History of the PlayStation

History of the PlayStation

Nintendo had originally requested for Sony to develop a CD add on for the SNES. It would have been known as the SNES-CD and was going to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show.

Nintendo realised that in the original contract Sony would have has complete control over the technology and secretly cancelled the plans. And so Sony developed a console from the existing technology, called the PlayStation. The two companies originally reached a deal where the PlayStation would be able to port SNES games but Nintendo would own the rights and receive most of the profits from the games. The SNES would continue to use the Sony designed audio chip. Sony began to rework the PlayStation concept to target a new generation of hardware and software and the SNES port was removed.

PlayStation 2

The console came out in 2000 and is the most successful video game console of all time. It has sold over 150 million units as of 2011. The consoles development was announced in March 1999 and it was released on March 4 2000 in Japan. It's main competitors were Sega's Dreamcast, Xbox and the GameCube. Directly after it's release it was difficult to find a PS2 in stores due to manufacturing delays. Many people purchased the console online through eBay and one person even paid over one thousand dollars for one.  One of the consoles main strengths is its backwards compatibility. 

PlayStation 3

The third home video game console produced by Sony. The PS3 competes with the Xbox 360 and the Wii as part of the seventh generation of game consoles. It was released in Japan on November 11 in 2006 and his the international markets shortly after that. The console features an online gaming service known as the PlayStation Network and has multimedia capabilities. It can connect to the PlayStation Portable and can use the Blu-ray Disc as a primary storage medium.

The console was officially unveiled at the E3 2005 conference along with a 'boomerang' shaped prototype of the Sixaxis controller. Although an actual working console was not present at E3 or Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, demonstrations were available at both events on software development kits and comparable PC hardware. Video footage based on the predicted PS3 specifications were also shown, the most notable being the Final Fantasy VII tech demo.)

The prototype shown in May 2005 had two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports. However when the system was shown again a year later at E3 these were reduced to one HDMI port, one Ethernet port and four USB ports. This may have been to cut costs.

PSP

The PlayStation Portables development was announced at E3 2003 and was finally unveiled on May 11 2004 at the Sony press conference  before E3 2004. The system was released in Japan on December 2004. The PSP is the only handheld console to use an optical disc format. The console also had a large viewing screen and multi-media capabilities. It also has connectivity with the PlayStation 2 and 3, other PSPs and the Internet. The sales quadrupled in the week following the release of a slimmer remodelled version of the PSP.

PlayStation Vita

The Vita is the successor to the PlayStation Portable and was released in Japan on December 11 2011. The console has two analog sticks, a 5 inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen and ssupports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and optional 3G.