PlayStation (brand)

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PlayStation (brand)

The PlayStation brand is a line of video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an game development that produces a video signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to buy and use solely for playing video games from a personal computer, which has many other functions, or arcade machi...
s created and developed by Sony Computer Entertainment

Sony Computer Entertainment

__NOEDITSECTION__ is a video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a full subsidiary of Sony Corporation....
, occupying the fifth,

History of video game consoles (fifth generation)

The fifth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the close of the 20th century....
sixth

History of video game consoles (sixth generation)

The sixth-generation era refers to the personal computer game and video games, video game consoles, and handheld game console available at the turn of the 21st century....
, and seventh

History of video game consoles (seventh generation)

In the history of video games, the seventh generation, and current generation, primarily focuses on the consoles released since by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony....
generations.

Distinguishing features
Unlike its competitors, which largely use face buttons on their controllers denoted by letters (generally A, B, C, X and Y), PlayStation controllers uses shapes; namely ('Triangle'), ('Circle' or "O"), ('X' or 'Cross') and ('Square' or ' Box').

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Encyclopedia

The PlayStation brand is a line of video game console

Video game console

Sony Computer Entertainment

__NOEDITSECTION__ is a video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a full subsidiary of Sony Corporation....
, occupying the fifth,

History of video game consoles (fifth generation)

The fifth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the close of the 20th century....
sixth

History of video game consoles (sixth generation)

The sixth-generation era refers to the personal computer game and video games, video game consoles, and handheld game console available at the turn of the 21st century....
, and seventh

History of video game consoles (seventh generation)

In the history of video games, the seventh generation, and current generation, primarily focuses on the consoles released since by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony....
generations.

Distinguishing features

Unlike its competitors, which largely use face buttons on their controllers denoted by letters (generally A, B, C, X and Y), PlayStation controllers uses shapes; namely ('Triangle'), ('Circle' or "O"), ('X' or 'Cross') and ('Square' or ' Box'). The Select button is a raised rectangular button while Start is a raised right-pointing triangle. It was the first controller design to feature 4 buttons on the top [L1, L2, R1, R2] (named by the side [L=Left, R=Right] and 1 or 2 [top or bottom] and commonly referred to as shoulder buttons). Beginning with the PlayStation 3, a 'PlayStation button' (featuring the incorporated PS logo and similar in function to the Xbox 360

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the History of video game consoles of video game consoles....
"X" logo button) was added to the controller, in place of the 'Analog' button. The Analog button activated the analog sticks on the Playstation and Playstation 2 Dual Analog, Dual Shock and Dual Shock 2 controllers. On the Playstation 3 Sixaxis and Dual Shock 3 controllers they are either both in use and have different purposes. The PS button on the PS3 brings up the Playstation 3 home screen (similar to a PC "desktop" screen) while holding it down brings up system options (such as quit the game, change controller settings, turn off the system, and turn off the controller).

Consoles

PlayStation

The original PlayStation, released in December , was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices, which has included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze

Net Yaroze

The is a development kit for the PlayStation video game console. It was a promotion by Sony Computer Entertainment to computer programming hobbyists in 1997....
(a special black PlayStation with tools and instructions to program PlayStation games and applications), "PSone" (a smaller version of the original) and the PocketStation

PocketStation

The PocketStation is a miniature personal digital assistant created by Sony as a peripheral for the PlayStation. Released exclusively in Japan on January 23, 1999, it features an LCD, sound, a real-time clock, and infrared communication capability....
(a handheld which enhances PlayStation games and also acts as a memory card). By March 31 2005, the PlayStation and PSone had shipped a combined total of 102.49 million units, becoming the first video game console to reach the 100 million mark.

PlayStation 2

Released in , barely a year after the Sega Dreamcast

Sega Dreamcast

The is a video game console made by Sega, and is the successor to the Sega Saturn. An attempt to recapture the console market with a next-generation system, it was designed to supersede the PlayStation and Nintendo 64....
and a year before its other competitors, the Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , is Nintendo's fourth home video game console and is part of the History of video game consoles . It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii....
, the PlayStation 2 is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles

History of video game consoles (sixth generation)

The sixth-generation era refers to the personal computer game and video games, video game consoles, and handheld game console available at the turn of the 21st century....
, and is backwards-compatible with most, if not all, original PlayStation games. It has also been released as a media center configuration

PSX (DVR)

PSX was a Sony digital video recorder with fully integrated PlayStation and PlayStation 2 video game consoles. Since it was designed to be a general-function audiovisual device, it was marketed by the main Sony Corporation and was released only in Japan on December 13, 2003....
and also, like its predecessor, a slimmer redesign. It is the best-selling console

List of best-selling game consoles

This is a list of video game consoles and handheld game consoles that have sold or shipped at least one million units....
to date, having reached over 140 million units in sales as of July 20 2008. On November 29, 2005, the PS2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch. This achievement occurred faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation, which took "9 years and 6 months since launch" to reach the same benchmark.

PlayStation 3

Announced at E3

The E3 Media and Business Summit, formerly known as Electronic Entertainment Expo and commonly known as E3, is an annual trade show for the video game industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association....
2005, the PlayStation 3 is the third and current iteration in the series. It was released on November 11, 2006. It competes with the Xbox 360

Xbox 360

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a History of video game consoles console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3....
in the seventh generation of video game consoles

History of video game consoles (seventh generation)

In the history of video games, the seventh generation, and current generation, primarily focuses on the consoles released since by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony....
. It introduces the use of the Sixaxis wireless controller along with other features,including Blu-ray,it comes in 20gb,40gb,60gb,80gb,and now 160gb. As of February 1st, 2009, the PlayStation 3 has sold 21 million units worldwide, according to Sony Computer Entertainment.

Comparison

Name	PlayStation	PlayStation 2	PlayStation 3
Console
Launch price	¥ Japanese yen The is the currency of Japan. It is the third most-traded currency in the forex after the euro and the United States dollar. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S.... 39,800 US$299 £ Pound sterling ----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory.... 299	¥39,800 US$299 £299	¥49,980 (20 GB) US$499 (20 GB), US$599 (60 GB) € Euro The euro is the official currency of 16 out of 27 European Union member state of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.... 599 (60 GB) € Euro The euro is the official currency of 16 out of 27 European Union member state of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.... 449 (160GB), £ Pound sterling ----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory.... 350 (160GB)
Release date			More... PlayStation 3 launch The Japanese PlayStation 3 launch on 11 November 2006 marked the second major History of video game consoles video game console to be released ....
Units sold List of best-selling game consoles This is a list of video game consoles and handheld game consoles that have sold or shipped at least one million units.... \|102.49 million shipped, including 28.15 million PS one PlayStation The PlayStation is a 32-bit history of video game consoles video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December .The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation .... units (as of March 31 2007) \|140 million (as of July 20 2008) \|21 million (as of February 1st 2009)
Best-selling game \|Gran Turismo Gran Turismo (video game) *Gran Turismo* is a racing game designed by Kazunori Yamauchi. Gran Turismo was developed by Polyphony Digital and first published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1997 in video gaming for the PlayStation video game console.... , 10.85 million shipped (as of April 30 2008) \|Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec *Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec* is a racing game, the first in the Gran Turismo to be released for the PlayStation 2. *Gran Turismo 2000* was the working name used when demonstrated at E3 2000/2001.... , 14.89 million shipped (as of April 30 2008) \|Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots , commonly abbreviated to MGS4 is a third person Stealth game video game developed by Kojima Productions exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Guns of the Patriots is the latest addition to the Metal Gear series and was directed by Hideo Kojima, Shuyo Murata and Yoji Shinkawa.... , 4.5 million (as of December 31, 2008)
Media	CD-ROM-based media	DVD-ROM/CD-ROM	2x BD-ROM Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc data storage device medium. Its main uses are high-definition video and data storage. The disc has the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs.... (72 mbit/s), 8x DVD, 24x CD, 2x SACD Super Audio CD Super Audio CD is a read-only optical disc audio storage format that can provide higher accuracy as well as surround sound compared to the Red Book ....
Included accessories and extras	RFU Adapter Controller	DualShock 2 Controller Composite AV cable	Internal hard drive (20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB, 80GB or 160GB included with purchase) Wireless DualShock 3/SIXAXIS controller Composite AV cable Ethernet cable USB cable
Accessories (retail)	Multitap Multitap A multitap is a video game console peripheral that increases the number of Game controller ports available to the player, allowing additional controllers to be used in play.... (up to 8 players) Fishing reel controllers (Bass Landing and Reel Fishing) Dual Analog Controller Dual Analog Controller The PlayStation Dual Analog Controller is Sony's first attempt at a handheld analog controller for the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the DualShock.... DualShock DualShock The DualShock is a line of vibration-feedback gamepads by Sony for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. The DualShock was introduced in Japan in late 1997, and launched in America in May 1998, meeting with critical success.... GunCon GunCon The Guncon , known as the G-Con in Europe, is a family of light gun peripherals designed by Namco for the PlayStation consoles.... Jogcon JogCon The Jogcon is a controller developed and produced by Namco for the Sony PlayStation videogame console.Originally released in 1998 as part of a special edition package with Namco's R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 videogame, it was designed to combine the function of a steering wheel controller, while maintaining the size of a standard PlayStation... Konami Justifier Konami Justifier The Konami Justifier was a light gun used in numerous video arcade and home console games developed and/or published by Konami and Sega. Konami manufactured variations of the gun for the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Super Nintendo, and Sony PlayStation consoles.... NeGcon NeGcon The neGcon was a Third-party developer Game controller for the Sony PlayStation manufactured by Namco.... PocketStation PocketStation The PocketStation is a miniature personal digital assistant created by Sony as a peripheral for the PlayStation. Released exclusively in Japan on January 23, 1999, it features an LCD, sound, a real-time clock, and infrared communication capability.... Flightstick Sony Flightstick The PlayStation Analog Joystick is Sony's first analog controller for the PlayStation, and is the precursor to the PlayStation Dual Analog Controller.... Memory Card S-Video cable AV Cable (Composite) Euro-AV Cable (RGB-SCART) RFU Adapter	Driving Force Driving Force *Driving Force* was an United States reality television program which premiered July 17, 2006, on A&E Network, ending on May 15, 2007. It was centered around John Force, a drag racer, and his drag racing daughters.... Steering Wheels with Force Feedback DualShock DualShock The DualShock is a line of vibration-feedback gamepads by Sony for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. The DualShock was introduced in Japan in late 1997, and launched in America in May 1998, meeting with critical success.... 2 Onimusha 3 Katana controller PlayStation 2 HDD Internal hard drive supported by PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay The PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay is a 3.5" drive bay introduced with the model 30000 and 50000 PlayStation 2 designed for the network adaptor and internal hard disk drive .... (model 30000 and 50000 only) Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller Resident Evil 4 *Resident Evil 4, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Capcom and published by multiple publishers, including Capcom, Ubisoft, and Nintendo.... EyeToy EyeToy The EyeToy* is a color digital camera device, similar to a webcam, for the PlayStation 2. The technology uses computer vision and Gesture recognition to process images taken by the camera.... PlayStation 2 Headset PlayStation 2 Headset The 'PlayStation 2 Headset' is a USB Headphones used with the PlayStation 2. While the original headset was produced by Logitech and distributed with SOCOM: U.S.... PlayStation 2 DVD remote control Network adapter Built-in for slim case model (PSTwo, model 70000) Memory Card (8MB) (for Playstation2) Guitar Hero SG Controller Trance Vibrator (Japanese Special Edition of Rez) Light gun (GunCon 2) Multitap (multi-controller adaptor) Component AV cable S-Video cable Euro-AV Cable (RGB-SCART) AV Cable (Composite) AV Adaptor RFU Adapter Microphones (with Karaoke Revolution Karaoke Revolution *Karaoke Revolution* and its many sequels are video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix Music Systems and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games.... and SingStar SingStar *SingStar* is a competitive karaoke video game series for the PlayStation 2, developed by SCE London Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.... games only) USB Mouse & Keyboard Headset Vertical Stand Horizontal Stand	PlayStation Eye PlayStation Eye The PlayStation Eye is a digital camera device for the PlayStation 3 video game console, and the successor to the EyeToy for the PlayStation 2.... SIXAXIS Wireless Controller DualShock 3 Wireless Controller Blu-ray Remote Control S Video Cable Component AV Cable HDMI Cable AV Cable (Composite) PlayTV PlayTV PlayTV is a twin-channel DVB-T tuner peripheral with digital video recorder software which allows users to watch and record television programmes to the hard drive of a PlayStation 3 console for later viewing.... Guitar Hero III Gibson Les Paul Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s. The Les Paul was originally designed by Ted McCarty and endorsed, named and used by then popular jazz/Pop music guitarist Les Paul.... Controller RockBand Rock Band *Rock Band* is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band.... 1&2 Fender Stratocaster Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously to the present.... Controller Ion Drum Rocker RockBand Rock Band *Rock Band* is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band.... Drums RockBand Rock Band *Rock Band* is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band.... Mic Guitar Hero IV Guitar Controller Guitar Hero IV Gibson Les Paul Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s. The Les Paul was originally designed by Ted McCarty and endorsed, named and used by then popular jazz/Pop music guitarist Les Paul.... Bass Guitar Controller Guitar Hero IV Drums Controller Guitar Hero IV Mic
CPU	MIPS R3000A-compatible (R3051) 32bit RISC chip running at 33.8688 MHz	300 MHz MIPS MIPS architecture MIPS is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . In the mid to late 1990s, it was estimated that one in three RISC microprocessors produced were MIPS implementations.... "Emotion Engine Emotion Engine The Emotion Engine is a CPU developed and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment and Toshiba for use in the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console.... "	Cell Broadband Engine (3.2 GHz Power Architecture Power Architecture Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar RISC instruction sets for microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM, Freescale, Applied Micro Circuits Corporation, Tundra Semiconductor and P.A.... -based PPE with eight 3.2 GHz SPE)
GPU	N/A	147 MHz "Graphics Synthesizer"; fill rate 2.352 gigapixel/sec; 1.1 gigapixel w. 1 texture(defuse); 588 megapixel/sec w. 2 textures (2 defuses or 1 defuse map and other(0 around 74 mill, 1 around 40 mill, 2 around 20 mill); 2 textures per pass Capable of multi-pass rendering; Connected to VU1 on cpu (a vector only for visual style coding things with 3.2Gflops) to deliver enhanced shader graphics and other enhanced graphics	550 MHz RSX (based on NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is a multinational corporation specializing in the manufacture of graphics processing unit technologies for workstations, desktop computers, and mobile devices.... G70 architecture)
Online service	N/A	Non-unified service PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 is a History of video game consoles video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation of video game consoles....	PlayStation Network Arcade Currency based store Internet browser Webcam (including PlayStation 2 EyeToy), headset, PlayStation Home PlayStation Home PlayStation Home is a community-based service developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's SCE London Studio and SCE Studio Cambridge studios for the PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Network....
Backward compatibility	N/A	PlayStation	20 GB, 60GB: All Playstation 2 titles Original 80GB: Most PlayStation 2 titles; future firmware updates will provide more compatibility. European version offers limited compatibility, but HDTV upscaling to 720p or 1080i. 40GB: No support for PlayStation 2 titles, support for PlayStation titles. 80 GB models sold after August 2008 price cut: No support for PlayStation 2 titles, support for PlayStation titles. 160GB: No support for PlayStation 2 titles, support for PlayStation titles.
System software	N/A	proprietary OS, Linux DVD Playback Kit	XrossMediaBar (XMB)
System software features	N/A	N/A	Operating Systems can be installed and run via a hypervisor Hypervisor A hypervisor, also called virtual machine monitor , is a computer hardware platform virtualization software that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer concurrently.... Audio file playback (ATRAC3, AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA) Video file playback (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264-AVC, DivX ) Image editing and slideshows (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP) Mouse and keyboard support Folding@Home Folding@home Folding@home is a distributed computing project designed to perform computationally intensive simulations of protein folding and other molecular dynamics .... client with visualizations from the RSX
Consumer programmability	Requires the Net Yaroze Net Yaroze The is a development kit for the PlayStation video game console. It was a promotion by Sony Computer Entertainment to computer programming hobbyists in 1997.... kit	Yabasic Yabasic Yabasic is a Freeware and open source BASIC programming language Interpreter for Microsoft Windows and Unix platforms. Yabasic was originally developed by Marc-Oliver Ihm, who released the last stable version 2.763.... software, Linux for PlayStation 2	Development on console via free Linux Linux Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL license... platform or PC.

Handheld systems

PocketStation

Created as a peripheral for the PlayStation entertainment system, the PocketStation can also function as a clock and PlayStation format Memory Card. Multiplayer gaming is achieved through infrared data link.

PlayStation Portable

First unveiled by SCEI in 2004, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was released in March 2005. It utilizes an all-new proprietary optical storage medium known as UMD

Universal Media Disc

The Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data....
(universal media disc). The first major hardware revision, Slim and Lite

PlayStation Portable Slim and Lite

PSP Slim & Lite is a name used in the PAL region to refer to the second generation of the PlayStation Portable handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment....
, was released in September 2007. As of June 26 2008, 37 million PSP units have been sold. The current revision of the PSP, the PSP 3000, added some additional features, including a microphone for use in Skype

Skype

Skype is software that allows users to make voice over Internet Protocol. Calls to other users of the service and to free-of-charge numbers are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee....
, as well as an updated screen.

Media Centers

The PSX

PSX

PSX may refer to:* PSX , a PlayStation 2-based digital video recorder* PlayStation, a video game console* pSX emulator, a PlayStation Emulator for the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems...
was all-in-one digital video recorder with PlayStation

PlayStation

The PlayStation is a 32-bit history of video game consoles video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December .The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation ....
and PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a History of video game consoles video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation of video game consoles....
integrated. Was released in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
only.