Console Kings: Sony PlayStation

PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5. If there's one manufacturer that sticks to simple names, it's Sony. Their consoles are given a number, and this will probably continue indefinitely as long as they produce consoles. There have been five PlayStations (as you know, of course) (apart from the Pro versions), and we here at Gamereactor have weighed them up against each other, considering their advantages, disadvantages, innovations, and durability, and ranked them all. These are Sony's best (home) consoles.

5. PlayStation 3 (2006)

There is a certain misconception that we at the editorial office often encounter among many gamers, and it concerns which of the seventh-generation consoles sold the most (excluding the Wii, which topped both of its closest rivals). It's clear that the Xbox 360 was probably the most popular and, above all, the most liked console of the two, and when we at Gamereactor look back, we have more really good memories of it than of Sony's luxury alternative. That said, Sony sold 90 million PS3 consoles, while Microsoft sold 84 million Xbox 360 units, despite the PS3 getting off to a tough start, largely because Sony misjudged the market somewhat and set the price tag for its third machine far too high at launch.

It housed a really good Blu-ray player and an 8-core Cell processor with 90nm technology, which meant that the machine cost significantly more than the Xbox 360 at launch. On paper, it was also clearly more advanced, but this was never really noticeable in the best-selling multi-format games, as the major developers testified that Microsoft's machine was easier to develop for. However, the PS3 was a pure premium product and, apart from the awful Spider-Man font on the launch edition, it was a very lavish affair designed to be the centrepiece of your living room.

4. PlayStation 4 (2013)

With the PS4, Sony abandoned the costly and, on paper, impressive Cell architecture and instead chose to work with AMD and their X86-64 architecture, which gave us a gaming machine that could theoretically squeeze out 1.84 teraflops per second. With the PlayStation 4, Sony introduced its first touchpad on the included DualShock 4 controller, which, as we all know, has carried over to the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller and, when used correctly, is a very useful feature. It was also during this console generation that Sony first dipped its toes into the VR market with the PlayStation Camera and PlayStation VR. Overall, the PS4, and especially the PS4 Pro, was a very nice console that will always be close to our hearts.

3. PlayStation 5 (2020)

When we decided on the criteria for writing these lists, we had a directive that they should not focus (too much) on the console's game library. Basically, we are ranking the machines themselves rather than their games. So, if you break down Sony's latest machine, it's a really impressive powerhouse with many impressive technical features. The fact that the console's flash memory is directly connected to the motherboard creates impressively fast loading times, and it's easy to expand the storage with an NVMe hard drive so you can play your PlayStation 4 games that you have on disc. Then, of course, we have to highlight DualSense, a controller that feels like a little piece of the future with its fantastic haptic feedback, which in many games provides an extra level of immersion. The PlayStation 5 is a technically very impressive machine, and even if this generation's game library is perhaps among the weakest, it's hardly the console itself that is an obstacle or reason for this.

2. PlayStation 2 (2000)

The first thing that usually comes to mind, apart from all the fantastic games, when it comes to this black box, is that it could play DVDs. You didn't just buy a console, you also got the opportunity to play the new and rapidly growing film format. Considering that the PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console ever, it's not surprising that it felt like it was in every other home, because, to exaggerate a little, that's exactly how it was. The fact that the PlayStation 2 was backwards compatible contributed greatly to its success, as did the aforementioned ability to play DVD films. But the graphical capabilities offered by the console were, of course, also a reason for its success. Today, as mentioned earlier, the PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling console ever, and it's not particularly difficult to understand why. Sony produced the console for a full twelve years, and it was also released as a significantly slimmed-down slim model. But it was the larger, first version that we still associate most with the overwhelming success that is the PlayStation 2.

SONY'S CONSOLE KING:

1. PlayStation (1994)

Everything changed with the arrival of the top-loading grey box. What could have been a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony instead became the Japanese electronics giant's entry into a market that Nintendo and Sega had dominated since the mid-1980s. With a 33.87 MHz processor and 2MB of RAM, Sony chose to focus primarily on 3D graphics, with a console that was marketed as "tougher" and more adult than its competitors' alternatives. Where Nintendo stuck with cartridges, Sony chose CDs, and the console was developed to attract third-party manufacturers because Sony, unlike the other console giants, did not have its own gaming division that developed its own games.

Third-party support was not long in coming. This was largely thanks to the simplicity, the support that developers received directly from Sony, and the significantly cheaper CD format compared to cartridges. The rest is history. The PlayStation game library is almost dizzying, with virtually all major studios releasing the start of game series that still exist today, and when Square chose to develop Final Fantasy VII for the format, there was no question that Sony had all the support they could possibly need. In addition to this, the brand itself became an icon. With aggressive and cool marketing, PlayStation quickly became a brand for all ages. With over 100 million consoles sold, it can only be described as a resounding success. We therefore crown the grey iconic console as Sony's very best for everything it did and was for the gaming industry.