With Sony basically teasing a PlayStation 4 announcement this February, the Daily Reaction crew of Seb and Dan look back at all the PlayStation hardware reveals so far.
PS1
Seb: The original Play Station (yup, with the space) announcement has to be the most important reveal of all, simply because it started everything. It all began at the Consumer Electronics Show way back in 1991, where Sony announced a SNES with a built-in CD-ROM drive created by Ken Kutaragi for Nintendo. But disaster struck and Nintendo stabbed Sony in the back, declaring a partnership with Philips.
Luckily, Sony president Norio Ohga refused to allow the embarrassing snub to put an end to their gaming ambitions, and instead they decided to take the ultimate revenge by making a fully fledged console. Without the original betrayal, the true PS1 (now sans space) would never have come to be, so I am forever grateful… even if it was an incredibly painful moment for Sony.
PS2
Dan: When Sony finally announced the details regarding the PS2’s launch at a pre-E3 event in 2000, no one knew that it would become one of the best selling consoles of all time. This was especially true considering the rumors that were flying around the industry the year before, where the PS2 could have been priced as high as $839, a far cry from the launch price of $299. The inclusion of a built in DVD player gave the console a reason to be in every home world wide, not to mention that the system was pushing what was expected from a gaming platform, from its HDD bay, to its ability to work as a CD player.
PSP
Seb: Like with the PS2, the PSP was announced ahead of E3 at a press conference. At the 2003 conference, Sony detailed the technical aspects of the PSP, and touted its multimedia capabilities – Kutaragi called it the “Walkman of the 21st Century”. Sadly, no mockups of the PSP were shown so we didn’t even know what it looked like until E3 2004.
PS3
Dan: While it was far from a secret when the PS3 finally became official, due to the number of people talking about the development of the cell chip for Sony’s next Playstation, and a next-gen game being shown (Dark Sector), the PS3’s announcement at E3 was one of the more memorable unveilings in recent history. As Sony had held a premier event earlier in 2005, and had openly stated that the PS3 would be shown publicly at that year’s E3, Sony set the stage for their biggest launch yet. Sadly, the most memorable part of the E3 conference will always be the moment Sony disclosed the launch price for their newest console – 3 hundred billion dollars.
PS Vita
Seb: The PS Vita’s announcement is Sony’s most recent, and was announced at a “PlayStation Meeting” early in the year, which is particularly interesting considering the ‘PS4 announcement’ is another PlayStation Meeting early on in the year.
The difference between these two events is that this year’s event will be held in New York, while 2011’s was held in Tokyo.
At the PSM, we were introduced to the “Next Generation Portable”, shown a bunch of games, told about a bunch more, had a detailed run-down of the specs and got to see the near-finished version of the hardware. They also gave a launch window but didn’t talk about the price.
Compared to all the previous announcements, it was certainly the most in-depth and the most revealing. If Feb 20th’s PlayStation Meeting is anything like this one, then we’re in for a real treat.
Hopefully this gives you a better idea of what we might expect this Feb… although it probably doesn’t. What do you think we’ll see? As it’s a full-on expensive event, it has to be more than a “yeah, we’re making one”, but will they announce the price, games and release date? Speculate in the comments below, or watch Seb and Dan release on Twitter.
Our $20 PSN giveaway is coming to a close, but there’s still time to enter by simply emailing DailyReaction@PlayStationLifeStyle.net with your ideas for future DRs.
