Incredible, almost incomprehensiblyThe humble original PlayStation, our little gray piece of joy, turns 30 years old. She has gray hair, is old enough to have a couple of kids, several different jobs, and a car in the garage. It can be said that he achieved all this in different ways.
Aussies: Win a PlayStation®5 Pro Limited Edition 30th Anniversary Bundle!
In the old days, many former and current IGN AU employees gnawed at Official PlayStation 2 Magazine (Narayan Pattison, Tristan Ogilvy, Luke Reilly, Patch Colan and Adam Mathew among them), so it would be an understatement to say that the brand, hardware, games and experiences have been defining for us and extremely close to our hearts.
A small gray box that could
When the original PlayStation was released in Australia, supplies were extremely limited, and this thing cost AU$699 (or about $1,300 in today's money) if you managed to get your hands on one. If you did, you could play a near-perfect version of Namco's excellent Ridge Racer, experience 3D combat (new!) in Battle Arena Toshinden, some 3D platforming (wow!) in Jumping Flash! and 2D side-scrolling platformer in Rayman. Gaming may have been a little “safe” at the time, but it hinted at big things to come – and within a year, PlayStation had gained a foothold in the Australian gaming space.
I picked up my PS1 from Cash Converters in 1999 and then bought it straight away. Metal Gear Solid And Final Fantasy VII. From there I added to the directory JRPGracing simulators (yeah, this series), scrolling shooters and impenetrable dating games while my N64 calmly watched, judge me off the shelf. I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen the light of day in about two years – and I knew I wanted to do this as a career.
By this point, it was also clear that Sony had a stranglehold on the entire industry, delivering month after month a selection of top games that neither Nintendo nor SEGA could match in volume. He took gaming out of the stereotypical gamer niche and put it on the covers of cool magazines with a bang. This changed everything.
By 2000 the world was get into the hype machine around the future PlayStation 2 is a monolithic black slab, decorated with a bright blue accent. PS-2 inscription. It looked smooth. It looked powerful. In the spirit of Kubrick, it whispered: “I am a mysterious and untouchable creature who will change the world”. In a very real sense it was so.
Arrival of PlayStation 2
The launch of games like Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament catapulted the PlayStation brand from infancy to the big leagues. Sony's vaunted “Emotion Engine” promised modern graphical fidelity, demonstrated through live technical demos this was superior to pre-rendered cutscenes on the PS1.
It was a breakthrough. Everyone wanted it – a DVD player! Game console! In one! And at the time, it was surprisingly affordable for a device that could offer both. This boosted DVD sales and gave additional breathing room to developers moving on to bigger games (and files). The controller even had analog face buttons! Can you dig it, baby? The launch in Japan was a resounding success.sending the international hype around the PS2 into the stratosphere.
IGN AU started in 2006 – exactly 10 years after the debut of the PS1 (or PSX, as everyone used to call it). Back in those days, the PS3 had just debuted in Japan to an enthusiastic response thanks to the explosion of Blu-ray players (facing off against HD DVD and then cutting off HD DVD's head to become the dominant format of the 2010s) and the growing adoption of 1080p displays. People wanted content that showcased their cool technology. Sony introduced the PS3: a versatile Blu-ray player, a hard drive-based multimedia device, and, for its time, an incredible gaming device.
PS3: Run up the hill
Sony, I must say, at this time made its task a little more difficult. The birth of the meme era was marked by the PS3 press reveal, turning “Riiiiiiiiiidge Racer!”, “Giant Enemy Crab” and “George Foreman Grill” into Internet phenomena. This appears to have ushered in a period of questionable consumer sentiment, partly aimed at the $499 and $599 starting prices. The Australian launch was still over the horizon, but gamers were ready for the hit to their wallets.
We got ours first look at PS3 as a young Australian team of three great guys: Bennett Ring, Cam Shea and myself. Sony Australia presented series of consumer and media events in which show off your polished egg-shaped tower and we came away mostly impressed with the system's potential. The American IGN team was on hand to tell you about the new products of the year too much. Resistance: Fall of Man was a darling of the media at the time and is still remembered with great fondness to this day. However, it had some teething pains and they need to grow into themselves.
A few years, several price cuts and redesigns later, the PS3 finally found its stride and realized its ambitions. We have the PS3 to thank for Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, a game that for many came out of the fog and made the console a must-buy. By Uncharted 2, it was clear that Nathan Drake was a star for the ages, and Naughty Dog was just getting started.
Without a doubt the system the highest achievement was The Last of Us. It was a tech demo for legacy hardware, as well as a cinematic and gaming pipeline for developers. At the risk of turning this into a love letter to Naughty Dog, Sony really understood that this studio was pushing its hardware forward – and gamers responded to it.
Around this time, Sony also made a Wii-inspired attempt to get into motion-based gaming with the PlayStation Move controller and camera. It was successful enough to spawn a whole series of Move-enabled games.
PlayStation Pvoar!
A full 12 years ago PlayStation 4 was presented beautifully. Cam and Luke wax lyrical about it in the video above. Then, as now, the Sony PlayStation brand seemed to be returning to form. He came out of the gate strong and focused as a player. “For playersThe campaign highlighted a new focus on the core gaming experience. And it makes sense, especially with the Nintendo Switch just around the corner and an industry that's never been bigger or filled with great games and hardware.
However, there were new experiences to be had – and new controller design (the first major reimagining of the iconic PlayStation controller in the history of the system). Naughty Dog released another revolutionary game with The Last of Us 2. The capabilities of the PS4 also allowed Sony to experiment with another emerging area: virtual reality.
Oh, the PSVR headset. For a while and not Andsignificant money PSVR offers impressive VR precision combined with great games. and IP addresses that other competing equipment could only look at with envy. When using the PS4 Pro (the new mid-gen hardware upgrade), performance improved even further.
While VR may have already had its moment in the spotlight, and it now seems like the technology is largely in hibernation until the next big thing comes along, it points to more TV-free gaming experiences becoming more and more normal.
PS5 and more
Enter: PS5. PlayStation 5 is the current generation of Sony consoles in standard and Pro models. By 2020, digital marketplaces had become the standard, and the TV screen was just one way to interact with your PlayStation. PS5 marked the beginning of PSVR 2, an enhanced version of the PSVR we know and love. In addition, a portable solution has appeared, similar to Switch (but not quite): PlayStation Portal.
If you noticed, we didn't discuss Sony PSP (a luxurious widescreen laptop in stunning black, released in 2004) or PS Vita – pseudo PS3 in your pocket. But all these handheld devices seemed to tease where Sony (and Nintendo, for that matter) was heading. There are already rumors about PlayStation 6 and oh god, I feel old now.
So here you go, Sony PlayStation. You are 30 years old and young in Australia.
The world and gaming industry today is a very different place than what I and many others remember at the turn of the millennium. However, PlayStation has always been an island of stability, joy and adventure.
Will we all be gaming on PS10 in 2055? Connected directly to our neural cortex, like the bandit from Neuromancer? Will televisions still exist? What about game stores? One thing is for sure: PlayStation fans will always adore this brand, so in a sense, the future is up to you.
