The PlayStation officially abbreviated (PS) brand is a series of video game consoles created and developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. Spanning the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of video gaming, the brand was first introduced on December 3, 1994 in Japan.[1] The brand consists of a total of three consoles, a media center, an online service, a line of controllers and a handheld as well as multiple magazines.
The first console in the series, the PlayStation, was the first video game console to ship 100 million units after 9 years and 6 months of its initial launch.[2] While its successor, PlayStation 2, is the best-selling console to date having reached over 150 million units sold as of January 31, 2011.[3] Sony's current console, PlayStation 3, has sold over 47.9 million consoles worldwide as of December 31, 2010.[4] The first handheld game console in the PlayStation series, PlayStation Portable (PSP), has sold a total of 67.8 million units worldwide as of February 25, 2011.[5] The Next Generation Portable, an upcoming handheld being developed by Sony as a successor to the PlayStation Portable, it is set to be released in 2011.
Other hardware released as part of the PlayStation series include the PSX, a digital video recorder which was integrated with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, though it was short lived due to its high price and was never released outside of Japan as well as a Sony Bravia television set which has a PlayStation 2 integrated. The main series of controllers utilized by the PlayStation series is the DualShock which is a line of vibration-feedback gamepad having sold 28 million controllers as on June 28, 2008.[6] The PlayStation Move for the PlayStation 3 is the brand's first foray into the motion gaming industry.
