The PlayStation is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released in Japan on 3 December 1994, in North America on 9 September 1995, in Europe on 29 September 1995, and in Australia on 15 November 1995. As a fifth-generation console, the PlayStation primarily competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn.
Image: Play Station SCPH 1000 with Controller
Image: P Sone Console Set No LCD
A photo of the only known SNES-based PlayStation prototype
Ken Kutaragi, the "Father of the PlayStation", pictured at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2014
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few games fixed into the electronic circuits of the system, most consoles since support the use of swappable game media, either through game cartridges, optical discs, or through digital distribution to internal storage.
A collection of home video game consoles, arranged in chronological order from bottom to top, at The Finnish Museum of Games, Tampere