Sony and Nintendo had originally teamed up to present the PlayStation to the public, but Sony wanted 25% of the profit and Nintendo declined the offer. Nintendo then decided to go with Philips as their partner. Here lies the story of the PlayStation.

1994- The PlayStation is released in Japan on December 3rd with integrated audio and graphics functions. It features a 32-bit processor and releases for about 0. 1 million systems are sold by the summer of '95.

 

1995- The PlayStation hits stores on September 9th in the U.S. and releases at the price of 0. Reports say that the PlayStation sold over 100,000 in it's first weekend of release. The PlayStation hits stores with a European release on September 29th.

 

1996- Sony puts out a revision of the original PlayStation due to reports of overheating. The S-Video port was also removed from the console.
 
1998- The original Gran Turismo is released in May of 1998 and becomes the best selling game made for the PlayStation.

 

1998- Metal Gear Solid is released on October 21st in the U.S. and immediately becomes a huge hit. MGS held the number one spot on the video game charts for the UK for eight weeks.

 

2000- The PSone is released in September of 2000. It has a smaller, compact look as compared to the PlayStation, but still packs all of the same specifications as the PlayStation.

---

 

With PlayStation 2, better gaming was made possible in my opinion. They had great success in 5 years including great blockbuster titles such as the Final Fantasy series, Socom, and Jak and Daxter. Online gaming was made possible with Microsoft and Sony with Sony taking it to the next level with PlayStation 2. Amist the new PSP and PlayStation 3 coming out, here is what made the PS2 so successful in the past 5 years:

 

April 1999 - Announcement of PS2 development, many new innovations were in store for the new PlayStation. Many things that were announced to be in PS2 were not present in any other console and it was a revolution at the time.

 

March, October, and November 2000 - PS2 launches in Japan, US, and Europe (in order with dates) and sells excellently well. The first batch of PS2 had a certain bug allowing the DVD region restriction to be bypassed but later on, that was to be solved.

 

2001 - This year was the first year for PlayStation 2 games to come out with a few blockbuster hits. Games such as Jak and Daxter, Metal Gear Solid 2 and a variety of other games topped the charts and it really helped the PS2 stack up against competitors, Xbox and GameCube which both released in November 2001.

 

2002 - A huge year for this was the start of PS2 online gaming. Late in 2002, Sony rolled out an online adapter to compete with Microsofts console which was an online console and Sonys efforts made the PS2 succeed immensely. Games such as Socom: US Navy Seals and the company EA helped support the Network Adapter through its first year.

 

2003 - Mainly Games maintained PS2 through the year. Jak II, Ratchet and Clank 2, and Socom II: US Navy Seals all supported PS2 exclusively and Socom II had improved online from the first game overall. This wasn't mainly a big year but a rather successful year concerning what games came out.

 

2004 - The new Slim PS2 is announced and released by September. What Sony incorporated with this was an included network adapter and they slashed the price down to keep many customers buying. Also, 2004 was a slump for Sony and their sales gradually went down. What saved them that year, was the new release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the Slim PS2. Sequels to Jak II and Ratchet and Clank II also made appearences which helped slightly. Finally, the huge game of the year was MGS 3: Snake Eater, that alone could boost sales and it did.

 

2005 - The start of the year was headed by the release of PSP and that turned out successful. Releases of new online games such as Jak X: Combat Racing and Socom 3 were very successful in the online division. New innovative titles such as Shadow of the Colossus and Guitar Hero helped PS2 plentyful. This was the 10 year anniversary of PlayStation and they announced that 100 million PS2's were sold since launch causing a celebration within Sony. PlayStation 3 is announced at E3 and the whole world sees it. Next, we continue with predictions of the future PS3 console.

---

Our Opinions on PS3's certain success and predictions on what might happen (As of January 29th, 2006):

 

Light_Jak: I really think PS3 will succeed. Even though Xbox 360 might have an advantage because it released first, the shortage of 360's will definitely help the PS3 in the end. When PS3 launches, I will predict that a bug or two might infect a batch of systems but based on the power and complexity of the PS3, that won't be much of a problem to many consumers. Launch sales will go well based on how many system they produce and if they play their cards right, they got themselves a sure hand.

 

Concerning games for PS3, possibly a new Socom, MGS4, and a batch of new and original titles will support the PlayStation 3 heavily in its first year. I don't see PS3 being released until late 2006 in the U.S. but surely not 2007. They aimed for a Spring release in Japan and I am sure they will make it for Japan. A Spring release in Japan is an advantage to the U.S. because that will give them much time to fix the current bugs that riddles Japan concerning PS3 and they will fix that.

 

To help the launch go a little better in Japan, they better have a backup plan for the Japanese players who have a bug filled system because I don't want to expect any headlines stating an outrage among JP. They should get it just as fair as we do and that shouldn't be a problem over there. Now concerning that you can't use Used games on PS3 because once they are registered on your system they can only be played on your system. What they might have for this is a database for all of the registered users and if your disc broke, you won't necessarily have to buy a new one because the of the backup plan that they hopefully suggest.

 

Online play will definitely be improved with PS3 most likely and it might be centralized such as the 360 online system is set up like. What I want to see with online is that it is free, and it can allow you to get downloadable content such as demos for PS3 and possibly even an On Demand movie database. That would totally make online revolutionary in my opinion and they will only continue to make it better. Also, patches for online games could go with that downloadable content.

 

Finally, I want to talk about the price range for PS3. I am currently speculating that it will go on sale for about 300 dollars or 400 dollars is a definite possibility. Somewhere in the price range, where the first two PlayStations were at. This lower price for PS3 would promote the very new disc format, Blu-Ray and also, it would attract a wide range of new consumers. The lower the price range is, the more you can sell, they need to really think about this because they need to make a grand profit off of this and I don't doubt at all that they will make the right decisions.

---

Here is GoHerd's Opinions on the matter:

 

Things can only look up for the PS3 and the PlayStation community as a whole. The Xbox 360 didn't do well at launch due to several factors (limited stock and disc scratching) and I look for the PlayStation 3 to capitalize on those mistakes made by Microsoft. Even if the PS3 is pushed back into the fall and winter seasons (which it appears to be), I doubt that hurts sales. If the PS3 can have a clean release, meaning minimal glitches and an abundance of PS3's worldwide, it should take over the market in a hurry.

 

With a worldwide launched probed for the PS3 and Microsoft's lack of impact on the Japanese industry, it should be a worldwide hit. Nintendo's Revolution, which is slated to release this year, shouldn't be much of a factor since Nintendo has dropped off the map into the number three slot since the SNES days. Even if the Revolution does do well, it won't even begin to top the PlayStation's reign of the industry.

 

If you look at the features and specifications of the PS3, you'll see they are second to none. A 3.2 GHz Cell processor and two teraflops of computing power should be outstanding. I look for spectacular graphics from the most anticipated games (RE5, MGS, Vision Gran Turismo, and Killzone 2) to definitely be more than we've seen ever before. The PS3 can support the PSP as a video-enabled controller, photo display, and the ability to have 7 controllers hooked in at once are just some of the extra features the PS3 has to offer.

 

It's unlikely for the PS3 to be region coded which means lik-sang.com and playasia.com, here I come! This will be the case with many other gamers who want those Japanese exclusives. The backward compatibility of the system means we won't lose those PS2 and PS games that we hold so dear. When Sony releases the way the online portion of the PS3 will work, this should boost the system up there another notch, but we have to have our fingers crossed for the time being. The PlayStation 3 will be second to none and be king of the console industry once again. Great job Sony!

 

---

One Year Later.....

PlayStation 3 - Light_Jak

2005 - PlayStation 3 is revealed to the world and we eagerly anticipate its release. With little information coming out this year, lets jump into 2006.

2006 - As the year goes on, we find out that PlayStation 3 is delayed from Spring 2006 to Winter 2006 and costs 500 - 600 dollars in the United States. This price tag was very controversal and many people turned away on the PS3 just because of its ridiculous price tag. Launch comes on November 17th and thousands of gamers fight over the system (in some cases, very violently) and things start to cool down as we get near and past Christmas 2006. The only good game out of the very few games that came out on Launch Day was Resistance: Fall of Man which is very fun to play and I think it is the only game worth playing on the system right now.

2007 - With many games still slated for release in 2007, here is what we expect to release very soon: Metal Gear Solid 4, Devil May Cry 4, Motorstorm, Warhawk, and Heavenly Sword are games that are expected to release soon and hopefully make the system a little more successful. Currently, sales for the PS3 didn't reach their target and systems are still just laying on the store shelves. I would expect after a few months, this will all change and people will start buying consoles again when they finally have the money.

---

It has been exactly a year since GoHerd35 and I made this topic and I am here to give this an update and for you to speculate on what will happen with PlayStation gaming in 2007. Tune in next year for PlayStation History 2008!

Now what do you think about this year with PlayStation 3?

 

LASER-HL
LENSHL.COM

Username

Password

  

Product News