The PS3 is officially five years old as the PS3 officially launched on in the United States way back in November 17th, 2006. The PSN is also the same age.
The PlayStation Blog (like myself), find it hard to believe that it’s already been half a decade since the PS3 and PSN made their debuts. Back then, there were no iPhones, Nathan Drake didn’t even exist and HDTV technology was still in its infancy.
Five years on, and both the PS3 and PSN are growing strong. Many people now own HDTVs now and we even have 3DTVs. Thanks to the many firmware updates the PS3 can do, there are many features the PS3 can do now that was not possible back in 2006.
Some of the funnier elements was that you couldn’t even add a desktop background to your PS3 when it first launched. Now there are many themes you can download for your PS3. There are also a plethora of games you can now download on the PSN including many full priced PS3 games as well. All this wasn’t available for PS3 owners back in the day.
Blu-ray discs have now become the standard format when viewing high definition media. Back in 2006, some movie studios backed the ill-fated HD-DVD format meaning some movies famously weren’t available on Blu-ray at the time. If you wanted Spider-Man 3 in HD, you would have bought the Blu-ray, but King Kong was only available in the HD-DVD format. In the end, Blu-ray won the HD battle and the likes of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars are now available to Blu-ray owners.
Speaking of Blu-ray technology, who would have thought that the PS3 could now become a 3D Blu-ray player as well? In 2006, 3DTVs did not exist and its amazing how Sony made the PS3 future proof so it wouldn’t become too outdated in the near future. Thank god, PS3 owners didn’t need to buy an entirely new PS3 model to view 3D Blu-ray discs.
Although many PS3 models have come and gone over the years. There was the original 60GB model that allowed you to play PS2 games. This model discontinued as it was getting too expensive to manufacture. Fast forward to today and the PS3 is slimmer and we can now get 160GB or 320GB models.
Bear in mind, the PS3 is five years old for people in North America, Japan. PAL gamers didn’t have a chance to own a PS3 until it officially launched a few months later in March 2007. Nevertheless, the PS3 is growing strong with around 55 million owners worldwide and counting. The PSN is still up and running despite having a major hiccup earlier this year. Once again, happy birthday PSN and PS3.
