The Tale Continues…
Back in Part 1, we talked about the birth of the PlayStation and its climb in competition against Microsoft and its long-time rival: Nintendo. The story ended with the PS2 Slimline being well-received.
If you haven’t read the first part of this grand story, you can click here for Part 1.
Now, let us resume with the coming of the PlayStation 3.
Three-in-One
Plays Blu-ray. The PS Network. Runs games.
The PS3 first released in 2006 in Japan and sold more than 80 million units globally. It went on to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. It was the first console to implement the Blu-ray drive and was cheaper than most standard Blu-ray players.
One could argue that this was Sony’s most defining moment. They had brought more features to the table, namely the PlayStation Network. The feature allowed players to download games and utilize platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. The PlayStation Plus subscription allowed users to receive discounts and early access to betas.
With their usual model of releasing smaller versions of their consoles, Sony introduced the PlayStation 3 Slim in 2009. It was thinner and lighter than its original version, featuring a redesigned logo. Its font was most prominent to some people especially those who watched movies. You would recognize it from the Spiderman 3’s title. The PS3 was initially backwards compatible with PS2 games, but to cut costs, Sony removed this feature in the PS3 Slim.
The Super Slim version of the PS3 was released in 2012, and as its name suggests, was even more thin and lighter than the PS3 Slim. But despite all of these features, there was criticism about the lack of quality games made for the console.
Innovation
A year later after the PS3 Super Slim, the PlayStation 4 was introduced to the fine place of North America. It was the year 2013, and the console managed to bring its sales to a million units, which made it the fastest-selling console within a 24-hour period after release.
The PS4 is a unique step for Sony, because this would be the first time they’d be using a CPU x86 instruction set, which would be the same processor architecture as gaming PCs. The console came with the ability to share gameplay clips. The button to Share can be found on the DualShock 4 controller.
And of course, the Slim version of the PS4 came about; lighter and thinner and with rounder corners. This time, it came with more upgrades, with the addition of 5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.1 support. It is also quieter and more power efficient compared to it’s the original PS4.
And lastly, the final piece of the PlayStation series (up to current date): the PlayStation 4 Pro, launched near the end of 2016. The epitome of its design, the PS4 Pro enabled 4K-rendering and an improved VR performance. The console brought features of the Slim version and on top of that, it applied AMD’s Polaris graphics and had 4.2 teraflops of GPU, improving everything significantly.
Forecasts & Rumours
Though the VR hype never really took off, one can’t say that the PlayStation isn’t evolving as rapid as the times. Next thing we know, the PS… 7 can be powered by batteries and is portable with a screen. Yeah. Could happen.
The year is now 2019. It should be about time for the PS5 to hit the market. There is news about its release either this year or the following year. Some are even saying it’s coming out in 2021. Sony claims that they are biding their time to come up with something “spectacular”. So, who knows? As long as it comes out good, right?
Console Throne
The PlayStation has come a long way, and Sony seems to be improving both hardware and software with each release. Will Nintendo, Xbox, or a brand in hiding somehow overtake them in the near future? Would Apple suddenly reveal their own console? That’ll definitely be one heck of a news to report. Just remember that we called it first!
What about you? Do you think the PS5 will do as well and maybe better than its previous versions? Or do you think they’ll run out of “luck” soon?
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