I created this video for the 30th anniversary of PlayStation last year. But now it's finally been 30 years since the UK launch so I thought I'd put it about a little.
I was 15 years old at the time of the first PlayStation being released and very much into videogames, so it was something I got myself involved with at the time, and I've stayed interested in the platform ever since.

I thought I'd get all these first hand experiences into a video to offer a perspective on history from someone who was just the right age at the time and can say what it was really like, bust some myths, and properly explain how intertwined PlayStation and pop culture really was during the 90s.

Excerpts from the video:

I dug through old news stories to show surprising things about the market pre-PlayStation

As well as my own words, I included footage from British TV from the 90s.

If you know why the game case sizes being the same size as CD cases was important, you were definitely there at the time!

You know the PSone with it's screen was Sony's way of getting into the car tuner scene right?

The PS2 launch line up was actually quite decent, but too many people confuse the Japanese & western launches up.

The PSP did not introduce the world to the XMB...

..The PSX was the first machine to show the XMB. I know because I have one that actually works!

The PS3 really was a great multimedia box for 2007 and linked many other elements of digital life together.

PS3 feels like the bridge in-between what "PlayStation" was; and what PlayStation feels like today.

Anyway, I hope someone watches the video and finds it interesting/enjoyable. It took a while to make and I put quite a bit of effort into it. If you're a PlayStation fan, I think you'll enjoy it; and the music break down sections are banging!

Great video, so many memories :)

Yeah I was the classical PS gamer. Lured from PC.

I got introduced to PS1 first time when seeing it advertised in a clothing store running Wipeout, that looked unreal at the time. But I played Wipeout on my PC as well as the first Tombraider. Then later I played Gran Turismo on the PS in Night Clubs in between dancing. And then I bought one to play Tomb Raider 2 as I didn't have the cash to upgrade my PC at the time. Next got addicted to FF7 and later took the thing to work to show off MGS in the break room. We were playing Duke Nukem 3D in the office after work at the time, MGS was revolutionary. Then Half-Life followed which became the new 'office game', HL death match, yet MGS made a bigger impact at the time.


The PS2 launch line-up was indeed perfectly fine in Europe. The hype was insane and it was actually the most I spend in one go on console gaming to get one at launch. Bill of 1,200 Dutch Guilders for the ps2, extra controller and 2 games. (Ridge Racer and SSX)

LMAO AI can't do math: In the year 2000, €272.28 was equivalent to 1,200 Dutch guilders, as the official fixed exchange rate was €1 to NLG 2.20371
That was 545 Euros at the time (936 Euros today)

That you had to switch the output mode for DVD is new to me, was that UK specific? I've never seen that, not with the original RCA cable or the component video cables. (Maybe a Scart thing? didn't use that)

Anyway PS2 wasn't all that great of a DVD player and I was still into LaserDisc at the time. Early DVDs weren't that pretty. So I never bought it for a DVD player and only used it as one much later for convenience on other tvs. I had a dedicated region free DVD player for DVDs as being stuck in region 2 sucked.

So it was purely for games and they delivered. Also first 1080i experience with GT4 on my Panasonic Tau 34" flat HD ready CRTV (720x1080i) as well as first Dolby Digital 5.1 experience with SSX 3 via toslink. (optical audio). The audio of PS2 was pristine. I preferred to buy certain games on PS2 over XBox for the audio output, even though the game ran worse. Fahrenheit was one of them. Lossy DD wasn't all that great, uncompressed LCPM from PS2 was superior.



And yeah PS3 was great with my 1080p digital video camera. Pop out the SD card into the ps3 card reader and directly watch the mts2 files in 1080p HD on TV through the PS3. PS3 also let me download you tube videos through PS3 YouTube, which I still have stored on my PS3, ad free, lag free music and concert videos :) Ripping CDs was easy on PS3, great CD player as well. And same as the PS2, PS3 was by far the cheapest blu-ray player when it came out. Standalone blu-ray players were still $1,200 when PS3 launched.

And indeed, adding everything up I bought with 360, rechargeable battery packs, XBL, HD-DVD add-on, component cables, it was a more expensive buy than PS3 for lower video and sound quality. Sure the premium 360 I bought came with a HD component cable, yet I had to install a component video cable from my amp to my projector just for the 360. That long of a high quality component cable cost me an extra CAD 300 at the time, nearly 3 times as much as the same length of high quality HDMI cable.  

XBox 360: CAD 499 for the console (20GB), CAD 60 for XBox Live, extra controller CAD 50, rechargeable battery packs CAD 20 x 2, HD-DVD add-on CAD 230, CAD 300 for the cable, for a total of CAD 1,179. (CAD 879 not counting my special needs cable)

PS3: CAD 659 for the 60 GB model, extra controller CAD 70, CAD 120 for the hdmi cable, for a total of CAD 849. (779 not counting the cable)

So to get the same functionality with 2 controllers, CAD 100 more for XBox 360, 330 more including the extra cabling needed. (And both that cable as well as the HD-DVD add-on soon became obsolete...)


Great trip down memory lane!


And yep, ps3 was the last great AV console. PS5 doesn't play CDs anymore, no 3D blu-ray, I'm keeping my PS3 hooked up.

Watching now. Nice video. One thing that you didn’t mention was that the original slate of Sony titles did release with the large oversized cases.

That was not a thing in the UK or Japan.  As far as I know, long boxes were only a thing that happened in America.