The first PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994. Despite competing against some powerhouses of the gaming sphere, including the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 during that period, that console still went on to sell over 100 million units within the first decade.
Some of the first games you could play with the first version of the PlayStation were Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Dead or Alive, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII/VIII/IX.
The first console didn’t have an internal hard drive. Games had to be saved using memory cards. According to GameSpot, the catalyst for the console actually spawned from a failed partnership with Nintendo, when Sony was in talks with building an add-on for the Super Nintendo. The PlayStation would go on to feature a dual-speed CD-ROM drive, a one-core CPU that had 2MB of RAM along with 1MB of video RAM with graphics that could deliver up to 360,000 polygons per second. The original PlayStation played a pivotal role in transitioning the industry away from 2D graphics to real-time 3D rendering.
Who created the PlayStation?
The console was conceptualized by Ken Kutaragi, an executive of Sony, who is known as the father of the PlayStation.
Nintendo vs Sony
The origins of this console dates back to 1988, when Sony and Nintendo joined to create a solution for the Super Famicom. That deal, which was denied at several points by Nintendo, was reportedly broken as the two companies failed to arrive at a suitable agreement regarding the revenue split for the project. Sony President Norio Ohga later appointed Kutaragi with the sole focus of building the PlayStation to compete with Nintendo.
The PlayStation has continued to make immense strides in the video game console market, which will continue to grow with sleeker innovations to gaming hardware.