PlayStation

(work in progress)

About

PlayStation is a series of video game consoles produced by Sony beginning in 1994. Online, fans of the console have fiercely defended it versus competitors like the Xbox as well as Nintendo’s releases.

History

The first PlayStation console^[1] (shown below, left) was released on December 3rd, 1994 in Japan and September 9th, 1995 in the United States. It is considered a fifth-generation^[2] console, with its major competitors of the time period being the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64. Within the first year, more than 100 titles were released, helping Sony sell more than 10 million PlayStations by 1998.^[3] The system was later rebranded as the PlayStation 1 after a slimmer redesign and launch of the PlayStation 2^[4] (shown below, right) in 2000. As of January 2011, the PlayStation 2 became the world’s best-selling home gaming console of all time^[5], selling more than 150 million units. The console was discontinued in January 2013.^[6]

In November 2006, the PlayStation 3^[7] (shown below, left) was released, considered a seventh-generation console. The system has been redesigned twice as of February 2013 and many versions are backwards-compatible with PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles. There have also been two handheld PlayStation systems: 2005’s PlayStation Portable (PSP, shown below, center) and 2011’s PlayStation Vita (shown below, right).

On February 20th, 2013, the PlayStation 4^[8] was announced at the PlayStation Meeting 2013 press conference. No official release date was set, but Sony President and CEO Andrew House noted it would be out by the fourth quarter of the year. While the console was not actually displayed at the conference, it was noted that the system would feature cloud support, connectivity with smartphones and a new controller featuring a touchpad and Share button that will allow users to record their gameplay.^[9]

Reception

PS4 Announcement

The day of the PlayStation Meeting 2013 press conference, “PlayStation 4” was mentioned on Twitter more than 402,000 times.^[10] The next morning, New York Times^[11] chronicled some tweets from journalists, analysts and gamers about the conference, noting that many people complained about the lack of an actual PS4, pricing or release date.