PLAYSTATION 1: WHAT YEAR DID THE FIRST SONY CONSOLE COME OUT?

Table of contents:

• 27 years ago
• PlayStation PS5
• Why buy a PS5?
•  

Consoles produced by Sony have written pages of entertainment history and will continue to do so in the coming years with the newcomer PlayStation 5. But do you remember when the very first model came out?

27 years ago

To find out, you have to go back a long way. It was 3 December 1994, 27 years ago, when Sony launched the original PlayStation, often shortened to PS or PS1 and also known by the code name PSX, onto the Japanese market. Failure to reach an agreement with Nintendo shortly beforehand to create a system that supported CD-Rom reading prompted Ken Kutaragi, known as the 'Father of PlayStation', to pursue the project on his own, which finally materialised at the end of 1994, forever disrupting the future of video games.

The United States and Europe would have to wait a little longer before seeing their shops flooded with the 'little grey box', until September 1995 to be precise, the 9th for Americans and the 29th for Europeans. Among the launch titles of the time were great classics like Rayman, Ridge Racer and Battle Arena Toshinden. The Europeans were even luckier than their Japanese and American friends, as the PS1's debut was accompanied by WipeOut, Psygnosis' much-anticipated futuristic racing game that would arrive in other markets only months later. This was only the beginning of a revolutionary phenomenon capable of selling over 102 million units. In 2000, just a step away from the debut of the PlayStation 2, Sony also released the PSOne, a model 50% smaller than the original version and sold at a bargain price, capable of enormous success despite the fact that the glorious era of the Sony machine was ready to give way to the future of video games.

PlayStation PS5

Since then the brand has come a long way, with the PS5 becoming the best-selling console ever in the US in the first five months. If you want to delve further, rediscover the hardware and history of the first PlayStation with us.

Why buy a PS5?

PlayStation 5 has massive exclusives and deals with Marvel. Only on PlayStation can you play big, popular and best-selling franchises such as Marvel's Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted and God of War or the upcoming Wolverine.

Hint: think about buying PSN gift card UK to save some money!

What changes between PS4 and PS5 games?

Let's start with resolution and performance: on PS5 the game runs at 2160p, i.e. native 4K, and 60 fps (which becomes 30 fps in replays with ray tracing enabled). On PS4 Pro, however, the resolution drops to 1800p, while the frame rate remains fixed at 60 fps. And even on PS4 the game runs at 60 fps, but with a resolution of 1080p.