Sony

Sony Corporation is a company that focusses on professional electronics, gaming, entertainment, and even financial service. Even though Sony was founded back in 1946, the company wouldn’t break into the gaming world for another 49 years.

Despite its late start in the gaming industry, Sony has continually proven itself to be a dominant force in the industry.

PlayStation 1 On the 3rd of December, 1994 in Japan, Sony made a move into the gaming market with the release of its very first gaming console, the PlayStation 1 (Commonly referred to as the PS1, PS, and PSX).

The PlayStation proved to be both a critical and commercial success and paved Sony’s way to becoming one of the most dominant forces in the gaming industry. Sony is regarded as the largest game console business and one of the largest game publishers in the world.

The original PlayStation saw the release of numerous critically acclaimed games, such as the release of Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and much more.

This wealth of games helped Sony position themselves in the gaming market as a force to be reckoned with.

PlayStation 2 With the release of the PlayStation 2 in the year 2000, Sony successfully solidified its dominance in the gaming market with the PS2 selling over 155 million units during its lifespan.

The console was so successful that Sony kept its production running well into the life span of the PlayStation 3 with the production ending in 2013.

The PS2’s growth was helped by the continual release of high-quality games such as God Of War, Ratched & Clank, Kingdom Hearts, and many more.

PlayStation 3 Six years later, Sony released the PlayStation 3 as its successor to the widely successful PS2. The PS3 had a slow start due to it releasing later than its competitors and sporting a higher price tag.

However, the PS3 still rallied to be a commercially successful release, selling over 87 million units during its lifespan.

This success was spurred on by a release of substantial new exclusive hits such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, the Uncharted series, The Last of Us, and many more.

PlayStation 4 Sony’s current latest offering is the PlayStation 4. Released in late 2013, the PS4 has been a massive success for the company, selling over 100 million units.

The PS4 saw Sony regain its market dominance in the console industry, thanks in part to the lackluster release of the Nintendo Wii U and the marketing nightmare that was the original release of the Xbox One.

Sony continued its strong lineup of exclusive first-party and third-party games for the PS4.

The PS4 saw the release of many critically acclaimed games such as the new Spider-Man game, God of War, Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, Detroit Become Human, Bloodborne, and many more.

PlayStation 5 Sony hopes to continue its dominance in the gaming market with the release of the PlayStation 5 in 2020.

While few details are known about this upcoming console, one thing is for sure is that Sony will ensure it releases with a solid lineup of games.

PlayStation Portable While Sony has proven dominant in the console market, they didn’t successfully manage to translate this to the handheld game market.

With Nintendo’s Nintendo DS series selling incredibly well, Sony tried to get in on the market with the release of its handheld game console called the PlayStation Portable or PSP.

Even though the PSP still managed to sell over 80 million units, this was small in comparison to that of the Nintendo DS, which sold over 288 million units over its four different models.

The PlayStation Portables sales suffered partly due to its game library. While there were a few notable games, it didn’t get the same first-party support that Sony showed its home video game consoles.

This lack of first-party support hurt Sony when going up against the DS, which had a constant stream of strong first-party games.