About This Quiz
After more than two decades on the market, the PlayStation has captured the attention of multiple generations of gamers. Take our quiz to see how much your know about the history and development of this classic console system.Sony originally designed the PlayStation as a CD-ROM companion to the SNES. The new system would play both discs and standard SNES cartridges.
Advertisement
Shoppers lined up when the first PlayStation was released in Japan on Dec. 3, 1994.
Advertisement
Sony sold more than 300,000 PlayStations during the first month of release, despite stiff competition from the Sega Saturn, which came out a week earlier than the PlayStation.
Advertisement
The PlayStation launched Sept. 9, 1995 in the U.S., with more than 100,000 units presold on launch day. By the time the unit hit the U.S., Sony had already sold more than a million consoles in Japan.
Advertisement
Players had just 17 games to choose from in the fall of 1995. By Christmas of 1996, the catalog had expanded to include more than 200 games.
Advertisement
Players bought more than 10.85 million copies of "Gran Turismo," making it the best-selling game for the first PlayStation console.
Advertisement
The PlayStation was discontinued in 2004 after selling more than 100 million units 'round the world.
Advertisement
The PS One came out in 2000 and represented a smaller and cheaper alternative to the original PlayStation. Gamers could purchase a separate LCD screen to make the unit fairly portable.
Advertisement
The PlayStation 2 came out in March 2000 in Japan and reached the U.S. by October that same year.
Advertisement
By the time the PlayStation 2 was discontinued in January 2013, Sony had sold more than 150 million units.
Advertisement
The PlayStation 3 came out in November 2006 in both Japan and the U.S. and was the first console to offer Blu-ray and high-def 1080p video.
Advertisement
Priced between $500 and $600, the PlayStation 3 cost $100 more than the Xbox 360 and more than twice as much as the Nintendo Wii when it was first released.
Advertisement
Sony sold 80 million PS3 units by the time the PS4 was released. While this number is relatively high, it's well under the number of consoles shipped for the PlayStation and PS2.
Advertisement
The PlayStation Portable, or PSP, came out in 2005 and was designed to store photos and play multimedia, as well as play games.
Advertisement
Sony launched the PS4 in November 2013. Within two years, the company had sold more than 30 million units.
Advertisement
Game makers were still releasing PlayStation 2 games a decade after the system was launched. Eventually, the game catalog for PS2 grew to more than 10,000 titles.
Advertisement
Released in Oct. 2004, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" sold more than 18 million units to become the top-selling PS2 game.
Advertisement
The PlayStation 2 was the first console to allow online gaming, though it required an optional accessory.
Advertisement
While Sony sold almost 80 million PS3s — about the same as the Xbox 360 — the Nintendo Wii outsold both with sales of 100 million units.
Advertisement
While the PlayStation 2 was backwards compatible — you could use it to play PlayStation games — the PS3 lost this feature.
Advertisement
Sony launched the PlayStation Network along with the PlayStation 3 in 2006. The network allowed for multi-player, online gaming on the PS3, PSP and future consoles.
Advertisement
Players could find DualShock controllers for the original PlayStation way back in 1998.
Advertisement
The PS3 came with motion-sensing technology, as well as a special controller called the PlayStation Move.
Advertisement
This slogan, which used shapes from the game controller to replace certain letters, was used to sell the PlayStation 2.
Advertisement
Buyers picked up more than 40 million PS2 units in the first two years of release, making it the fastest-selling console of all time.
Advertisement
Sony sold 5.7 million PS4 consoles over the 2015 to 2016 holiday season, By January 2016, more than 35 million units had been sold.
Advertisement
A "Call of Duty" game has topped the list of best-selling console games since 2009, with "Black Ops III" taking the top spot in both 2014 and 2015.
Advertisement
The PlayStation Vita is a remake of the PSP and was released Feb. 22, 2012.
Advertisement
You can't play your old disks in a PS4, but Sony did confirm in late 2015 that it was working on a PS2 game emulator for use in the PS4.
Advertisement
In early 2016, Sony announced that the new virtual reality VR would be launched for use with the PS4, with an initial catalog of 50 games designed to work with the new headset.
Advertisement