Sony have announced that they have ceased production of the Playstation/PsOne. On reading the report in my monthly games magazine I felt a sense of sadness and a glow of nostalgia. In my collection of 20 odd games consoles the PsOne really is the hero of them all, mainly because it was a console that revolutionised things and made video gaming mainstream.
The Playstation One began its life back in December 1994 in Japan and came to Europe the following year, since then it has gone on to sell massive 103 million units globally (the Atari Vcs sold around 25 million units back in the 80’s). Research showed that one in three households in the United States owned a Playstation 1. The playstation 1 can boast almost 7,750 titles, more than any other console.
But, some things never die, Sony has said its new console the PS3 will still be fully backwards compatible with all previous games and they are also releasing an official emulator for the playstation portable so we can play all those old favourites on the move!
1 comment:
I have to disagree with you to a degree though I do respect your points. Back when we were younger the Sega and Nintendo were more for kids as we played on our Amiga's and Atari ST's. Consoles weren't as versatile back then and were soon eclipsed by superior 32 bit home computers. Then when Sony didn't collaborate on projects with Nintendo and went it alone some years later things changed. Back then Sony got things right, they produced a console that appealed to all ages, looked stylish. Sony had the right marketing strategy, took certain risks that paid off - like not using the traditional cartridge format. Soon high street stores like HMV had whole walls dedicated to the Playstation and later gaming shops sprang up, console games became more affordable and for along time Sony dominated the market and saw off alot of console rivals such as the Jaguar, N64 and Saturn. Nintendo did continue to dominate the hand held market though. In retrospect and ironically I think piracy helped the Playstation more, games on cd being easier to copy. As the Sony juggernaut rolled on it gave the masses what they wanted, Tomb Raider, Fifa, Resident Evil, Siletnt Hill etc, alot that went on to become movies, though we may get bored of some of the titles appearing year in-year out we have to admit they appeal to the masses, as the charts show. So, while I agree with your points about Sega and Nintendo it was indeed Sony who dragged the whole console scene up to date and made things mainstream, the press say that, I say that and no doubt others would. They took the console world out of the average 10 year olds bedroom and made it appeal to everyone. The sales figures and games available speak for themselves.
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