Sony finally pulls the plug on production of the PSOne

April 19, 2006

No matter how sophisticated a gaming PC one may build or buy, give it two to three years and without any upgrading, it will become difficult to find a game that will run to its full potential on it. Give it another couple of years and virtually no new 3D games on the market will run on it. However, when it comes to the game console market, the original PlayStation which made Sony lead the game console market has managed to survive over 11 years on the market and it is not until now that Sony has finally decided to pull the plug on it!

Since its debut in December 1994, the number of units sold between the original Playstation and the redesigned PSOne went beyond 100 million last September. However, even though its production has come to an end, the PSOne and software will continue selling worldwide until its stock is depleted.

The ceasing of PSOne production does not mean Sony is through with the PSOne either, since Sony announced that they are working on an emulator for the Playstation Portable to allow users to play PSOne titles on their handheld. So far no further details have not been made available apart from that the titles will be digitally distributed.

Sony entered the global gaming industry with the Japanese release of the original PlayStation in December of 1994. More than 11 years and two more consoles later, the electronics giant has pulled the plug on its first console, ceasing all production of PS units. Last September, Sony announced that the original PlayStation and its PSOne redesign had surpassed the 100 million units sold milestone.

Despite the news, Sony representatives noted today that the end of production does not necessarily mean the end of availability. PS hardware and software are still selling in countries around the world.

While game consoles do have a drawback in that one is locked to the hardware and features offered by the console, they do have a major advantage in that game designers are forced to make sure their games are fully compatible with the console hardware they intend making their games available to. When it comes to PCs, the designers are free to use features only available in the latest graphics cards, processors and so on, where consumers would need to upgrade to make use of. This also makes it difficult for one to be sure their game will play properly on their PC. Once the PS3 finally debuts, it will be interesting to see how many years this runs for, particularly since it will also double-up as a Blu-ray video disc player.

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Source: GameSpot