Sony PlayStation, Fifteen Years On
by CheekyGuy, HSM team writer
It is actually amazing just how far the PlayStation console has come in its many incarnations. Just think about that for a moment. This was a machine that frankly shaped a generation. This wasn’t a machine just dedicated to the hardcore gamer, it was a machine that caught the attentions of the casual gamer, too.
As teenager I regularly read magazine publications focused solely on the console of which I had bought; very rarely did I ever read multi-format publications (of which I do a lot more now than I used to). I worshipped Sega, as it was king of the arcade parks when I was much younger, so I had a massive amount of respect to their Home hardware.
One day I’m reading one of my Sega-only format magazines, and I remember that I just couldnt let my Sega Saturn go.
But at the time the games (over in Europe anyways) market for it was drying up. Perhaps it was the same in North America, too. Sony around this time had decided to step into this lucrative gaming market. My magazine publication – and probably others like it at the time – seemed to sneer at them.
“Sony are by far one of the biggest consumer electronics group in the world, and huge music and media publisher,” the comments began. “So, what do they know about the gaming industry?”
It took roughly five years for the gaming community to warm to them and finally accepted Sony into the gaming family tree that they are now proudly connected with.
THE MACHINE
The secret to Sony’s success was their PlayStation, a machine that was not only 32 bit but could also display true 3D polygons (unlike the Sega Saturn which seemed to struggle in some of its titles) and true third party support allowed for a vast library of games. Some of it’s titles were huge game changers, truly groundbreaking in some respects.
THE CULTURE
The 1990’s was the party decade and the PlayStation embraced this with it’s futuristic techno racer, WipeOut, which not only provided breakout visuals and a soundtrack provided by the decades clubbing greats (Orbital & the Chemical Brothers come to mind), but it invited the clubbing industry to take note that this is the crossbranding medium which they could use to promote their brand of music. Not only this, but WipeOut was the game that shifted the original PlayStation off the shelves. As far as the video gaming world was concerned, this put Sony solely on the map and into every self-proclaimed gamer’s subconscious. 1995 gave birth to the PlayStation Generation.
And I said my sad farewell to a home gaming legend that was the Sega Saturn.
THE GAMES
Major developers, such as Capcom, took huge risks, moving away from its popular Street Fighter franchise to give us Resident Evil, a survival horror game that became another landscape-changing game. It may have had the worst voice acting possible, but there was no denying its head-scratching puzzles and the menacing atmosphere of the Mansion. Did you jump when those windows crashed in to find zombie doberman dogs leaping at you (a huge landmark moment in survival horror gameplay)? Konami followed suit with it’s hugely atmospheric scare ‘em up, Silent Hill, set in a haunted American town.
Fox Interactive gave us the chance to play three games in one with Die Hard Trilogy.
One game being a third-person exploration shooter set in the Nakatomi Plaza, the other, a Time Crisis-style shoot out in an overcrowded airport and a race through a bustling New York City defusing bombs as the supposed voice of Jeremy Irons taunts you.
Sony seemed to have a fantastic business relationship with arcade developer Namco with it’s Tekken 3-D fighting series. At the time the original Tekken was up against Virtua Fighter, the gameplay style of both titles were similar in that their were no projectile weapons used such as in Street Fighter and that the fighting disciplines were based on real martial arts. But just like many of its fighting cousins, the game was easy to pick up and play, yet would take a lifetime to master.
THE JOYPAD
Why mention the PlayStation without mentioning it’s most famous feature?
The PlayStation Dual Shock controller is easily the most recognizable in the world. Any pre – schooler will instantly recognize the triangle, square and x buttons instantly and connect those symbols with gaming culture.
The dualshock has survived three generations and is still going strong today. Its “shock” feature is born from Nintendo 64’s “claw” pad which came into it’s own with games such as Goldeneye. The only difference from Sony’s rivals was that the Dual shock was much easier to hold, and its shock feature never needed to recharge or need any batteries in it’s wired incarnation.
THE GRAPHICS
Sony has always pioneered in it’s light and texturing advancements over it’s three generations of console, whether it’s in most of the games that they produce themselves or through third party support.
The dimly lit corridors of Resident Evil are still convincing and unnerving to walk around in. My eyes could flutter, blurred from sunlight breaking through trees and shrubbery as I zip past in beautifully realized scenery, in sleek convertible cars in games such as Namco’s Ridge Racer or Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo series. Textures such as wood, the soft ripple animations of water and fabrics are fantastically realized with sheer power of PS3, demonstrated beautifully in it’s virtual world Home and something I hope will seriously be improved upon, time and again.
With the PlayStation 3 console I think it’s getting closer to that time now where developers could really use Home as a testing ground to really push the console to it’s limits and see what it can do in terms of it’s graphical ability.
The PlayStation 2 was pushed to it’s limit when it was sadly near to the end of it’s life cycle, where we could finally see it flex it’s processing muscle.
That’s why I see Home as the perfect place for software and gaming developers to really start experimenting, just to see it as a sandbox for new development and ideas.
SOUND
PlayStation in it’s fifteen year reign made huge leaps and bounds in it’s audio technology also. Moving from stereo hi-fi to Dolby surround sound, it’s getting to a stage where the sound technology could very well rival that to what you hear in a movie theater, and now with advancements in surround sound headsets recently, you can be sure of similar excitement in your late night private gameplay as well as your public one, with out the fear of upsetting the neighbors.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
The PlayStation 3 has now stepped into the realm of virtual reality, again, new territory, which is a learning process for Sony themselves in the world of PlayStation Home, which invited the gaming community to come together to communicate and share their gaming passions.
This virtual community has untapped potential, and by this I mean from a marketing perspective; anyone worth their salt outside of the gaming community should come here. This is a grey area in terms of advertising and promotion.
Sony could invite real world brands to PlayStation Home, such as Coca-Cola or Nike as easily recognizable brands. In some cases some of this has been done, but needs to have more of an impact. Would I want my avatar wearing Nike high-top shoes running around on Home? Hell yes!
Very soon, people are going to take virtual reality seriously and see it become part of the mainstream culture, not only as a gaming community, but as a community in general.
The concept of a virtual society, originally born in other virtual worlds such as Second Life and Entropia, is only just beginning, and we will be able to take our personal and professional lives to both realms of reality in the near future.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Technologies such as the iPad, and Sony’s S Tablet PC (which features Android and uses the latest NIVIDIA dual core processor), along with the current PlayStation Vita that is available now, is definitely a step in the right direction, as Sony seems to be pursuing the mobile market at present, while still wisely not neglecting the PlayStation 3 gaming console, which still has a bright future with more and more downloadable content being made readily available for it.
Mobile gaming is becoming more and more apparent, with third party support from new indie developers making a name for themselves. For proof, look at how hugely successful Angry Birds became.
This could bring in not only the hardcore gaming audience that are used to playing titles such as MGS or COD, but the casual/retro gamer that’s looking for that five minute fix between long train journeys and lunch hour breaks in-between work.
PlayStation Home could still be made possible on the Sony Tablet PC. Just think of it, being able to still connect to your friends on Home while still on the move. This is an exciting concept to me, and why not? The technology is there.
3-D technology – at present – is still in its infancy as far as TV is concerned, currently it’s employed in games such as Uncharted 3 and Killzone 3 respectively. This is a new area that even Home could step into if it wanted to. It’s also a question as to wether Sony or consumers in general are all ready to take that next leap. Consumers are still unsure as to buy a 3-D ready TV or not, as most are still skeptical to take the plunge, but with prices dropping rapidly, it’s not so much out of reach as it once was.
I have read recently that Sony themselves are developing a glasses free 3-D TV (Toshiba, at present, have already released their model). Recently unveiled at this year’s CES show, the 46-inch model was shown at the ‘Future Corner‘ of it’s stand. This latest model promises that the 3-D can be viewed from multiple angles and features a new type of HD (it’s working title named simply ‘K’) But this model may not be readily available to the public until the next three to four years.
Whether this may readily be available for the next generation PlayStation console, we will only have to wait and see, but so far, for electronics consumers and PlayStation fans, in spite of recent losses, this is an exciting time for Sony.
April 23rd, 2012 by CheekyGuy | 10 comments
CheekyGuy is a loveable, mischievous Brit who first entered virtual reality via Second Life, and now frequents Home as a Grey Gamer to keep in touch with friends. In real life, Cheeky is a video editor who has just completed a Master's degree in screenwriting from Liverpool John Moores University.
“1995 gave birth to the Playstation Generation.” I love that line! Woot!
Excellent article. Brought back my earliest PlayStation memories from the ’90s. I hope we see lots more things like this in Home’s near future. Bring back and expand on what we loved so much as children/teens and make Home a huge part of the PlayStation Community for the next generation.
Nice work Cheeks! I have owned all three of the PlayStation consoles in my time, still own 2 and of course 3. I agree with your premise that there is much more that Home is capable of. I think we may see some of that this summer when the new multi player games come out, as well as the portable EOD. I have always been a fan of Sony products, I own a Sony TV and sound system for use with my PS3 and it really adds to things both in Home and gaming. Good to see you back here on the front page.
I just hope this isn’t the beginning of the end. Sony’s been bleeding money for the past 12 months and future prospects aren’t very reassuring. The Vita is not selling nearly as well as they had hoped, and they took a total bath in their Bravia TV sales. Last year’s hacking scandal didn’t help things, either.
Fingers crossed this will just be a footnote in an otherwise long life for Home.
This is a great article. I loved my PS1. It did an odd thing for me. After I learned the layout of the dualshock, I never wanted to learn the layouts of any other system like the wii or xbox, so I have been a diehard PS fan since I laid my paws on in. My first game was Tomb Raider III, and to this day that is a top 10 for me. I love my PS systems!
Yeah i would say i am definitely a Sony fan boy. My fam (RL not in HOME fam i dont belong to one of those) has always purchased Sony electronics, and it’s still a brand I adhere to for quality. It does suck unfortunately that they are suffering so bad. Frankly i don’t get the fixation with xbox since PS3 can do so much more. Maybe it’s patriotic pride that xbox is the American game system, (made in china
) But there was never a debate for me at all, Sony all the way. I don’t even like using Windows but no one who shares the computer with me wants to bother to learn linux, so for now i tolerate Microsoft in that regard, but its a Vaio :). The rumors are still flying that Apple may jump into the console video game business eventually, if that does happen it really may be a game changer. I will be torn chosing between apple and sony though. hmm BOTH 
I own both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, and they are both excellent systems. To ignore one or the other simply out of brand loyalty is ridiculous.
The console is merely a delivery system; it’s what allows you to play the games. And good games are not exclusive to one system or the other.
There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Plenty of brand loyalty around not just in game systems. Some people buy nothing but Honda, or Toyota, I know plenty of people who wouldn’t be caught dead in a foreign car, though in a global economy what really is a national brand anymore, point is they feel a sense of patriotic pride buying only Ford or Chevrolet. We all spend our money as we see fit, and I had an xbox too but too many things about it annoyed me so i got rid of it. It isn’t simply out of brand loyalty, PS3 has blu-ray, free network play, Home which i use a lot, and no good exclusive games? -- you can argue whether you like them or not but but uncharted, uncharted 2, uncharted 3, DC universe online, resistance, resistance 2, resistance 3, Journey, Metal Gear, God of War, Little big planet 1 & 2, Infamous, infamous 2, Killzone…to name a few just for PS3 let me know if you’d like a complete list. Not to mention both Nintendo and Sony continues to support their last gen. systems while MS completely cut off xbox and strong armed you into paying to play online, and getting the 360, and making a proprietary harddrive device if you want to expand your harddrive.
Re-read my post; I didn’t say there were no exclusive games on the PS3, only that the good ones aren’t exclusive to one particular system or the other. They each have their good points and their bad points, and to ignore one system completely simply because you feel loyalty to a different brand is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
But that’s the problem when arguing with fanboys; logic simply doesn’t work. A true “gamer” appreciates the games, regardless of how they’re delivered.
Agreed. I know somebody who has the PS3, the Xbox 360, and the wii. When asked what games he likes better, he can never choose. For instance PS3 has Gran Turismo 5, and 360 has Forza 4. He repeatedly tells how each one has great advantages and problems. He has the ennlighenment to see that he likes one more, but the others are not trash because they are not Sony. In other words, he’s not a fanboy, he’s a gamer, and that puts him above alot of other 14 year olds. I don’t pay much attention to fanboys. As a die hard NASCAR fan, the same blind fandom exists there this time over Chevy/Ford/Toyota/and Dodge, and each one had won. Each one had it’s pluses and minuses. Good write.