Posted in: Movies, Video Games | Tagged: nintendo, PlayStation 20th Anniversary, playstation 4, PlayStation One, sega, video game systems

PlayStation at Twenty – Remembering Past Victories

By Phil Harris

The impact of the PlayStation, in what is widely referred to as the fifth generation of consoles, can simply not be understated. With the launch Sony not only stole the rug from beneath Sega and Nintendo's feet but also managed to move gaming into a far more mainstream market by developing titles that would appeal to a number of generations.

Now usually referred to as PlayStation One, given the four iterations of the console to date, Sony managed to stamp a firm mark on the marketplace, gain a significant fanbase – who often overlooked the teething problems related to the earlier units of the PlayStation 2 and 3 respectively and created a variety of titles which effectively became synonymous with the consoles growth. Games like Wipeout, Final Fantasy VII and Driver just scrape the surface of the content that was produced and whilst some of the other games were not exclusive to the console there were many years that names like Resident Evil were considered to belong to PlayStation.

As times have changed Sony has changed with them, the fanbase previously mentioned has certainly helped them with this and also stuck through them during a tough hacking scandal many other companies would not have survived. With the latest console, the PlayStation 4, we see a significant understanding of issues that held external developers back from working on the PlayStation 3 whilst also trying to integrate social aspects as never before, whether you wanted them or not.

In fact, unless they make a major mistake in the next year, it is unlikely we will see them lose the battle for the current generation and it is somewhat fitting that Sony should take this top spot while they celebrate a much loved console which has provided many with hours of entertainment.

To celebrate they have launched a special PlayStation One themed PlayStation 4 console but for those of us who don't really need another there is a free download pack from the PlayStation Store which allows your PS4, Ps3 and PS Vita to have a touch of the past, some past sounds and some other lovely easter eggs.

Happy Birthday PlayStation, let's hope for another twenty.

Phil Harris (@PhilipGHarris) is a games developer and writer currently working with One Thumb Mobile on their MMORPG Celtic Heroes. He also helped design Nevistech's Pet Roulette for Android devices and is the story writer for Blazing Griffin's new space strategy game Distant Star: Revenant Fleet.

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