Happy birthday PlayStation! One of the most popular game consoles ever has just turned 20 and to celebrate this beautiful age Sony has launched a limited edition of the current model, only that they’ve made it grey, to be more retro and to resemble one of the first PlayStation consoles ever built. Say hello to the PlayStation 20th Anniversary.
The first Sony PlayStation console saw the light of day on December 3, 1994, in Japan.
The original name of the Sony console was Play Station and was a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony, dating back to the 1980s. Nintendo developed a new CD-ROM format but Sony wasn’t really into it and backed out of the deal.
Ken Kutaragi, also known as the father of PlayStation almost got fired back then because of his involvement with Nintendo. Kutaragi managed to convince Sony that gaming was not just a fad that will pass. And he was so right.
After the first PlayStation gaming console was released in Japan, the console was launched in the United States and Europe in September 1995.
The 32-bit gaming console was competing with other console that were very poplar back then: Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64. The PlayStation came with now-classic games like Crash Bandicoot, Tekken and Wipeout and sold over 100 million units. It was a record for Sony as the first video game console to ever sell that much.
The games for the original PlayStation console were discontinued in 2006, in March. But before this happened, Sony made a smaller model called PlayStation One and two handheld consoles called PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable. These two consoles were succeeded by the PlayStation 2 launched in 2000, followed by the PS3 released in 2006, and then Sony released the current model, the PS4, released last year.
The PlayStation 20th Anniversary edition is the same version as the PS4 , just that is was painted from black to grey to resemble the original 1994 console. The controller was also painted grey and they come in a special anniversary box.
PlayStation 20th Anniversary is available in a limited edition of 12,300 units and it costs $499 in the US.