PlayStation has been a video game giant for over two decades, with a storied legacy that includes five home consoles, a handheld, a media center, a smartphone and a suite of online services. It’s the brainchild of Sony Computer Entertainment engineer-turned-CEO and chairman Ken Kutaragi, who first became interested in video games when he watched his daughter play with the family’s Nintendo in the mid-80s.
When the PlayStation first launched in 1994, it was initially conceived as an add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, the company soon realized that the machine would be better off as a standalone device. The $299 price tag undercut Sega’s Saturn by $100, which helped Sony establish a solid lead early on.
The PlayStation ushered in a new era of console gaming, with a high-resolution, 3D graphics engine that allowed gamers to experience the games as they were intended by the developers. The console also played a key role in the transition from 2D sprite graphics to real-time, polygon-based 3D graphics.
The PlayStation 2 followed in 2000, and it offered a faster CPU with greater memory capacity, as well as DVD support so that gamers could watch movies on the same machine. This, along with a stellar library of launch titles (including the Ridge Racer series, Wipeout, Final Fantasy, Tekken and Gran Turismo), helped propel Sony to success.