquarters to Sony Music, a completely separate financial entity owned by Sony, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project (which helped lead to the creation of the DVD).^[14]

[edit] Formation of Sony Computer Entertainment

At Sony Music, Kutaragi worked closely with Shigeo Maruyama, the CEO of Sony Music, and with Akira Sato to form Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (SCEI) in November 1993.^[15] A building block of SCEI was its initial partnership with Sony Music which helped SCEI attract creative talent to the company as well as assist SCEI in manufacturing, marketing and producing discs, something that Sony Music had been doing with Music Discs. The final two key members of SCEI were Terry Tokunaka, the President of SCEI from Sony's headquarters, and Olaf Olafsson. Olafsson was CEO and president of New York based Sony Interactive Entertainment which was the mother company for the 1994-founded Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA).
The PlayStation project, SCEI's first official project, was finally given the green light by Sony executives in 1993 after a few years of development. Also in 1993, Phil Harrison, who would later become President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, was recruited into SCEI to attract developers and publishers to produce games for their new PlayStation platform.^[14]
After a demonstration of Sony's distribution plan as well as tech demos of its new console to game publishers and developers in a hotel in Tokyo in 1994, numerous developers began to approach PlayStation. Two of whom later became major partners were Electronic Arts in the West and Namco in Japan. One of the factors which attracted developers to the platform was the use of a 3D-capable, CD-ROM-based console which was much cheaper and easier to manufacture for in comparison to rival consoles from Sega and Nintendo which used cartridge systems. The project eventually hit Japanese stores in October 1994 and gained massive sales due to its lower price point than its competitor, the Sega Saturn. Popularity of the console spread after its release worldwide in North America and Europe.

Games

Main articles: List of PlayStation 1 games, List of PlayStation 2 games, List of PlayStation 3 games, List of games compatible with PlayStation Move, List of PlayStation Portable games, List of Next Generation Portable games, and List of PlayStation Store games

Each console has a variety of games. Most games released on the original PlayStation are backwards compatible and can be played directly on its successors, the PlayStation 2, PSX and PlayStation 3. Some of these games can also be played on the PlayStation Portable but they must be purchased and downloaded from a list of PSOne Classics from the PlayStation Store. Games released on the PlayStation 2 can currently only be played on the original console as well as the PSX and the early models of the PlayStation 3 which are backwards compatible. The PlayStation 3 has two types of games, those released on Blu-ray Discs and downloadable games from the PlayStation Store. The PlayStation Portable consists of numerous games available on both its physical media, the Universal Media Disc and the Digital Download from the PlayStation Store. However, some games are only available on the UMD while others are only available on the PlayStation Store. The Next Generation Portable will consist of games available on both its physical media, the NVG Card and Digital Download from the PlayStation Store.

[edit] First Party Games

Main article: Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios

Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios is a group of video game developers owned by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is dedicated to developing video games exclusively for the PlayStation series of consoles. The series has produced several best-selling franchises such as the Gran Turismo series of racing video games as well as critically acclaimed titles such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Other notable franchises include Ape Escape, God of War, Twisted Metal and more recently, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm and Resistance.

[edit] Re-releases

Main articles: Greatest Hits, Platinum Range, The Best range, PSone Classics, Classics HD, and PlayStation Suite

Greatest Hits (North America), Platinum Range (PAL territories) and The Best (Japan and Asia) are video games for the Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable consoles that have been officially re-released at a lower price by Sony. Each region has its own qualifications to enter the re-release program. Initially, during the PlayStation era, a game had to sell at least 150,000 copies (later 250,000)^[69] and be on the market for at least a year^[70] to enter the Greatest Hits range. During the PlayStation 2 era, the requirements increased with the minimum number of copies sold increasing to 400,000 and the game had to be on the market for at least 9 months.^[69] For the PlayStation Portable, games had to be on the market for at least 9 months with 250,000 copies or more sold.^[71] Currently, a PlayStation 3 game must be on the market for 10 months and sell at least 500,000 copies to meet the Greatest Hits criteria.^[72] PSone Classics were games that were released originally on the PlayStation and have been re-released on the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Classics HD are compilations of PlayStation 2 games that have been remastered for the PlayStation 3 on a single disc with additional features such as upscaled graphics, PlayStation Move support, 3D support and PlayStation Network trophies. PlayStation Suite is a cross-platform, cross-device software framework aimed at providing PlayStation content, currently original PlayStation games, across several devices including PlayStation Certified Android devices as well as the PlayStation Vita.