Hello PlayStation.Blog readers! Today is a very special moment in our history. It’s been 20 years since the launch of the original PlayStation, which released in Japan on December 3rd, 1994. It seems like only yesterday! I’m so glad that we can celebrate this moment together.
20 years is a long time! In 1994, many outsiders thought that Sony was slightly crazy to launch the original PlayStation into an incredibly competitive gaming market. Who could blame them? Sony was (and is!) famous for engineering great electronics, audio equipment, and many other consumer devices. But game consoles?!
Sony Computer Entertainment, founded by my mentor Ken Kutaragi, was a project borne out of sincere passion and deep admiration for the craft of game development. The mid 90s were an exciting time for game developers, driven by the explosion of powerful but affordable 3D graphics rendering hardware and the birth of many young and adventurous development studios. The original PlayStation was meant to embody that sense of adventure and discovery, that sense that anything was possible.
We sincerely thank you for joining us on our exciting 20-year journey. You have made every bump and scrape we took along the way worthwhile. And there’s so much more to come! :D
But I don’t want to go on for too long, because we have a big piece of news to reveal: a very special 20th Anniversary Edition PS4!
Our friend Sid Shuman has some details in the video above, so be sure to check it out and let us know what you think.
I look forward to celebrating the anniversary and all things PlayStation with you this week in Las Vegas at the PlayStation Experience.
Thanks for a great 20 years, and here’s to 20 more.
Did you get the links?? I don’t know why it says “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
the prices on eBay are ridiculous
Thats what I told customer service I told her to not hang up on me again to let me talk, she let me talk and then she said it is a limited quainty and there were server issues, then I told her to go f$5& herself after I had been hung up on multiplue times after I was being very polite
They wont accept links on here send it to my email passcoder 1213 @ live. com all that is together I dont know if they will allow emails here either so if I split it up it should work
Jokes on me! I guess I can’t download that free plants vs zombie game. Fml
Sony, we know you listen. You’ve listened to us before. Even The man himself responded to several comments the other day which is really cool. No doubt you can tell by today’s comments following the keynote address that the feelings expressed by fellow gamers are more than just (anger) comments. When people are “angry”, sometimes they have a reason to be and other times they don’t. Sometimes as humans we simply take our anger out on others for absolutely no apparent reason.
This however isn’t one of those times. You have 12,300 very very happy fans, and they should be! You likely have several hundred thousand, more likely millions who are oblivious and couldn’t possibly care any less about the significance of the day and would continue on as happy Sony fans no matter what.
Its probably reasonable to say you have at least hundreds of thousands who feel somewhat betrayed. We gamers do same stupid stuff for equally stupid reasons……we throw our controllers when we lose, reset the system just so we don’t take an online loss on Street Fighter or Madden, stand out in lines in the freezing cold to just purchase Sony games or consoles. And for what? Because we love our games, that’s why. For some, it might be all we have. For others, its where they met their best friends. So while we occasionally do stupid things for the love of the game, the rants you see on this blog are quite warranted this time.
Whether or not it was intentional, the general consensus is this felt like betrayal. For most, it felt like a 20 year long courtship cut deeply short by, …at best (false information). This time, it was unfair, not needless anger. And yes, it is that serious. We need to hear back from you Sony. It’s fair isn’t it? Reasonable even? We just feel a bit betrayed, that’s all. We’ve known you for 20 years. Not just known you, we have seen you everyday. For several hours a day. So we don’t feel that hearing back from you is too much to ask.
http://i.imgur.com/90BD3Bz.png lol, Good job Sony. You sure know how to please your customers.
When you say “Please watch the PlayStation Experience keynote starting Saturday morning at 10:00am Pacific Time to learn more.” why in the heck did you announce it only on Twitter?!
I wanted one to keep, unlike the hundreds of scalpers selling them on eBay, and I’m so angry that you didn’t do this right.
Well there it gors for me
Platation for me is
Well I got mine nearly before my birthday I am originally from small European country Belarus.. It was my first few months since I could walk on my feet.. (I’ve had Cerebral palsy which I still have but in much less noticeable matter. It was good old 1998 My fathers best friend (who is also my God Father. He sent money from United States – that is where he lives for a gift to me..
I’d like to put in my 2 cents. Why were we informed to watch the keynote for pre order information and not notified of twitter instead? I’m sorry if you were given wrong information regarding the details Yoshida. I’m still getting a PS4, just gonna have to wait a few months to see if anymore neat Limted Edition bundles come out.
We went to electronics store I wanted Sega.. But my father convinced me to buy PlayStation it wasn even slim version it was original console. Boy it long lived and it still lives and even my nephew plays it all.. Decades even wont kill it PlayStation brand ha enriched my life with good kinds f emotion which than helped me to walk again and never give up. Due to that fact today I walk drive and work and even live here in Canada my dream life in beautiful Calgary.. Boy was this system expensive but well wort it 1000$ we have paid for it.. I don’t care if we over paid back then on October 28 1995 it hanged my life in much ore worthy way than those 1000$ I was 7 ans now I am 25 almost 26 Hey PlayStation we even have same birthday mine is on December 16 1988
Don’t tell people to watch the keynote for information on how to preorder (which I did) and then not give that information. And while I and many of us were waiting, you only posted the store link on Twitter.
I didn’t have high hopes of getting one given the limited availability, but at least I wanted a chance and you (Sony) screwed this up. Why can’t you do things right? Why can’t you do what you effing said you would do?
We need the controller. Releasing the controller combines all the special details on the console (besides the 20th anniversary plaque) in the palm of your hands! A controller would’ve given everyone a fair chance. Its affordable, has the same 20th anniversary details, and is a small gift to us fans.
Gotta admit I am disappointed. I got one into my cart seconds after the link went up and when I tried to checkout it wouldn’t go through. I tried to pay over 100 times and it never let me through. I was late to work behind waiting for something that wasn’t even announce on keynote. Mind you I hate twitter and had to make a damn account just to be able to get access to the link when they did tweet it. Not happy with sony behind that bull****. I almost don’t want to get a ps4 at all anymore honestly.
i would love to get one look sweet
I agree !!!!
Seriously, how do you celebrate 20 years of all of us buying your consoles and games by only releasing 12,300 consoles? Especially when all of us were perfectly willing to spend the extra $100 to grab this system. I feel like EA thanked us better with a few crappy games.
At least they did better in asia region,
only ppl who has PS Plus membership gets the chance to buy the PS4 limited edition…Sony, understand your target audience, take care of the ppl who really like u, not those scalpers
I did not know that… simply wow.
WOW… we are 16 pages strong with over 753 comments including this one. Hopefully they are reading the comments.
They stopped on page 2………
I think many people are being unreasonable, while being understandably upset and disappointed. It is unreasonable to expect that you had a good chance of acquiring a such a limited item with such fierce competition. It is also unreasonable to expect the online store to be able to both sustain a massive spike of traffic AND to have enough for those who clicked in the first minute. If the server did not stutter and throw out a bunch of errors, then stock would have depleted immediately and many would have found rejection during the checkout process. I think the errors actually worked in favor of fans. Instead of professional scalpers who can probably check out even before one finishes typing in their address, this was determined by a combination of luck and determination. I imagine this allowed more actual fans access to the system than if the server were to function flawlessly.
Having said this, Sony certainly did no favors by advertising that the best source of information was the keynotes. I imagine that this bumped up viewership by a lot. The slow flow of actual information was also terrible. The preorder information should have been released in a more prompt and structured manner.
Overall – be upset that Sony handled this event rather poorly – but don’t be upset you did not get one. The odds were stupid low, and everyone KNEW this going in.
when can we pre-order it in the U.S
I’m really disappointed I could not get my hands on a 20th anniversary ps4 and I don’t hate because other gamers got it before me but it pisses me off to no that half of the people that did are resellers and not hardcore fans or collectors like I am.my suggestion to u Mr. Yoshida is that u should release a console only for hardcore fans that made playstation what it is today and not the resellers because they are hear today and gone tomorrow but I will always be a PLAYSTATION fan,collector,gamer
when and where will the the pre orders for the 20th anniversary edition console start
Not to mention selling this console more openly would have sky rocketed your sales in the “console war”. Anyway.. what’s done is done. I don’t expect Sony to come pandering to the millions of fans they rear ended this holiday season.
Rather bummed that I (and everyone else) missed out on this amazing looking console.
Shuhei should have clarified to us to watch Twitter for when pre-orders go live.
The only mention of Twitter was directed towards Canadian users, as taken from the statement above, “How to pre-order in the US: PS4 20th Anniversary Edition will be available in very limited supply for pre-order starting Saturday, December 6th. Please watch the PlayStation Experience keynote starting Saturday morning at 10:00am Pacific Time to learn more. Canadian users can follow PlayStationCA on Twitter to learn more details for availability in their region.”
Seeing as how these are pre-orders, too bad Sony won’t cancel the orders from those who are re-selling the console on eBay. That would hopefully give us gamers a chance to buy one.
While this is an unfortunate event for many (and myself), I still support PlayStation and will continue to play on. Hopefully, they can release a version for everyone, as I would definitely buy it. AND I already own three PS4s.
Why do have to make it so limited? For attention. Well I have been a fan since ps1 and I couldn’t get the rare p4 because there is so little. Well when you do this again, i will not be ready again. :/
Sony has pretty much gave me everything I need since the PS1 though and I am truly thankful for all the experiences I’ve had with them but I still respect all platforms and will be expanding my horizons much more this generation.
Also, Legend of Dragoon 2 says hello.
Company Is a joke. Attempted to pre-order. successfully made it to check out screen then website crashes. Item is no longer in my cart & it is now sold out. WHAT A JOKE!!! Owned Every PlayStation system and was hoping to get this sick ps4 but nope, probably sold the console I had in my cart to some xbox fan boy who will just sell the console on ebay for more then its worth Rather then someone who is compassion to the corporation.
will the pre orders start today?
I was hoping for a little something better like backwards compatibility. That’s the reason my PS3 I bought at early release is still very valuable. I would definitely pay more for a PS4 that is fully backwards compatible. My PS3 if it was new sells for $1200 online, now that is a way to add value to a limited 20th edition console. Maybe someday Sony will listen because I still have all my games from the PlayStation in mint condition and still play them as well as PS2, PS3, and PS4 games.
It Will be able to purchase in Mexico? i went yesterday to a Sony Style Shop and they don’t know anything about this marvel
Is the PS4 20TH ANNIVERSARY is still to pre-order in the US?
Extremely disappointed my order with Sony for my 20th anniversary PS4 was cancelled without explanation. I have been a huge Sony fan since the PS1 came out and was really looking forward to getting one of these to add to my collection. I would have loved to see this next to my original PS1 system that I had as a kid.
Right now im an extremely disappointed fan, particularly as no explanation has been given on why my order has been cancelled. What a waste of time yesterday was!
@ nismo_au, how did you get word your order was cancelled?
Just had an email saying it had been cancelled from Sony. No reason given why. Im going to call them to see what is going on.
I am so disappointed. I am 30 and I have all ps consoles. I don’t know how all of you guys knew about the twitter. I saw it from this blog, hours after “experience” that all the systems sold out. Never again a sony product in general for me.
I knew the odds,
I knew that MILLIONS were trying
it would be ok if I had THE CHANCE to get one.
I never had it. I was at store.sony.com and I had 3 pages of it open and refreshing them every 10”. The product NEVER appeared. They lied about the whole thing. They never said anything online.
AND do not forget about Europe. I have friends in Europe, they have STILL NO INFO…
I understand that it’s a limited edition item, and that you had to be one of the lucky few who clicked the link first. I also understand that Sony has no control over who buys their products and what they do with it afterwards. But it’s very disheartening to the rest of the fans when hoarders are the first people to get their hands on this beauty of a system, and then turn around to sell it on ebay for $15,000. Please Sony, consider making more of the 20th Anniversary systems. I would love to have this version of the PS4 sitting on my entertainment stand next to my original Playstation.
I honestly don’t mind the exclusivity, its just that Sony could’ve handled this better. I just saw Ebay sellers overpricing the console (as always). Man its a shame that 1000 of the 12300 consoles are just being passed around like a game of hot potato…and for 3x the original price! Ebay sellers…smh. At least it wasn’t a Microsoft move releasing a special edition console and immediately discounting the price KNOWING Christmas is a month away, not warning us how exclusive it is, and that everyone would rather buy the newer console. At least, they warned us.
A multi-part response, since the blog wouldn’t let me post it all at once. ;_;
@Hannibalmath “I don’t know how all of you guys knew about the twitter. I saw it from this blog, hours after “experience” that all the systems sold out.”
Because this blog post was what informed us about the system and had a comment feed, I kept it open while I watched the ~2 hours of keynote. I was fairly disappointed by not seeing anything about the commemorative model at the end of the show. I actually had to miss about 25 minutes of the show early in the second half, and I was constantly worried that I had missed the all-important information, but reading the blog comments reassured me that I had not. Starting about a half hour after the keynote, refreshing the blog comments gave me:
Comment #412 from Ayanyay @ 1233 said: “Just look at the Playstation twitter guys”
Comment #424 from darkruler007 @ 1239 said: “Check playstation twiter for the pre-order link. It will be posted soo sony said.”
Some time between those two comments was when I went to the Playstation twitter feed and found their 1219 tweet: “Today, the PS4 20th Anniversary Edition will be available in very limited supply. We’ll tweet out a preorder link shortly after the keynote” After that, I started refreshing the blog and Twitter pages every 15-30 seconds, in order to make sure that I was seeing the latest tweets and blog comments.
Comment #425 from KingDoom45 @ 1240 said: “Playstation just alerted it will be linked from twitter any moment…”
Comment #436 from MichGP @ 1246 said: “they say they will tweet the link on tweeter”
Comment #440 from dland82995 @ 1248 said: “If everyone on here would be patient and read previous comments they would know where to look to find information about the pre-order. Someone just said that the details will be posted on PlayStation’s twitter account after the show. Here is the exact quote from their twitter page, “Today, the PS4 20th Anniversary Edition will be available in very limited supply. We’ll tweet out a preorder link shortly after the keynote.”
Just watch their twitter.”
At 1249 came the Twitter message “If you’re at PSX and were handed a gold bracelet, you can preorder the 20th Anniversary Edition at PSX. Everyone else, stay tuned to Twitter”
Now I was wondering how many gold bracelets had been given out, would they all have to be redeemed before they’d go up for sale online, and how long that would take…
Comment #448 from chriswhv6 @ 1251 said: “From the Twitter feed:
If you’re at PSX and were handed a gold bracelet, you can preorder the 20th Anniversary Edition at PSX. Everyone else, stay tuned to Twitter”
I contributed comment #498 @ 1344: “I can’t stare at my computer 24/7. If the wait’s too much longer, I’m going to miss out. ;_;”
With perfect timing came Comment #500 from haruhi567 @ 1351 said: “Still waiting for an announcement on twiiter nothing for a whole hour.”
Finally, at 1352, the important message hit the Playstation Twitter feed: “Your chance to own history. Preorder PS4 20th Anniversary Edition here, very limited quantity: http://bit.ly/ps4anniversary” (the tweeted link might or might not get removed by the blog software)
Things here got kind of quiet as many people here probably followed the link to attempt a purchase.
Comment #505 from gamer0808 @ 1357 seemed to let the blog know that the systems were being sold: “its available US only $500 I ordered mine just now”
Most everything else that followed were complaints about how poorly the purchase experience was going (with Foxhound_1156 trying at least four times to get people to abandon their purchase attempt in order to make it easier for him/herself).
After more than 1.5 hours reloading seemingly an infinite number of times at every error along the way, I finally completed my theoretical purchase. Soon afterwards, I added comment #613: “Like others, my purchase _finally_ went through. I got the email and saved the order confirmation page. Now I can wonder just how quickly Sony will tell me “You’re not getting one!!”
Now I can finally go and do something else more productive. ^^;”
I don’t know if the 20th anniv. PS4 was searchable on the Sony Store website. I never tried. If I hadn’t been reading the comments here, I’m pretty sure that I would have missed out. I don’t know if the purchase link was ever given out on any of the gaming websites. I have no idea how things are going in Europe; I’m not sure if any of the comments here have referenced sales over there. Someone on the blog stated that in Asia PlayStation Plus subscribers were given first (or all?) sales of that region’s release of the console.
I’m still waiting with my fingers crossed that my purchase won’t be cancelled.
Hmm… It seems that my posts might end up out of order. The third of the five is under moderation (probably) because of a weblink to the console’s page in the Sony Store that was in the PlayStation tweet that I copied into my post. Hmm… That’s a really ugly sentence, but I’m not going to fix it. ;p I’m not sure if it’ll be put back in where it was posted, or just dropped in at the end of the blog comments. It might keep its timestamp, so maybe…
4rd: Capitalism 101 = When a product is publicly made available to the general public ANYONE CAN ACQUIRE IT. Nobody cares if you’re “a loyal fan” or not. If it’s out there, with a price tag on it…ANYONE can buy it. So go cry me a river…because you’re just really pathetic (the grand prize though? the guy that said that “they” [the loyalists?], as opposed to the “scalpers” [bad people that should burn in Hell, I guess xD] have “compassion to the corporation” xDDDDDD Soooo S-A-D. >_>).
So “fan” or not…all those people asking for 1 BILLION for that moronic 20th Anniversary Edition console ARE LEGIT. Like it or not.
5th: All those “super-fans” saying “I really want one of those!”, “I need it!!”, “Just take my money!”, “Please! Where can I buy it??” and all the usual sycophantic-BS… please… GO TO EBAY AND PAY THOUSANDS FOR IT!
After all, if you’re actually that much of a fanatic…capable of saying the most stupid things on a blog, just to show how “special” you are…then you surely will pay ANYTHING to own such a unique piece of PS history. Right? …right?
That’s what I thought. -_-