History Of PlayStation

December 3rd marks the 30th anniversary of the PlayStation consoles. Since the PS1, which was released in 1994, we have seen major improvements to the consoles. To celebrate this iconic day, let’s take a trip back in time and check out the history of PlayStation, how it began as a simple concept and transformed into a billionaire company that is still going strong today.

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To begin, let’s look at how PlayStation came about…

1984 - Ken Kutaragi, eventually known as ‘the Father Of PlayStation’ had a plan to change the future of video gaming. He noticed poor sound quality from the Nintendo NES System and created a powerful sound chip for the Nintendo consoles to improve its audio. From there, he ignited an interest in console gaming developing and set off with creating his own, rival creation called PlayStation.

1993 – Tech computer business Sony Computer Entertainment (who went as Sony) announced they were partnering with PlayStation and entering the gaming console market. They had high hopes for the new console company and wanted to support them through developments.

 

When did PlayStation 1 come out?

1994 – 10 years after the idea was born, Kutaragi founded PlayStation and created his first-ever console, the PlayStation 1. It originally only came out in Japan, where Kutaragi was born, to test how the console landed amongst gamers. Immediately, the console surged in sales.  

 

1995 – After its success the year before, the PlayStation 1 was released worldwide.

 

2000 – The 2000s saw mass console releases from PlayStation whilst their popularity was growing, and console gaming was getting more and more well-known. They released the PS One, a redesigned model of their original console, it offered the same features as the previous model, just in a smaller form. (Similar to the modern Slim consoles.)

The PlayStation 2 was released this year also, 1 month after the PS One released. The PS2 is still considered to be the best-selling PlayStation console of all time selling over 155 million units. It adopted a new box-like design, a shape that PlayStation held onto and used in all their future product releases.

 

2002-An attachable screen for the PS One was released. It meant people could game on a smaller screen instead of being reliant on a television or monitor. It truly was the start of portable gaming.

2004-The PS2 Slim released an impressive upgrade in terms of performance, efficiency and design. The Slim model was such a success, it's been included in every PlayStation series release since. The key difference between this console and the other models, as its name states is that it was slimmer!

 

2005 – PlayStation hit a milestone in 2005, becoming the first gaming company to hit over 100 million unit shipments and releasing their first ever portable console, the PlayStation Portable. With this PlayStation Portable, users can play games, watch movies and even listen to music through the device.

 

2006 – The PlayStation 3 was released, a massive step up from the PS2 with online features, multiplayer online, digital downloads, backwards compatibility, Blu-ray support and the ability to watch movies from the console. The PS3 certainly stepped up the game when it came to console development, and in our opinion, it should be considered one of the most influential gaming consoles in history.

 

2009 – Production started to slow for the PlayStation consoles, and numerous consoles were no longer released yearly. Instead, PlayStation waited a couple of years until they announced their new model, the PS3 Slim. This dropped 33% of the size and weight of the previous model. Its cooling system was redesigned to save space however it didn’t perform well for fans, because backward compatibility wasn’t available for this version, so people did not want to splash out on the new tech.

 

2012 – A few years later we saw the PlayStation Vita release, the second portable console released by Sony in 7 years. It was the most advanced portable system at the time, offering remote play so people could stream their PlayStation games to the console from anywhere in the house.

The PS3 Super Slim then hit stores, with features exactly like the PS3 console just in a slim form. With people being so upset about the previous PS3 Slim model, it was clear PlayStation wanted to uphold its reputation and keep its fans happy.

 

2013 – The following year, the most iconic and well-known console from PlayStation launched, the PS4. Its internal software was 5x faster than the PS3, there was improvement in the visual quality and the hard drive could be swapped inside the console. A new controller was also released, the PS4 DualShock Controller which offered a better design with better comfort for long-play gaming.

2016 – After the PS4, Sony focused more on developing improved consoles with genuine better quality over getting new consoles released. We saw the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro release this year. The Pro model was the first the company had ever released. It has 4K support, upscale technology, GPU power and was sharper in terms of visual quality.

 

2020 – The most recent PlayStation console, the PS5, was released. It is currently the most powerful console from the company with 120FPS, 4K output and USB-C charging. Another controller was released also the PS5 Dual Sense Controller, which has adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.

 

2023- PS5 Slim released, the same as the previous models a slimmer version of its original console.

 

2024- Finally, in the modern day we saw the PS5 Pro release, the second Pro model from Sony. It has higher frame rates, improved ray tracing and more.

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Other PlayStation releases:

• PSVR – 2016
• PS5 Access Controller – 2023
• PS5 Portable - 2023
• PSVR 2 – 2023
• PS5 30th Anniversary Console – 2024

Conclusion:

There is still some dispute over when the PS6 console will be released. It has been confirmed it is on its way, however, we may not even see an announcement until about 2026-2030. With it being 4 years since the PS5 was released, we cannot wait to see what the new model will bring. And we hope it doesn’t take long.