PlayStation

Playstation is a video game brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two portable video game consoles, a media player, and a smartphone, in addition to an online service and a number of magazine subscriptions. A subsidiary of Sony, Sony Interactive Entertainment produces the PlayStation brand. The original PlayStation system was launched in Japan in December 1994, and it was made available to the general public worldwide the following year.

With almost 100 million units shipped in less than a decade, the first console in the series was the first system of any kind to achieve this feat. The PlayStation 2 was launched in 2000, and it is the successor to the PlayStation. As of the end of 2012, the PlayStation 2 was the best-selling home console of all time, with more than 155 million copies sold worldwide. Sony's next console, the PlayStation 3, was released in 2006, selling over 87.4 million units by March 2017. A year after the PlayStation 3's debut, Sony's PlayStation 4 system went on sale, selling a million copies in a single day to become the fastest-selling console in history. The PlayStation 5 is the most recent system in the series, and it will be launched in 2020.

By November 2013, the PlayStation Portable, often known as the PSP, has sold a total of 80 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful portable gaming system in the series' history. With the release of its replacement, the PlayStation Vita, which was released in December 2011 in Japan and most other major markets in February 2012, it had sold more than four million copies by January 2013. It is a microconsole and non-portable version of the PlayStation Vita handheld gaming console, which was released in 2011. Other PlayStation-related hardware includes the PSX, a digital video recorder that was integrated with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, though it was only available in Japan for a short time due to its high price and was never released outside of Japan, and a Sony Bravia television set that features an integrated PlayStation 2. PlayStation series controllers are mostly based on the DualShock series, which is a range of vibration-feedback gamepads that has sold more than 28 million units as of June 2008, according to Sony.