THE EMPIRE
That’s right. It’s been 30 years of PlayStation.
You may have seen it on our Instagram feed. Nick and Hannah in attendance, celebrating another decade of one of the world’s most popular video game consoles. Don’t worry! I was there too. I just didn’t want to be perceived and tucked myself away. See!
I even closed my eyes in an effort to ensure I remained sight unseen. A remarkable skill if you ask me. No doubt while I was in this fugue state, I utilized it to look back on my own history with the PlayStation. Something I’ve done on my own Instagram, and also in the precursor article to this one. Yes, my celebration of the PSOne and PS2. You can click on the link or find it over at Yeah Nah Gaming.
To preface, and something my videos do, I have to explain my PS3 era. I didn’t adopt it on release. We were on a break. Famous words shouted by Ross Gellar in FRIENDS, who is either a piece of shit or was misunderstood depending on the audience. My younger ape-like brain had hooked me into a sort of GREEN machine. Something about it meant “I’m an adult because I play this video games machine”. A sentiment utterly destroyed by the Nintendo Wii and its sales during this generation of consoles.
But I do remember my favorite PlayStation 3 memory.
It was with an ex of mine. And no, I don’t mean the ‘X-console’. By that time, I had annoyed people enough on the now defunct NZGamer website into inviting me to things. By that I mean I put up my hand enough, became enough of a detracting personality and was overly positive about everything. And this led to me being invited to an event for God of War 3, which released in 2010. There was a whole affair. An open bar. Greek-looking decorations. And 2 developers who worked on the game in attendance.
My ex was a great supporter of the hobbies I love. Something I often feel gratitude for. And you know, we were having a hoot of a time. Again, gratitude to just be amongst it. And I recall the sensation of ‘feeling rattled’ when I asked the devs a question that “if all the gods are dead, who’s next?”. Another patron yelled “SPOILERS” with a believable shocked and annoyed tone. But I say to you now dare patron;
What the fuck did you think God of War was about?
While NZGamer may have slowly faded, my time with PlayStation only grew. In my videos, I remarked that the PlayStation 4 was the start of my ‘Sony Era’. And it really was. There’s a tonne I can talk about around this time, but there’s one memory I want to share in writing. And that’s about the PlayStation 4 announcement at E3 in 2013.
If you can’t recall the 2013 E3, it was the herald for the 8th generation of consoles. Everyone was ready for Microsoft and Sony’s next move, as Nintendo had started the race off with the 3DS. Microsoft would famously enter E3 and deliver one of the worst announcements in gaming history. Always online DRM. A Kinect add-on required for security. No real ‘launch’ titles. And the inability to share games, both physical and digital. And while present day vernacular would have me say “Sony has the chance to do the funniest thing”, it does actually fit the time because Sony in fact did do the funniest thing.
Featuring Shuhei Yoshida (who I’d argue is the second father of PlayStation) and Adam Boyes, the video was recorded hours after the ‘X-console’ announcement which was the day before PlayStation. They recorded it. Prepped it. And it went live on social media around the time of their event to ensure maximum eyes on what is regarded as one of the best market reactions to a competitor.
And I’ve loved the video ever since.
Much like how I’d love to continue this series, finally wrapping it up with the PS5 over at XENOJAY.COM.
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