Sony Playstation Launch

Full Article on the timeline of Sony Playstation 1-4

The history of the device is worth revisiting. PlayStation was launched in 1994, a fringe product created by renegade engineer Ken Kutaragi. His vision, he once told me, “was to create a new concept for computer entertainment — we wanted to include as much of the audience as possible, including females and seniors, East and West, North and South…. In our minds it was not a game machine, but a preparation for future entertainment.”

PlayStation 1 became a surprise hit, eventually selling 100 million, but the real game changer was PlayStation 2, released in 2000. That second iteration pushed the technology envelope with better graphics and faster chips than you’d find in a PC. It was also the first game machine with optical DVD storage. But Kutaragi’s larger vision was remaking and broadening entertainment. “Content itself is culture,” he said as he prepared to launch. That was part of the reason that he felt it imperative for new iterations of PlayStation to run previous software. “A new version PlayStation should create new forms of entertainment,” he said, but “we don’t want to throw away our history, it’s very, very clear that keeping compatibility is important.”