PlayStation: 15 Years In The Making…

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Today we celebrate 15 Years of PlayStation, the gaming industry and most importantly, the PlayStation fan. It is an honor to officially kick off our celebration on the PlayStation.Blog with a retrospective journey and history lesson 15 years in the making.

The PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation Portable, the PlayStation 3 — these aren’t just names to Sony gaming products — these are milestones in every gamers’ coming of age story. Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, Killzone and God of War, aren’t just clever titles to PlayStation classics — but defining moments in gaming history where PlayStation stands above the rest, delivering memorable experiences and jaw-dropping moments.

PlayStation 15: PlayStationPlayStation 15: PlayStation 2

Sitting at PlayStation and being part of this amazing journey as a gamer and now working with the PlayStation team, I can’t help but recollect my first encounter with Metal Gear Solid. Within moments of popping in my PlayStation Underground disc, and booting the MGS demo — I knew right there and then what I wanted to do with my life. I must have shredded through several layers of protective coating on the PlayStation disc, playing the MGS demo over and over, patiently waiting for Hideo Kojima’s classic. If I can define my favorite PlayStation moment in two words, it would be: Pyscho Mantis.

PlayStation 15: PlayStation PortablePlayStation 15: PlayStation 3

Where were you on September 9th, 1995?

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163 Comments

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  • this might sound out of place or idk, but is there anywhere on the web where I can watch the SONY keynote from when they introduced the, what was back then, the new memeber of the faimly, the PlayStation 2?

    I just saw a small piece of it on the featured video, and now I feel like watching the whole thing.

    Thanks for any help.

  • 15 years and been there every step of the way. :)

    I remember getting the launch Playstation and playing Battle Arena Toshinden for like 24 hours straight with my friend. We eventually figured out you can put an audio CD into the Playstation after the battle loaded…first in game music! Of course it would just play a random track off the disk, but we thought it was amazing anyway.

    Thanks for all the good times Playstation. It’s cheezy as hell, but you have always been here for me when I needed to escape the world and play somewhere else, and I will always be here for you as long as you provide that experience.

    • I use to do the same thing with Twisted Metal. I’d pop the PlayStation disc in a CD player and listen to soundtrack on my Walkman. =)

  • On September 9th I was still saddened that Kingdom Hearts wasnt on PSN

  • Happy 15th Birthday Sony and Playstation. I love the video, I always been a bit of a history nerd.

  • I remember getting this as a X-mas present as a total surprise! We didnt have a real game for the longest time though. Demo disc thankfully though haha. My first and fav memory though is with a great RPG by the name Xenogears…such a great game.

  • Dear Playstation:

    THANK YOU for this AWESOME video! Man, I wish I could download a copy! It such a well done video!

  • Great video guys and Happy 15th anniversary, I have close to 300 PSP, PS, PS2, AND PS3 Games, it’s been a hell of a run and we’re just getting started!!! 8)

  • 9/9/95 I was in junior high. I believe I was too poor to afford one at the time, but I was within walking distance from an Electronics Boutique, so you know I was a regular there (and eventually an employee).

    When I finally got around to buying a PlayStation for myself, I think Warhawk was my first title, but damn if I don’t remember good times with Twisted Metal, Worms, Metal Gear Solid, Suikoden, Wild Arms, Loaded, Rally Cross, FF7, and a series I wish Capcom would revisit again, Megaman Legends.

    I still own a lot of those games today, not to mention a whole bunch of other PS1, PS2, and PS3 classics.

    Thanks for 15 fun years, Sony!

  • Happy Birthday from Italy!

    Oh, i think 9/9/95 i was at school, without any news about PlayStation, but with a great passion and love for videogames… and i was 11.
    Now, i’m 26, living alone with 2 cats, everything around me in changed, except one thing…

    http://bit.ly/9LTLRU

    :D

    (oh, what a strange feeling to see Ken Kutaragi and Phil Harrison in that video :) )

  • I was 11 when it released and also when I won my first PlayStation along with Resident Evil, Street Fighter Alpha 1, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Darkstalkers, and Star Gladiator in a GamePro contest from Capcom, that same year.

    All those nights of sleeping with the letter from them under my pillow and asking my mom if she knows if it’s coming in the mail the next day for the next 4 weeks was truly the most i’ve ever been impatient for it.

    Happy 15th Birthday PlayStation!

  • Oh, please, put the video on PSstore in the next few days.. it’s AMAZING!

  • A greater way to celebrate this would be a HUGE crossover video game(on psp)!

    Anyway, congrats

  • I remember rented an imported Japanese PS2 and playing Ridge Racer all weekend long and being in a trance.

  • Jack Tretton is so nice that we feel him like being our friends!

  • Hey Rey, did you make this video? You deserve a raise!

  • Happy B-Day Playstation!

    My first console was a Super Nintendo, but ultimately it was the PS1 that really “kicked-up” my love for gaming to a whole new level, and I’ve been a Playstation gamer ever since.

    Crash Bandicoot, Spyro (the Insomniac developed titles),Jak and Daxter, Twisted Metal, God of War, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Gran Turismo and the Uncharted series are my top favorite standout Exclusive series’ over the years with Playstation so far. Metal Gear Solid is my hands down favorite 3rd party franchise most associated with Playstation…just love that franchise :)

    15 Years Down, looking forward to the many years to come.

  • I played Toshinden, Wipeout, Ridge Racer and Warhawk at my local Circuit City demo kiosk and promptly sold my Atari Jaguar to a friend to go in on a Playstation and Wipout, sans the memory card, with my younger brother.

  • I love my psp my ps2 ps3 sony I love you I am fanboy

  • Happy 15th, PlayStation U Rock. Because The Sony PlayStation Made Gaming What It Is Today With Its Technology. The Sony PlayStation Just Keeps Getting Better And Better. My Family Has Been With The Console From The Start And We Are Not About To Stop Good Job Sony.

  • wow, I remember waiting for the game store at the mall to open so my brother could get his ps. Getting home and playing the demo disc that came with it and thinking graphics could never get better. WOW!! awesome. happy B-day ps!

  • i was trying to get a nintendo 64 but one day i went to my friend house and he had a PSOne playing need for speed hot pursuit 2 months later i got his playstation his lost my gain. i just can’t wonder how awesome the next 15 years are going to be for playstation and us the fans.

  • Happy birthday PS. Always been a Playstation guy. Always will be.

  • Happy Birthday Playstation keep on being better than all the other consoles out there!

  • I’m a Jurassic gamer who cut my teeth on the Odyssey and participated in the Atari/Intellivision system wars (go Team Intellivision!), and was totally out of gaming by the time the PS1 rolled around, but damn if what I saw didn’t impress me enough to get that $299 out of me. I think Battle Arena Toshinden was my first game, but my first all-nighter was trying to finish the original Tomb Raider before leaving at 7A the next morning for a week-long business trip.

    Kudos, PlayStation, and look forward to 15+ years to come

  • Great video
    Great franchise
    keep it up.. I only got 2 favors to ask u

    1) PLEASE RELEASE METAL GEAR SOLID COLLECTION ON THE PS3
    2) please release Gran Turismo 5 demo for PSN+ members or just PSN members :)
    thanks

  • wow back in 1995 I remember playing alot of super nintendo that same year I came across a friend of mines who had a panasonic 3DO that was like the ultimate console back then…In 1996 I got introduce to the sega saturn I remember like if it was now I remember playing daytona usa alot it was one of my favorite games back then. It took me a whole another year to know about the playstation when I first saw it at the mall I wasn’t impress but when I got to play ridge racer I was blown away ever since that day I been following the videogame industry I have had every single playstation that has came out except the ps3 slim because I still got my 60g ps3 now a 500gig ;)

  • I’m a proud Playstation fascist. Thank you SCEA for 15 years of unforgettable times. Here’s to the future!

  • Happy 15th birthday Playstation.:D Never gotten a PS1, but I have so many good memories with the PS2, PSP, and PS3.

  • WE all serve one god GAMING FOREVER MAY HE REIGN! YEAH KB AND GANG PlayStation forever!!!!!!!!!!

  • Fifteen years ago I was playing Wipeout. Not much has changed. I still have the original “big box” release of the game. And even after 15 years, the disc remains in good shape. I still play it, too, but now on my PS3.

  • My first PS games i think were: crash and spyro.

  • I have to thank Playstation for instilling my passion for cars. If it weren’t for Gran Turismo and PD I do not know what my passion today would be.

    Secondly, MGS. No game has made me appreciate games more. It is such an experience. It was like a fully thought out intellectual movie you could play and truly be a part of. Lastly I have to thank the PS3 and BluRay.

    My Grandmother hates TV and almost all visual media. But one night I asked her if she wanted to watch Planet Earth with me. So I popped in the episode about mountains, and we watched it together. She said to me it was one of the most beautiful things she has ever seen in her life. It made her relive her Austrian mountain climbing days when she was younger. This made me question the impact of material items. Maybe they are not as shallow as I once thought.

  • The streaming in Home doesn’t work well for me, so I’m glad you posted this here.

    I got my original PlayStation the day Final Fantasy 7 came out.

  • Why didn’t you guys use the PSP intro? :(

  • 15 years ago… I was still a serious Nintendo fanboy and made fun of my friends and their “silly” discs and memory cards…

    I finally gave in and bought a PSOne in time for Final Fantasy IX. Never looked back.

    Happy 15th, Playstation.

  • “Where were you on September 9th, 1995?”

    umm…. WAYYYYY back story.
    I was 10 yrs old. Weeks before the release I got rid of the Atari and the Sega Genesis, sold by a low price BTW. Reunited all the money I can and on the launch day, everyone in my community was amazed. Got 2 games, Crash and Rally Cross.

    Then about a month later, my friends decided to reunite the money and buy the boomerang, and 3 more controllers. And it was a all nighters for almost a month playing on 4 screen in a 20″ TV set.

    Then got the PS2 (but didn’t sell the one) it was used, some scratches and dents but worked with me until 2007. Then got the PS3 (at $599 80GB model with PS2 backward compatibility) and sold the 2. Almost 2.5 years later it got YLOD, on march actually, broken, not working that time, waited all summer, until 2 weeks ago that bought a new slim model (120GB) and got back into the PS world.

    Now it’s doing the updates on all my games, and the next paycheck will be a new game for me to celebrate the come back into gaming.

    Hear hear to more years to come. Celebrate your 15’s now Sony, you deserve it.

  • Happy Birthday, PlayStation. Since the beginning you have served me well from PS One to PS3.

    Here’s to another 15, you dog you. ^_^

  • That last line, reminds me of Back to the Future.

    “Yes, November 5th, 1955!”

  • Thanks for making my childhood entertaining, university whiz-by, and continue to make memories with my family. Fatherhood did not mean I have to give up the joys of life. Here’s to a strong and bright future!

  • SONY ftw!

  • Nice seeing Tommy Tallarico in the beginning there! One of the pioneer video game composers, and the main guy responsible for Video Games Live! I really hope to go see one of those shows one day!

    I got into the Playstation when my uncle bought one when I was about 7 or 8. For most of the ’90’s, my family lived in London, KY, close to my mom’s family. So, I got to visit my uncle and play whatever he had on the Playstation! I remember playing all of the Crash & Spyro games, the original Sled Storm game, and lots of sports and party games with my brother.

    For Christmas in either 2002 or 2003, my uncle bought us a Playstation 2. We got this one bad racing game, Disney Golf, Wheel of Fortune, and Crash: The Wrath of Cortex (I may have gotten that later). But that’s where I would play some of the best games I’ve ever played.

    And being hired 2 years ago for my first job helped me pay for my own 80 GB PS3 with MGS4! Since then, I’ve bought maybe 12 or 13 PSN games, and about 7 or 8 disc games.

    I guess my point of all this is…I love Playstation!

  • I’m pretty sure I got the Psone back at about the time it came out.
    It was unfortunately my brothers and mine. seeing as how i was maybe 5 or 6. I remember playing a bunch of things.
    Crash Bandicoot by far, Jet Moto, MediEvil, some zombie Halloween hockey game(still have no clue what it was called to this day).

  • Absolutely amazing, Playstatin been my fav since the PS1. guys keep up the great work and the amazing games

  • wait wait are you serious i can play twisted metal as a audio cd!?!?!?
    i have my old original disc i’m gonna try NOW!!

  • 15 SICK years. Playstation brought me my first 3D version of Street Fighter, then it introduced me to wonderful world of Ridge Racer. So many memories on these consoles, I’ve honestly lost count.

    To another 15, Sony!!

  • Really Nice video, keep it like that PS and ur fanbase will never abandon u

    *ahem*FFXIII go away

  • when lookin at my Psone collection titles i saw my Favorite game:
    PROJECT OVERKILL!! GOD i lov’d that game!

  • Wher’s Kevin Butler?

  • My Playstation 1 First game is….. Demo 1 >_>; xD
    well after that i bought a bunch of games in one go, it was awesome.

  • Awesome – Happy Birthday!

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