NOTE: I'm using North American release dates, but feel free to use European or Japanese dates!

With so many high-profile PS4 games launching in 2016, some fans have introduced the idea that 2016 might be the best year for the PlayStation ecosystem.

That got me thinking: what IS the best year for the PlayStation ecosystem? And that question prompted two others: what is the best year for the Xbox ecosystem? The Nintendo ecosystem?

Therefore, I've created three threads, one for each of the big three.

Best Year Ever: Nintendo
Best Year Ever: Sony
Best Year Ever: Microsoft

So let's talk PlayStation here. Which is the best overall year?

Is it 1997? That year saw Final Fantasy VII, Oddworld: Abe's Odyssee, Tomb Raider II, Tekken 3, and Castlevania: SoTN
Is it 1998? That year saw Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Gran Turismo
Is it 2001? That year saw Onimusha Warlords, Red Faction, Jak and Daxter, Final Fantasy X, Ico, Twisted Metal: Black, and DMC
Is it 2005? That year saw Resident Evil 4, Gran Turismo 4, God of War, and Shadow of the Colossus
Is it 2007? That year saw God of War 2, MotorStorm, Folklore, Ratchet & Clank Future, Uncharted, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Is it 2009? That year saw Uncharted 2, inFamous, Demon's Souls, Trine, Modern Warfare 2, and Street Fighter IV
Or is it another year, and why?

I'll have to give that more thought, but why exactly are people saying this is the best year ever? I'm not saying it's bad, but best ever? Are we speaking of exclusives or just library in general?

I think I'd rank most of your list ahead of 2016 unless I'm missing a few key titles.

1998 always and forever!

Tactics alone makes me want to pick that one lol

Harder to pick than the Nintendo one, because on PlayStation things are more spread out. I'd pick 1997, 1998 or 2009 actually.

I think 1998 wins for me, like with Nintendo, because it has a couple of my all-time favorites, as well as my favorite PlayStation game ever. 1998 rocked.

I think this is going to be a common phenomenon for PlayStation. The first six months or so are amazing and then the second half is a bit of a let down. This is almost certainly because the best former holiday titles got pushed back a few months.

2015 was pretty great for Playstation at first (ignoring that whole Order 1886 game) and then gradually became less stellar.

I would say 2009 though. It was really the comeback year for the PS3.

This is a tough call for me between 1997 and 2001. Final Fantasy VII, Abe's Oddysee, Symphony of the Night, and Tomb Raider II are just too good to pass up. But I like Ico more than all of those, and Devil May Cry and The Precursor Legacy are nothing to sneeze at.

Yeah I guess as a PS4 owner I'm not feeling like this year is suddenly much improved over last year. While they were mostly multiplats (or at least also PC), you could mostly say that about this year's releases too with a couple notable exceptions.

Unless I'm forgetting one, right now I plan to get Uncharted 4 and also look forward to FFXV. No Man's Sky was initially very interesting, but I'm less confident in it now.

I suppose E3 could reveal this to be one of the best years of all time, but really I feel it's next year that we'll really see the Playstation thrive, with many of those titles from it's big E3 last year beginning to release and VR being a reality.

I think you should hammer down the best years for each console then go head to head with each other and find the best overall.

2011 was probably ps3s best year. Skyrim. Portal 2. Arkham 2. Mass effect 2. Des ex. Nba 2k12. La noire. Mw3. Dead space 2. Dark souls. Battlefield 3. Crysis 2.

Downloadable titles. Limbo. Festival of blood. Trine 2. Rayman origins.

Exclusives. uncharted 3. Littlebig 2. The show mlb 2011. Infamous 2. Killzone 3. Reisitance 3. Yakuza 4. Motorstorm apocalypse.

Remasters. Ico and shadow of colossus. Metal gear solid collection. Gow origins collection. Resident evil 4. Prince of persia. Beyond good evil.

2005 was probably ps2s best year. 

Gow. Shadow of colossus. Resident evil 4. Need for speed most wanted. Battlefront 2. Splinter cell chaos theory. Dmc 3. Soul calibur 3. Rachet deadlocked. Gta liberty city stories. Jak x.  Kingdom hearts 2.

2001 and 2005 for me