16 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn't Know About PlayStation
Do you know what the button symbols mean?
From the minds of many a revolutionary genius in 1995 to the living room-commanding uber-gizmo that is the PS4, Sony have seen and done it all.
You'll know them as the harbingers of some of your finest childhood memories, the place where guys like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Croc came to call home - and depending on what side you chose during The Great Console War Of The 90s, a property you'd defend come hell or high water if someone even ATTEMPTED to say someone like Nintendo were better.
The PS2 remains the best-selling console of all time precisely because of this highly potent weaponised form of fandom - something that Sony ended up nullifying when the horrendous price point for the PS3 came out. It led to a generation of barely any first-party titles to write home about save for Naughty Dog's Uncharted and The Last of Us releases moving the medium forward and blurring the lines between game and film in some startlingly effective ways.
So, even though Sony might be a real heavyweight in the industry now, they definitely didn't get here without some incredible stories to tell along the way - a few that would've completely changed gaming history, had they panned out another way.
16. The PS4's Messaging Features Were Influenced By The Souls Series
Truly a phenomenal game series that seems to gain wider recognition every day, Hidetaki Miyazaki's Souls series pioneered the idea of dynamic multiplayer.
Letting you invade peoples' games (or be invaded) at will, as well as creating an interconnected web of messages viewable across campaigns, players left warnings for others or hints where treasures could be found, how to beat bosses, etc. This idea of "asynchronously" leaving messages for people to discover later on was a major influence on the design of the PS4 according to Sony Worldwide Studios' President Shuhei Yoshida, noting he loved the aspect of constant connection to other players, without it being too intrusive in the overall design.