History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 3

Development


The PlayStation 2 preceded the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 3 reused the font from the Sony produced Spider Man movies, at the direction of Ken Kutaragi who liked the font.

The promotion of the PlayStation 3 at E3 2005 and E3 2006 created a number of memes mocking Sony's decisions and marketing.

Launch
"The next generation doesn't start until we say it does"

The PlayStation 3 launched in November 2006. A launch price of $599 surprised industry competitors, who assumed Sony would subsidize more of the cost of the system. Third party analysis of system hardware costs indicated that Sony did substantially subsidize each early revision console sold, with some estimates of per console costs reaching over $800 USD. This high initial price was a huge advantage for competitors looking to gain market share.

A sideshow in a long and costly patent battle, Sony initially refused to add rumble feedback to the Playstation 3 on release with the SIXAXIS controller, later relenting and adding it into the 2007 DualShock 3 controller.

By the end of 2007 the PlayStation 3 had cost Sony greatly, as the company had spent 2.16 billion dollars on the system in that year alone.

Refresh & Removals
In 2009 the PlayStation 3 Slim was launched. This system was significantly more economical to produce, and sold was sold almost at cost. The system removed support for the OtherOS feature, which was also removed in earlier models via a software update.

The removal of OtherOS galvanized fans of the feature to bring it back. By January 2010 Geohot was the first to publicly breach the security of the PlayStation 3, and later publishes his work with protections built in to stop it from being used for piracy. In response, Sony convinces Geohot to settle out of court after announcing a lawsuit. This response by Sony immediately lead to a massive backlash by users, some cybersecurity academics, and the internet at large.

By 2011 Sony faced massive cyberattacks which were likely motivated by their handling of Geohot and resulted in large amounts of customer information being leaked. Furthermore in late 2011 the official twitter account of the fictional PlayStation spokesman Kevin Butler was tricked into retreating the PS3 master key which could be used to defeat PlayStation 3 security.

In October of 2016 a settlement was reached in a class action lawsuit against Sony for the removal of OtherOS, resulting in Sony paying out a $3.75 million dollar settlement of around $65 to any affected user who made a claim before 2018. The removal of OtherOS created other issues in the European Union, as the inclusion of the ability to run a full operating system allowed for a tax write off.

In 2012 the PlayStation 3 Super Slim was launched.

Legacy
The PlayStation 3 was followed by the PlayStation 4.

Manufacturing of the PlayStation 3 ended in 2017, with 86 million consoles sold. In March 2021, rumors of PlayStation Network servers for the PS3 being decommissioned caused many owners of PS3 consoles to investigate ways to retain access to digital content they had purchased through the service. Backlash against this decision caused Sony to postpone the decomissioning.

The legacy of the system is as complex as the technology that powered it. Hamstrung by frequent corporate missteps and esoteric technology, the console still saw some of the most innovative and impressive games of the generation.

Compute
"Your games could really go the extra mile - If you could actually crack how to use that Cell architecture."

One of the most infamous features of the PlayStation 3 is its powerful yet unwieldily computer architecture. This system was highly parallel for it's time, and even as late as December of 2019, some developers would compare the power of the PlayStation 3 CPU to that of some contemporary CPU designs, which is high praise for any processor of this era well over a decade after release. It should be noted that the system was far more conservative in it's GPU design, and here the system showed it's age much quicker.

The PlayStation 3 has a primary Power Processor Element (PPE) single core PowerPC processor clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. The system has eight Synergetic Processing Elements clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. An NVIDIA RSX clocked at 550 megahertz serves as the GPU of the PS3. The GPU is capable of 1.8 teraflops.

The PlayStation 3 has 256 megabytes of XDR RAM clocked at 3.2 gigahertz, and 256 megabytes of dedicated GDDR3 video RAM clocked at 700 megahertz.

Clusters of PS3 consoles were commonly used as a cheap compute platform, and for a time were even used (In massive clusters) as the basis for supercomputers. The Namco System 357 arcade board is also based on the PlayStation 3.

Hardware
The PS3 has radios for Wi-Fi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. The PS3 also has 1000 megabit (1 gigabit) ethernet.

The logo on the PlayStation 3 console can be rotated for use in horizontal or vertical orientations.

The PS3 uses standard 2.5 inch Serial ATA (SATA) interface hard disk drives. Though aftermarket solid state disks can be used in a PS3 for some major performance boosts in some games, though not all titles benefit much from this upgrade.

Software
The PlayStation 3 includes a web browser.

PlayStation 2
Early PS3 consoles included the Emotion Engine, allowing for hardware based backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 2, with some later models eliminating the chip to use software emulation instead as a cost cutting measure. The Software Emulation used by these PlayStation 3 models was panned for being less compatible.

By the time of the PlayStation 3 Slim launch, PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility was dropped entirely. Instead, a select number of PlayStation 2 games were later re-released on the digital PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3, requiring a new purchase regardless of prior ownership.

PlayStation 1
All PlayStation 3 consoles are backwards compatible with original PlayStation games.

Resistance: Fall of Man
A science fiction and dieselpunk alternate history first person shooter and the first major entry in the Resistance series. The Church of England objected to the depiction of Manchester Cathedral in the game.

Read more about Resistance: Fall of Man and Controversy over the use of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man on Wikipedia.

2007

 * Lair
 * Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

2008

 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
 * Resistance 2
 * LittleBigPlanet

Afrika / Hakuna Matata
A photography and safari simulation game.

Read more about Afrika on Wikipedia.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Read more about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on Wikipedia.

Killzone 2
Read more about Killzone 2 on Wikipedia.

Infamous
A third person open world action adventure game based on navigating a city with newfound electricity superpowers. The game prominently featured a reputation system for player actions in game.

Read more about Infamous on Wikipedia.

Demon's Souls
The first game in the Souls series.

Read more about Demon's Souls on Wikipedia.

Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic
An enhanced port of the innovative PC game.

Read more about Rag Doll Kung Fu on Wikipedia.

3D Dot Game Heroes
Read more about 3D Dot Game Heroes on Wikipedia.

2010

 * Gran Turismo 5
 * God of War III
 * Heavy Rain

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
An adventure game focused on locating the Atlantis of the sands.

Read more about Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Iram of the Pillars on Wikipedia.

Resistance 3
A Sci-Fi first person shooter. This entry in the Resistance series transitioned to a post apocalyptic theming.

Read more about Resistance 3 on Wikipedia.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
A JRPG with animated cutscenes made by Studio Ghibli, who also influenced the overall visual aesthetic.

Read more about Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on Wikipedia.

Journey
An artful adventure game with unique minimalistic two player cooperation mechanics that operated through simple chimes rather then text or voice chat.

Read more about Journey on Wikipedia.

2013

 * The Last of Us
 * Gran Turismo 6
 * The Guided Fate Paradox

Beyond: Two Souls
A cinematic action adventure game which was shown at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Read more about Beyond: Two Souls on Wikipedia.

2014

 * Magus

Persona 5
Released in 2016 in Japan and 2017 internationally, Persona 5 was among the few major JRPG titles released for the PlayStation 3 this late into the marketing of the console.

Read more about Persona 5 on Wikipedia.

Read More
There is a page about the PlayStation 3 in the Wikibook Strategy for Information Markets.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - PlayStation 3 page.