While it wasn't as successful as Sony (then known as Sony Ericsson) hoped, the Xperia Play made one heck of a splash when it was first announced.

Combining the promise of smartphone technology with the company's PlayStation brand, the Android-based handset boasted slide-out physical controls and support for a range of PS1 classics and was also a popular choice with emulation fans.

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If you're based in the UK and were alive when the original PlayStation launched, then you'll almost certainly be aware of the various 'Demo' discs which were bundled with the system and given away with copies of the UK's Official PlayStation Magazine.

These discs were essential items when it came to deciding what game you'd be spending your pocket money on next, but they were also audio-visual treats packed with amazing tunes, stunning footage and even some rather freaky 3D effects.

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When Sega began its work on creating the 32-bit Saturn console, it assumed it would have the market all to itself, more or less; Atari's Jaguar and the 3DO were struggling, while Sega's Mega Drive / Genesis still enjoyed a decent share of the global market.

Of course, newcomer Sony threw a spanner in the works by releasing its PlayStation system at the same time—a console which, in many ways, offered a superior experience and, in the fullness of time, would garner significantly more third-party support, outselling Saturn by a ratio of ten-to-one.

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Over 30 years ago, North American magazine EGM made meme history when it published a screenshot of FromSoftware's King's Field running on the then-unreleased PlayStation console.

The screenshot featured a pair of crudely rendered skeletons, which, by modern standards, look pretty basic. However, back in 1994, they were considered state of the art, as the famous caption—"The PlayStation can produce mind-boggling effects"—attests.

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Although there are notable exceptions—Tetris and Populous being two that spring to mind—it wasn't always easy to sell Western-made games to Japanese players back in the 1990s.

While North American and European gamers would gleefully lap up Japanese output, games moving in the opposite direction often failed to make an impact. That's probably why Sony Computer Entertainment took a rather unique approach with its commercials for early PS1 releases WipEout and Destruction Derby, billing them explicitly as British-made software.

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At this year's Game Developer's Conference, a senior build engineer at PlayStation named Garrett Fredley gave a talk, entitled Preserving the Past for the Future: A PlayStation Case Study.

The talk, which has since been written up by GamesRadar staff (who were in attendance), centered on the problem of how you go about preservation if you have over 30 years' worth of history to capture, record, and archive. And the solution sounds like something out of an old science fiction novel or an Indiana Jones film.

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When League of Legends concept artist Anh Dang came up with the crab-like "PlayStacean" console, she couldn't possibly have realised that this amusing pun would, one day, become a fully functional console—but that's precisely what has happened.

Modder GingerOfMods has taken this concept artwork and created a playable system, complete with claw-like controllers and "a handful of mods".

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Ten years ago, the mythical 'Nintendo PlayStation' became a solid reality when a prototype was discovered. This would eventually change hands for $360,000 in 2020, and was believed to be the only surviving example of the unreleased system—until now, that is.

Japan-based videographer and photographer Julian Domanski recently posted that he got to "fondle" a second prototype during a meeting with former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Ken Kutaragi himself—also known as the Father of PlayStation.

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We're used to seeing games displayed in ultra-widescreen these days, but back in 2001, this was a less common sight, as the vast majority of players were still gaming in a 4:3 aspect ratio on their CRT TVs.

Not wishing to be limited by the display technology of the period, Polyphony Digital coded a mode into Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec that allowed players to access a super-immersive mode using i.Link / FireWire connectivity.

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8BitMods' amazing MemCard Pro range is already an essential purchase for any self-respecting retro gamer, but the company has just added yet another reason to pick one up for your PS1.

Thanks to the latest firmware update, both the MemCard Pro and MemCard Pro 2 have the ability to function as a wireless Bluetooth receiver, so you can connect compatible Bluetooth pads.

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Sony's PS2 is 25 years old today, having launched in Japan on March 4th, 2000. We're republishing this feature to mark this amazing event.

The PlayStation 2 is still, for good reason, the best-selling console with nearly 160 million units sold, beating out the likes of the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. One of the reasons it was such a hit – both inside Japan and in Western territories – was its library of games; truly, the PS2 had something for everyone.

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Sony's PS2 is 25 years old today, having launched in Japan on March 4th, 2000. We're republishing this feature to mark this amazing event.

Sony had a record-breaking year in 1998, raking in over $51 billion in sales and operating revenue. Profits from television sales had spiked in 1997 and continued climbing. Having recently released such notable flops as The Cable Guy and Striptease, Sony's movie studios turned a corner as well, releasing hits like Men in Black and Air Force One. Picking up where Walkman left off, Sony's Discman hit pay dirt in the United States, and its new MiniDisc audio format caught on quickly in Japan. Then, of course, there was the PlayStation.

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If you want any more proof that collecting sealed video games is utterly crazy, then check out this eBay auction for a copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone on the PS1 (better known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in North America).

The sealed and graded copy of the game has a Buy It Now price of (gulp) £10,085.72 (that's around $12,735).

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If you're looking to pick up a classic disc-based retro gaming system these days, then it's worth investigating the world of Optical Disc Emulators—ODEs, for short—as these devices allow you to load game files without having to purchase expensive copies on the secondary market.

One of the most popular ODE options for PS1 is xStation, but it seems as if a new low-cost alternative is now available.

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Sony stopped making its PS1 console a few decades ago now, and while we had the PlayStation Classic back in 2018, the Japanese electronics giant is very much focused on modern tech today, pushing its manufacturing might behind the PS5 and PS5 Pro.

However, given the popularity of the PS1, it's easy to understand why some people might be hankering after a factory-fresh console for their collection—something that industrious resellers in Iran are attempting to provide.

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Sony's PlayStation console is now in its fifth generation, and during the past 30 years, we've seen 3D gaming evolve into offering unprecedented levels of realism, online connectivity become the norm and digital downloads dominate the sales charts.

One thing that hasn't improved all that much is boot time—and by that, we mean the time it takes for your PlayStation console to boot up from a cold start.

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The former Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida has revealed some information about one of the cancelled titles that was being developed for the SNES PlayStation in a new interview with the media outlet MinnMax.

By now, everyone and their uncle has probably already heard the story about Sony's failed partnership with Nintendo. But just in case you haven't, we'll do our best to give you a brief recap going over some of the major bullet points.

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Minnmax recently did a new interview with the former Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida, in which he answered some questions about his lengthy career as one of the key individuals at the influential game company.

During the interview, he shared some insights into what it was like playing the Nintendo PlayStation, his thoughts on the Switch 2 announcement, and what his favourite studios were to visit. But one story that stuck out to us, in particular, as fans of the weird and wonderful, were his reflections on Sony Computer Entertainment of America's (SCEA) ill-fated mascot "Polygon Man", which was revealed at E3 1995 before shortly disappearing off the face of the earth.

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Once upon a time, memory cards were simply for saving your progress and little more, but in 2025, these once-popular accessories have been given a new lease of life thanks to the modding community.

A team of coders have created the Multi-Purpose Memory Card Emulation (MMCE) protocol, which allows games to be loaded directly from new 'smart' memory cards, such as 8BitMods' MemCard Pro 2 and the open-source SD2PSX memory card.

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Lorentio Brodesco has taken to Kickstarter to raise the funds required to do something Sony hasn't done for almost 20 years: build a new PS1 motherboard.

The nsOne project started when Brodesco was attempting to repair a faulty PS1 in March of last year. "I realized that detailed documentation on the original motherboard was either incomplete or entirely unavailable," he says.

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Shuhei Yoshida is parting company with Sony after over 30 years and has been speaking to Kinda Funny Games about his amazing career.

One of the topics that came up was the PS Vita, one of Sony's most notable hardware flops. Despite offering amazing power and a great design, the system failed to compete with the Nintendo 3DS and is estimated to have sold around 10 to 15 million units – a dismal return when you consider the PSP sold over 80 million.

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CES is always full of surprises – after all, it's the event where the tech world shows off its latest and greatest gadgets.

However, one device is turning heads for another reason. As reported by Sammobile, a walk past Samsung's CES 2025 stand might lead you to assume the Korean giant has somehow brokered a deal with Sony to relaunch the PS2 – but sadly, this isn't the case.

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For a system that was never officially released, the SNES PlayStation has certainly eaten up plenty of column inches over the past few years – and understandably so.

This union between Nintendo and Sony could have revolutionised the 16-bit market, but ultimately, the deal was broken off when Nintendo became fearful that Sony would gain too much from software sales. The fallout was that Sony turned its attention to the stand-alone PlayStation, and the rest is history.

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Don't worry – you're not suffering from déjà vu. If you feel like you've read this before, it's because we're republishing some of our favourite features from the past year as part of our Best of 2024 celebrations. If this is new to you, then enjoy reading it for the first time! This piece was originally published on February 22nd, 2024.

With the recent passing of Yoshitaka Murayama, the world has been robbed of a creative visionary. Friends and family have lost a loved one; fans of his work have lost an auteur they could trust; a younger generation of developers have lost a sensei they could learn from. Murayama can never again discuss his craft and so, his words we now have are all we'll ever have. This final point is particularly salient since, as will be shown, Murayama had a strong understanding of player needs.

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Back when the PS2 arrived in 2000, the internet was still in its infancy, so we didn't get a glitzy reveal trailer showcasing the features of the console which would eventually become the best-selling device of its type.

In the modern era, hyping up gaming gear with flashy trailers is all part of the promotional strategy, and it's hard to imagine a company like Sony pushing out new hardware without a slickly produced video to accompany it.

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