PlayStation - On this day

Most of today’s gamers grew up in the fifth generation of consoles, an era marked by the transition of video games to a three-dimensional environment. This period offered several different consoles, but arguably the biggest impact on the interactive entertainment market had a debutant among that offering. Japanese giant Sony founded its branch of Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993, and then entered the gaming console market by launching its PlayStation.

The beginnings of the console date back to the late eighties when Sony, in collaboration with Philips, began developing a CD-ROM accessory for Nintendo's Super NES console. However, that joint project failed miserably, and Sony turned to a new plan after several lawsuits with Nintendo. In 1994, the plan was realized in a home console called the PlayStation, first available in the Japanese market. A year later, the console began to conquer the American and European markets. It was on this day, exactly 26 years ago, that the PlayStation first appeared in Europe.

The great success of the Sony console can be attributed to several factors. First of all, the PlayStation was an extremely affordable device that offered gamers a whole new dimension of gaming, at a time when even PC games weren’t even in 3D. Secondly, it was a device that attracted a large number of manufacturers with its technical predispositions (primarily optical media), which resulted in a diverse and rich offer of games of all genres.

And third, something that Sony was not proud of, but in small markets, it encouraged the sale of the console - PlayStation was a popular console because of the modchip, or the ability to run pirated copies of games.

Some of the most popular games on the PlayStation platform were Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Tekken, Spyro the Dragon, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Rayman, Medal of Honor, Driver and numerous others.

At first, Sony struggled a bit with the image of the platform playing the card of seriousness, which did not attract the majority of the audience - children. In the early days, the "mascot" of the Sony console was the so-called Polygon Man (pictured below), a head that demonstrated the console’s ability to display complex 3D characters. But Polygon Man was quickly rejected due to its repulsion, and the PlayStation soon got a new face through Crash Bandicoot. 

The PlayStation was the first home console to reach 100 million units sold (102.49 million to be precise), making it a phenomenon of interactive entertainment and popular culture. The platform had a lifespan of almost ten years, with one redesign. The PlayStation One model remained on sale until 2006.

A total of 2,418 officially released games could be played on the PlayStation, the last of which was FIFA 2005. More than a hundred titles for the first PlayStation sold millions of copies. The best-selling game on the console was the original Gran Turismo.

The first PlayStation was an extremely popular console that left behind a huge legacy, one that continued in the next generation with an even more successful successor. In 2018, another edition of the PlayStation console was announced, called the PlayStation Classic, adapted for modern TVs and available with a collection of 20 games and two original controllers.