The PlayStation 3 was officially marketed in capitals as the PLAYSTATION 3 and was commonly abbreviated as PS3. This console is the third home video console made by Sony Computer Entertainment and it was the successor to the PlayStation 2 in the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3’s main competitors are Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. These are known as the seventh generation of video game consoles.
A unique feature that helps distinguish the PS 3 from its predecessors, the PS1 and PS 2, is its incredibly popular online gaming service, the PlayStation Network. This feature was new, for all previous consoles Sony had relied on game developers to boost online play. The console also had robust multi-media capabilities, it uses next-generation optical media (Blu-ray Disc) as its primary storage medium and it can be connected to the PlayStation Portable.
The PS 3 was released in 2006, in Japan and North America, and in March 2007 in Oceania and Europe. The basic version of the PS 3 had a 20 Gig hard drive and the premium console had a 60 Gig hard drive as well as several extra features. The basic 20 Gig version was not launched in Oceania or Europe.
Since the launch, the PS 3 has had many revisions made to its SKUs and has had to compete against stiff competition from the other seventh generation game consoles. It might be that the PlayStation’s popularity is on the wane as the PS 3 was only the third most popular seller at the end of 2007.
