The PlayStation experience
A few months ago a friend came into my apartment to announce that he has decided to make a very important investment for our future in the world of entertainment. I sat quietly in my seat waiting for him to go on and explain how lucky he had been when he managed to find an amazing deal online for the newest version of the PlayStation 2. Frankly, I couldn’t believe my ears. I have never played PlayStation in the past and the last video game I played with my friends when I was still a kid was an old Atari version. I couldn’t understand how someone over the age of twenty-five would pay any amount to become another of those inert gamers who huddled in front of their TV screens for hours or even days. But the experience I had when the PlayStation 2 entered my home premises wasn’t exactly what I originally envisioned. PlayStation has proven to be an extremely fun and educational gaming experience. After the first few weeks I realized that when someone knows how to lead a balanced life, it is possible to spend time exploring this unique gaming experience without feeling guilty.
Produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, PlayStation 2 is the successor to the original PlayStation console that has enjoyed tremendous worldwide success since its original introduction. In March 2005, PlayStation’s sales margin surpassed 100.49 million units, making it the first home console to reach the 100 million games sold threshold. Since 1986, Nintendo was the first to try to work with disc technology, but after encountering a series of problems, Nintendo decided to approach Sony for the latter to find a solution. Soon, Sony, recognizing the emerging market for video games, planned to start production of its own console, leading Nintendo’s management team to cancel all deals and form an alliance with Philips; this time ensuring control over their licenses on machines developed by Philips. In late 1992, Sony and Nintendo reconciled their major differences, and Sony released the first version of the PlayStation in 1994 in Japan. In September 1995, PlayStation entered the US, European and Asian markets, its initial success heralding its future sales challenge.
The extreme popularity of the PlayStation console introduced the term “PlayStation Generation” and titles such as Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo and Silent Hill have become favorite pastimes of millions of users around the world. Having enjoyed more than eleven years of continuous production of video games, Sony has announced that the next generation of PlayStation, known as PlayStation 3 or PS3, will be released in November 2006 and will also be a backwards compatible device; which means that you will be able to play all the games that have already been released for the other versions of PlayStation.
Although the genius creators of the PlayStation consoles argue that the new version of this popular video game will improve the user experience, I doubt that it will really achieve the same success in the desired time. A wide variety of other video game competitors, including the mighty Nintendo, have released a series of games for their consoles, which have raised the expectations of the users and made them extremely conscious regarding their next choice of video games. But I’m sure my friend and I will continue to play the PlayStation games of our choice, like NBA 2K6 or Grand Theft Auto, since the PlayStation 3 will be out of our budget at least for a while.