The Playstation was the invention of Sony executive Ken Kutaragi. Take note that he has been referred to as the The Father of the Playstation and with good reason. Essentially, the origin of the console was in 1986. Originally, it was a project between Sony and Nintendo wherein they had a goal to make a CD-ROM for the SNES Super Famicom console. Later on, the product debuted at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show via the Super Famicom/SNES console which comes built with a CD-ROM drive. Unfortunately, a day after the CES announcement, Nintendo claimed that it is breaking off with Sony and is going with Philips and utilizing similar technology. It has been said that the deal was broken off because Nintendo and Sony were not able to agree on how to split their revenue. The split caused then Sony President Norio Ohga to appoint Kutaragi as responsible for the development of the Playstation with the aim of rivaling any similar product from Nintendo. Kutaragi then worked with Sony Music CEO Shigeo Maruyama as well as with Akira Sato, Eventually, on November 1993 they formed Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony Music assisted SCEI in attracting creative talents as well as help in the marketing, manufacture and production of discs. Later on, the first official Playstation project was green lighted in 1993 by Sony Executives. Then, in 1993, a man named Phil Harrison was tasked to attract publishers and developers to create games for the new platform of the PlayStation. In 1994, Sony’s distribution plan was demonstrated to numerous developers and game publishers in Tokyo. After which, developers started to approach Playstation. One of the major reasons why developers were attracted to the Playstation platform was because it used a CD-ROM 3D-capable console which was easier and cheaper to make compared to the consoles developed and used by Nintendo and Sega in their cartridge systems. The Playstation project was made available in October 1994 and was a big hit in Japanese stores because of its low cost. The console’s popularity eventually spread in Europe and North America. It was on December 1994 when the original Playstation was seen. It was the first ever console and hand-held gaming device to be released by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. It also included upgrades and successor consoles such as the black Playstation called the Net Yaroze. Later on, PSone was released and had a smaller size compared to the original. PocketStation is a Playstation handheld game which similarly functions as a memory card. It is part of the video game 5th generation console which competed against the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn. All in all, PSone and Playstation shipped as much as 102.49 million units and has thus become the first game console which sold a hundred million units. It was on July 2000 when the PSone was released and was relatively smaller compared to its successor – Playstation 2. Essentially, the PSone was a redesigned Playstation original video game console. It was the PSone which outsold all the other consoles as well as its successor. The two major changes was its cosmetic modification and the menu’s GUI or graphical user interface. The Playstation 2 was released in 2000 – a year prior to the release of the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox. Playstation 2 is among the 6th generation console and is considered as backwards-compatible with numerous Playstation games. Similar to its predecessor, its design is slimmer and was released already built inside the PSX DVR. It is considered as the world’s most successful console. The Playstation 2 Slimline was released back in 2004. It was released 4 years after the original Playstation 2′s launch. The Slimline is a lot thinner, smaller and more quiet than its predecessor. It also has a built-in Ethernet port. Sony later on shipped a revised version of the Slimline that is lighter back in 2007. A year later, Sony released a new revised version and overhauled its internal design while incorporating into the console the power supply thereby reducing its weight further. Meanwhile, the Playstation 3 was released on November 2006 and is considered as the third iteration in the Playstation game console series. It actively competes with the Wii and Xbox 360. It is the first ever console among the series to utilize motion control in games with the use of the Wireless SIXAXIS Controller as well as other features: the Blu-ray Disc and full HD graphics resolution.
The PS3 arrives in 20GB to as much as 320 GB and there are many PS3 repair ebooks and guides available for users to consult. It is also slimmer. As of December 2010, Playstation 3 has sold more than 40 million units all over the world. Other released hardware which are part of the PS series include the PSX. This was a DVR or digital video recorder which was later on integrated with the Playstation 2 and Playstation. However, this was short lived because of its high cost. It was also not released beyond Japan. Currently, the Playstation Network is a service available online which has more than 60 million users all over the world. It is a virtual Playstation store and one which allows anyone and everyone to download or purchase games and various multimedia forms. Playstation Plus is an online subscription-based service and Playstation Home is a networking social gaming service which now has more than 14 million users all over the world. An upcoming software is the Playstation Suite that is targeted to offer PlayStation cross-platform content as well as cross devices. Playstation current generation products similarly use the award-winning XrossMediaBar graphical user interface. Sony is designing a touchscreen user based interface referred to as LiveArea specifically for the Playstation Vita and it has also dealt with some previous PS3 overheating issues in this model. It aims to combine elements of social networking within the interface. The top Playstation video games which have shipped or sold a minimum of five million copies include Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy VII, Gran Turismo 2 and Tomb Raider II. Meanwhile, the top Playstation 2 video games which have shipped or sold a minimum of five million copies include Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, Gran Turismo 4, Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Advantage #1: Less Strain