Portal:Sony PlayStation/Selected article/5

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The PlayStation is a 32-bit video game console of the fifth generation that was first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December 1994. The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices, which has included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze (a special black PS with tools and instructions to program PS games and applications), PS one (a smaller version of the original), PocketStation (a handheld which enhances PS games and acts as a memory card), PlayStation 2, a revised, slimline PS2, PlayStation Portable (a handheld gaming console), PSX (Japan only; a media center, DVR and DVD recorder based on the PS2), and PlayStation 3. By March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PS one had shipped a combined total of 102.49 million units, becoming the first video game console to reach the 100 million mark.

The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a piracy danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Phillips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD".