The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November 17, 2006, in North America, and March 23, 2007, in Europe and Australia. The PlayStation 3 competed primarily against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, and is the first handheld installment in the PlayStation line of consoles. As a seventh generation console, the PSP competed with the Nintendo DS.
Twisted Metal is a series of vehicular combat video games published by Sony Computer Entertainment, and developed by various companies. The series has appeared on the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. As of October 31, 2000, the series has sold 5 million copies. Several of the games in the series were re-released as part of the Sony Greatest Hits program. The original game and its first sequel were also released for the PC.
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company owned by Sony Group Corporation. SIE primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game consoles and products. In 1993, Sony Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment Japan jointly established Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in Tokyo. SCE released the video game console PlayStation in Japan the following year and subsequently in the United States and Europe the year after. In 2010, SCE underwent a corporate split and established Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI). SNEI provided gaming-related services through the PlayStation Network, including the sale of game titles and content on the PlayStation Store, as well as offering PlayStation Plus. In 2016, SCE and SNEI merged to form Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC, with its headquarters located in San Mateo, California, U.S.
SingleTrac Entertainment Technologies was an American video game developer, mostly for the PlayStation platform. The management team and much of the original development team came from Evans & Sutherland, bringing their 3D graphics and software engineering skills into the video game industry. Its most famous titles were the Twisted Metal and Jet Moto video game series.
Twisted Metal: Head-On is a vehicular combat video game developed by Incognito Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment on March 24, 2005 for the PlayStation Portable and February 5, 2008 for the PlayStation 2. Santa Monica Studio assisted on development for both titles. Head-On was the seventh game released in the Twisted Metal series, and the first game in the series to ship fully online-enabled.
David Scott Jaffe is an American video game designer best known for creating the Twisted Metal and God of War series.
Twisted Metal is a vehicular combat video game developed by Sony Interactive Studios America and SingleTrac and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game was released in North America on November 5, 1995, in Europe on January 13 and in Japan on November 15, 1996. The North American version was re-released for the Sony Greatest Hits line-up on March 3, 1997. It is the first installment in the Twisted Metal series. The game's plot is centered on the titular competition in which various drivers in modified vehicles must destroy the other vehicles in an attempt to be the last one alive. The winner meets the organizer of the competition, a mysterious man named Calypso, who will grant the winner a single wish, regardless of price, size or even reality.
The PlayStation 3 system software, is the updatable firmware and operating system of the PlayStation 3. The base operating system used by Sony for the PlayStation 3 is a fork of both FreeBSD and NetBSD known internally as CellOS or GameOS. It uses XrossMediaBar as its graphical shell.
The seventh generation of home video game consoles began on November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console. This was followed by the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006, and Nintendo's Wii on November 19, 2006. Each new console introduced new technologies. The Xbox 360 offered games rendered natively at high-definition video (HD) resolutions, the PlayStation 3 offered HD movie playback via a built-in 3D Blu-ray Disc player, and the Wii focused on integrating controllers with movement sensors as well as joysticks. Some Wii controllers could be moved about to control in-game actions, which enabled players to simulate real-world actions through movement during gameplay. By this generation, video game consoles had become an important part of the global IT infrastructure; it is estimated that video game consoles represented 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power in 2007.
Zynga Eugene is an American video game developer based in Eugene, Oregon. The company was founded as Buzz Monkey Software in late 2001 by four former Dynamix employees: senior producer Randy Thompson, senior engineers Jon Milnes and Steve Cordon, and lead artist Barry Drew.
PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a division of Sony.
God of War is an action-adventure game franchise created by David Jaffe at Sony's Santa Monica Studio. It began in 2005 on the PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game console and has become a flagship series for PlayStation, consisting of nine installments across multiple platforms. Based on ancient mythologies, the story follows Kratos, a Spartan warrior and later the Greek God of War, who was tricked into killing his family by his former master, the original Greek God of War Ares. This sets off a series of events that leads to wars with the different mythological pantheons. The Greek-based games see Kratos follow a path of vengeance due to the machinations of the Olympian gods, while the Norse-based games, which introduced his son Atreus as a secondary protagonist, show an older Kratos on a path of redemption and inadvertently coming into conflict with the Norse gods.
Twisted Metal is a vehicular combat video game developed by Eat Sleep Play and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the second reboot of the Twisted Metal series. The game was originally planned to be released in October 2011 but was delayed to early 2012.
PlayStation Underground is a now-defunct American video game magazine, originally published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. The magazine focused on the PlayStation fanbase, including gaming on the original Sony PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, and was promoted as a "PlayStation fan club". Unlike its paper-based counterpart the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Underground came in the form of CD-ROMs which could be played on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles. Subscribers were also given access to a members-only website. The magazine released its first issue on March 26, 1997 and its final issue in 2001. The magazine released a total of seventeen issues during its active years. The magazine was eventually merged with Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine in 2001 when it was discontinued.
Sony has released a number of previously released PlayStation video games, remastered in high-definition (HD) for their newer consoles, a form of porting. A number of related programs exist, the most prominent two being "Classics HD" and "PSP Remasters". The former consists of multiple PlayStation 2 games compiled on one Blu-ray Disc. The latter are individual PlayStation Portable games republished on Blu-ray. These games are not direct ports, but remastered versions in high-definition, to take advantage of the newer consoles' capabilities. The remastering of the games include updated graphics, new textures, and Trophy support, and some of the remastered games released on PlayStation 3 have included 3D and PlayStation Move support. Some HD remasters have also been released individually or in bundles as downloads on the PlayStation Store; others are released exclusively as downloads.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a 2012 crossover fighting video game developed by SuperBot Entertainment, in conjunction with Bluepoint Games, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It features various characters drawn from different PlayStation video game franchises competing against each other in multiplayer battles. The game was released in November 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita video game consoles.
God of War is an action-adventure video game series, the first era of which was loosely based on Greek mythology. Debuting in 2005, the series became a flagship title for the PlayStation brand and the character Kratos is one of its most popular characters. The series consists of nine games across multiple platforms; the first seven make up the Greek era of the series. Five of the Greek era games have been re-released through three separate compilations for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) platform: God of War Collection (2009), God of War: Origins Collection (2011), and God of War Saga (2012). With the exception of God of War III in the God of War Saga, each collection features remastered ports of the games that were not originally released on the PS3. God of War III was later remastered as God of War III Remastered and released on PlayStation 4 (PS4) in July 2015. God of War: Betrayal, God of War: Ascension, God of War (2018), and God of War Ragnarök are the only installments that have not been remastered for a newer platform or included in a collection.
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console has been produced in various models during its life cycle. At launch, the PlayStation 3 was available with either a 20 or 60 GB hard disk drive in the US and Japan, respectively— priced from US$499 to US$599; and with either a 40, 60, or 80 GB hard disk drive in Europe, priced from £299 to £425. Since then, Sony have released two further redesigned models, the "Slim" and "Super Slim" models. As of March 2017, the total number of consoles sold is estimated at 87.4 million.
