30 Years of PlayStation

[Neon Ignition]

-- 2005 --
The PS2 and PSP were tag teaming the industry in 2005, hugely successful with a slew of games pouring out. Despite how hard it is to imagine being the case, Resident Evil 4 launched on PS2 late this year, just months after its launch on Gamecube and Sony found itself celebrating another new IP success when God of War landed on the system. Titles like Shadow of the Colossus helped the company to continue to cultivate a reputation as having its own quality firts party line up that was equally capable of creating commercial fare and more niche and artful games. That sat alongside titles like Gran Turismo 4, The Getaway: Black Monday and the growing line up PSP games. Sony also celebrated the PS2 becoming the fastest console to ever break the 100m units sold milestone. The biggest threat to stealing attention away from Sony would be from Microsoft who controversially revealed that they would be wrapping up the Xbox after a short lifespan and instead revealed the Xbox 360 which would go on to launch the same year. The next generation was landing early and whilst Sony wasn't ready, they had all of the popularity behind them and countered by revealing their next hardware - The PlayStation 3.



Did the PS2 & PSPS line up this year work for you? Did the X360 Distract You? And, what were your first thoughts on seeing the PlayStation 3 and its boomerang controller?

[Neon Ignition]

-- 2006 --
The X360 was gaining momentum but despite this Sony wasn't concerned. The PS2 was hurtling towards becoming the most successful console of all time and the PSP was shifting highly respectable numbers with high profile games across both systems launching such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts II and Bully. With the system still selling strong numbers and the November Japan and American launches of the PlayStation 3 lined up Sony were feeling incredibly confident in the face of Microsofts struggles in the market so far and Nintendo preparing to launch a novelty focused and heavily underpowered successor to the Gamecube. Criticisms had been emerging, most commonly surrounding Sony's slow progress on developing an online network robust enough to rival Xbox Live but with the slow emergence of that area Sony was in no rush. The year ticked away and nothing could go wrong... and then the mists of success parted: Mobile gaming discussion was growing larger drawing concerns that the handheld market that Sony was now into was drawing towards its end. Xbox 360 saw the high profile release of Gears of War, a title that drew much attention to the system and helped to further kick down the doors on making Xbox Live a service to be involved in. Nintendo launched the Wii and completely blindsided everyone by seeing the quirky, low powered system instantly become a must have system not just for gamers but for audiences that had traditionally not paid much attention to the market. Sony had momentum and brand power in their favour, something that led them to feel confident in the decision to wade heavily into the launch of their new console at between $499 and $599 with the recommendation that those interested should get a second job to buy one. Things did not go well.



What are your memories of the PlayStation 3 launch?

[wakka]

Haha - I'd forgotten that 'Get a second job' thing. With the way it looks like Microsoft is going, we could be seeing them give the same advice about affording a PS6...

The PS3 release was not really a big deal for me personally. I'd always been a huge PlayStation fan up to that point, but the 360 had resolutely stolen its thunder with its innovative software, reasonable price, and (mostly) excellent design.

The PS3 was incredibly expensive, loaded with pointless features - why on earth did it have a memory card reader for camera SDs? - and yet missing crucial ones that 360 had launched with. The pad didn't even have rumble for goodness' sake, and was yet another iteration of the PS1 DualShock. There was way too much emphasis on Blu-ray playback too, something very few people ever really cared about.

I also didn't care much for the launch games. Resistance and Motorstorm were okay - I played them at friend's houses - but felt like weak sauce when I'd already been playing the extraordinary Oblivion for a year.

Of course it would eventually come good - but at launch? Nah. Cool interface though.

[CMcK]

I bought the PS3 primarily as a Blu-ray player as it was pretty much the cheapest player on the market. Plus having Folding@Home on it was a nice bonus too. The launch lineup really was mince though. I picked up Resistance and Motorstorm but both were rubbish. Motorstorm looked great and made you think there was merit to the fancy CPU but very few developers really got much from it. The 360 having a head start plus the killer app of XBLA made my PS3 a very neglected system.

[Lebowski]

Much like the PS2 I skipped the PS3 at launch, it was expensive and lacking in the software department and Sony really shafted us by making European consumers wait a good few months to get one. Then making it massively more expensive than the Japanese and American console. It got savaged in the press, it was really lacking software, and it rode a wave of very poor quality ports (Bayonetta) and a real lack of decent exclusives. Over on xbox you had Capcom throwing out bangers like Lost planet, and Dead rising, and exclusives like halo 2 and Gears of War, whereas the Sony machine saw things like Resistance fall of man and Motorstorm which where ok but not up to what the 360 was doing.

It wasn't until they went into full damage control and put the price down to 299 and chucked in an extra controller and 2 free games that i picked one up, it was a real shame the xbox 360 had so many hardware issues as if it wasn't for that I think they would have left Sony for dust. that gen as they could do no wrong, and where riding a wave of real high quality exclusives and really pushing indie and small devs via its xbox live arcade service.

Sony did give us the "historically accurate Giant enemy crab" meme though this gen

[wakka]

Yeah Microsoft did indeed 'hit the weak point for massive damage' this gen.

Then they made the Kinectbox One and it's been all tears since...a shame.

[Neon Ignition]

Because of the way releases between X360 and PS3 were starting to look alligned it really began to become a game of exclusives. I'd not been interested in the Wii but was able to walk in and pick one up on launch day on a whim too. The exclusives sucked on PS3 and its price tag was like a beacon screaming 'stay away' with everything suddenly coming out of the company line feeling like they actively wanted to put people off. It was weird to see when PS2 was still so strong as a system to own. I remember the lead up to the launch far more than the actual launch which went by without note, they'd managed to absolutely slaughter any interest in it I might have had.

[Lebowski]

The xbox one pretty much made the same mistake Sony did with the PS3 by making the console too expensive and launching with a wave of negative publicity and poor quality exclusives, making it a mandatory to have a camera pointing at you and listening all the time would not go down well today as it feels like privacy concerns are a lot more heightened. The first gen pre Alexa and Siri voice command stuff that didn't really work was great at making you look bad with your friends when trying to demonstrate it too .

[Asura]

Which one of the three consoles drew you in during their peak era?

I was working for a games retailer at the time, so this was the first (and only) full console generation where I didn't have to choose. I got the PS2 cheap, the Xbox in a good offer and Nintendo actually gave people in retail GameCubes to try and drum up positive word-of-mouth.

If you had asked me at the time, I would've probably said the Xbox. That's mainly because this was a real landmark generation for multiplatform games, and generally, the Xbox was the best for those, being the most powerful machine with the most straightforward multiplayer solution (sometimes the Xbox was even better than the PC versions, as the PC games could be comparably buggy).

But retrospectively, now that Xbox Live has long since shut down, that killed a lot of my favourite titles of the era. Consequently, in retrospect, I think the PS2 had it. It just has an extraordinarily wide library. The GameCube has great exclusives, sure.

[Finsbury Girl]

Didn't get one at launch, got a MGS4 bundle. If I thought MGS2 on PS2 looked amazing, holy cow was I blown away by MGS4. That opening in the truck, the desert, the music. Snake's camo suit. GOAT

XMB rules - I loved how the thumbnails for your save games were aminated ; it was so easy to use. Was a pretty handy bluray player as well.

Still have this bad boy but its YLOD and need to get it fixed. But have a crappy old slim that I think I bought on the forum that still works, ugly as sin unlike the OG.

Loved my PS3 but that gen shared duties with the 360.

[Neon Ignition]

-- 2007 --
Sony opened early into the next financial year by axing the initial lower memory SKU of the PS3 and managed to pull reasonable numbers for the year but the system was blatantly held back in the face of the explosive success of the Wii. Critically it was severely wounded in the US where the X360 had now firmly gripped its position. Sony would launch its tentpole megahit but it didn't aid the new system as it was God if War II acting as a swansong to Sony's more popular older system. Titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Bioshock would mark out a popular year in gaming but PS3 wasn't the lead for most in any case and for the first time perhaps in Sony's console existence, they weren't the centre star of the market anymore even as some markets saw Uncharted launch.



With the dust settled, how did you find PS3's second year?

[Neon Ignition]

-- 2008 --
Blood was in the water and Sony began to make moves to fend off the first time they had been threatened so directly by their competitors. Gamers lapped it up as third party hits like GTA4 landed onto the market whilst Sony pused to improve its services and to pitch the PS3 more aggressively against the X360. By the end of the year the console was beginning to pull ahead of the Xbox but was selling dramatically less software. With an increasing number of titles placing heavier focus on Microsofts console than they had before, Metal Gear Solid 4 would be the years biggest exclusive.



Had the PS3 turned things around by now?

[Neon Ignition]

If I recall correctly I think it was very late 2027 or early 2008 that I finally got a PS3 when it had reached the point that you could get one as a 'free' gift with a mobile contract. It came with Ratchet and was solid enough, it would be a while till I picked up Uncharted and that helped to warm me to the system so MGS4 was the first real big new release that the system hung around for me. It was decent but a bit of a come down after the gloriousness of MGS3. Despite being more basic though, the PS3 was emerging as my online gaming console of choice. Playing COD4 and Warhawk on it without a sub fee marked the system out as one that was catching up to X360 for time spent on it.

[Asura]

I got my PS3 very specifically for one game - MAG. And I absolutely loved it. Played it for months.

[QualityChimp]

Sorry, I'm very late to the party, but I've owned every PlayStation except 5, but I'm always years behind because I never really feel the games are there at the start.

PS1 - I got this in 1999 when Gran Turismo came out, 4 years after console launch.
PS2 - I can't remember when I finally took the plunge, but it was definitely not at launch. Maybe a GTA made me upgrade?!
PS3 - Won one in a radio competition with a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean (still sealed on the shelf!), but it took my 360 to RRoD before I played it properly and that was with Fallout 3, that I won in another competition!
PS4 - Got this as a birthday present. My lovely wife conspired with my mom and mother-in-law and they got me a PS4 Pro, screen and projector.