25 Years of Play

Tuesday the Third marked 25 years since the first PlayStation sold in Japan. It wouldn't be worldwide until the end of 1995 when it hit the States in September and later on in Europe. When you think about it, it is one of gaming's most consistent home consoles. The ability to have tons of support, sales, and companies behind it. You forget that Nintendo is one of the reasons why this exists.

The idea formed around the time the SNES was being made in Japan. Ken Kutaragi was instrumental in all this because he was interested in gaming. Ever think why the system had a good sound chip? Because of him. Plans were made to make an add-on capable of playing CD's and was unveiled in the early part of the 90s. But Nintendo began partnering with Philips to do stuff for their cd-I. It's a complicated story, but Nintendo still wanted Sony involved, but due to that partnership and Nintendo wanting full control of everything, Sony left and began working on PlayStation.

When you look at it, it strived for an audience that was more than kids. Sega had that idea with the Genesis at the start of the 90s, but Sony pushed that envelope further. But, it was able to get all audiences. Kids were able to play their Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, while adults could play Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. The hardware was easy to make games. Companies figured out how to use CD's properly compared to earlier CD systems. Memory cards became the norm. System reliability has been a notorious issues. But Sony keeps chugging.

Without Sony, you don't see gaming as it is today. They are not the main reason for how it is, but it paved the way for how we look at stuff. I've been around for every home console with the exception of the PS3 (which I'm trying to make up for lost time). Getting them a few years after they released. The brand is still viable for gamers. And when PS5 shows up, it's going to continue one of the strongest names in all of gaming.