Console · 1994–2006
The original PlayStation sold 102.49 million units — the first console to exceed 100 million sales and the platform that definitively shifted the centre of the games industry from Nintendo and Sega to Sony.
Sony's PlayStation launched in Japan in December 1994 and North America in September 1995, entering a market dominated by the SNES and with the Sega Saturn as its primary competition. The PlayStation's CD-ROM format allowed publishers to produce games with full motion video, CD audio, and longer-form content at a fraction of cartridge production costs, attracting third-party publishers away from Nintendo's hardware with speed that stunned the industry. Square's decision to develop Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation rather than Nintendo 64 — announced at E3 1996 — was a pivotal moment; the game sold 13 million copies and became the most visible demonstration of CD-ROM gaming's possibilities. The PlayStation produced over 7,900 licensed games across its commercial life.