PlayStation

Online gaming on PlayStation consoles first started in July 2001 with the release of PlayStation 2's unnamed online service in Japan. Later in August 2002 saw its release in North America, followed by the European release in June 2003. This service was shut down on March 31, 2016.

PlayStation Network

Released in 2006, the PlayStation Network is an online service[120] focusing on online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery. The service is provided and run by Sony Computer Entertainment for use with the PlayStation 3, and was later implemented on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 video game consoles.[121] The service has over 91 million active users monthly (as of November 2018).[122] The Sony Entertainment Network provides other features for users like PlayStation Home, PlayStation Store, and Trophies.

PlayStation Store

The PlayStation Store is an online virtual market available to users of the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Portable game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store uses both physical currency and PlayStation Network Cards. The PlayStation Store's gaming content is updated every Tuesday and offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games, add-on content, playable demos, themes and game and movie trailers. The service is accessible through an icon on the XMB on the PS3 and PSP. The PS3 store can also be accessed on the PSP via a Remote Play connection to the PS3. The PSP store is also available via the PC application, Media Go. As of September 24, 2009, there have been more than 600 million downloads from the PlayStation Store worldwide.[123]

Video content such as films and television shows are also available from the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 and PSP and will be made available on some new Sony BRAVIA televisions, VAIO laptop computers and Sony Blu-ray Disc players from February 2010.[124]

Life with PlayStation

Life with PlayStation was a Folding@home application available for PlayStation 3 which connected to Stanford University’s Folding@home distributed computer network and allowed the user to donate their console's spare processing cycles to the project.[125] Folding@home is supported by Stanford University and volunteers make a contribution to society by donating computing power to this project. Research made by the project may eventually contribute to the creation of vital cures. The Folding@home client was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment in collaboration with Stanford University.[126] Life with PlayStation also consisted of a 3D virtual view of the Earth and contained current weather and news information of various cities and countries from around the world, as well as a World Heritage channel which offered information about historical sites, and the United Village channel which is a project designed to share information about communities and cultures worldwide.[127][128] As of PlayStation 3 system software update version 4.30 on October 24, 2012, the Life With PlayStation project has ended.

PlayStation Plus

PlayStation Plus, a subscription-based service on the PlayStation Network, compliments the standard PSN services.[129] It enables an auto-download feature for game patches and system software updates. Subscribers gain early or exclusive access to some betas, game demos, premium downloadable content (such as full game trials of retail games like Infamous, and LittleBigPlanet) and other PlayStation Store items, as well as a free subscription to Qore. Other downloadable items include PlayStation Store discounts and free PlayStation Network games, PS one Classics, PlayStation Minis, themes and avatars.[130]

PlayStation Blog

PlayStation Blog (stylized as PlayStation.Blog) is an online PlayStation focused gaming blog, part of the PlayStation Network. It was launched on June 11, 2007[131] and has featured in numerous interviews with third-party companies such as Square Enix.[132] It also has posts from high-ranking Sony Computer Entertainment executives such as Jack Tretton, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, and Shawn Layden, current President, SIEA, and Chairman, SIE Worldwide Studios.[133][134] A sub-site of the blog called PlayStation Blog Share was launched on March 17, 2010 and allowed readers of the blog as well as users of the PlayStation Blog to submit ideas to the PlayStation team about anything PlayStation-related and vote on the ideas of other submissions.[135][136]

PlayStation App

The PlayStation App is an application that was released on January 11, 2011 in several European countries for iOS (version 4 and above) and for Android (version 1.6 and above),[137] and has been installed more than 3.6 million times as of March 2, 2014.[138] It allows users to view their trophies, see which of their PSN friends are online and read up to date information about PlayStation.[137] It does not feature any gaming functionality.[137]

PlayStation Mobile

The PlayStation Mobile (formerly PlayStation Suite) is a software framework that will be used to provide downloadable PlayStation content to devices running Android 2.3 and above as well as the PlayStation Vita. The framework will be cross-platform and cross-device, which is what Sony calls "hardware-neutral". It was set to release before the end of calendar year 2011. In addition, Android devices that have been certified to be able to play back PlayStation Suite content smoothly will be certified with the PlayStation Certified certification.[15]

PlayStation Now

PlayStation Now (PS Now) is a Gaikai-based video game streaming service used to provide PlayStation gaming content to PlayStation 3 (PS3), PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation Vita, PlayStation TV and BRAVIA televisions.[139] The service currently allows users to pay for access to a selection of original PlayStation 3 titles on either a per-game basis or via a subscription. PlayStation Now was announced on January 7, 2014 at the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show. At CES, Sony presented demos of The Last of Us, God of War: Ascension, Puppeteer and Beyond: Two Souls, playable through PS Now on Bravia TVs and PlayStation Vitas. PlayStation Now was launched in Open Beta in the United States and Canada on PS4 on July 31, 2014, on PS3 on September 18, 2014, on PS Vita and PS TV on October 14, 2014, with support for select 2014 Bravia TVs coming later in the year.[140]

Online social networking services

PlayStation Home

PlayStation Home is a community-based social gaming networking service for the PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It is available directly from the PlayStation 3 XrossMediaBar. Membership is free, and only requires a PSN account. Home has been in development since early 2005 and started an open public beta test on December 11, 2008.[141] Home allows users to create a custom avatar, which can be made to suit the user's preference.[142] Users can decorate their avatar's personal apartment ("HomeSpace") with default, bought, or won items. They can travel throughout the Home world (except cross region), which is constantly updated by Sony and partners. Each part of the world is known as a space. Public spaces can just be for display, fun, or for meeting people. Home features many mini-games which can be single player or multiplayer. Users can shop for new items to express themselves more through their avatars or HomeSpace.[143] Home features video screens in many places for advertising, but the main video content is shown at the theatre for entertainment. Home plays host to a variety of special events which range from prize-giving events to entertaining events. Users can also use Home to connect with friends and customize content.[141] Xi, a once notable feature of Home, is the world's first console based Alternate Reality Game that took place in secret areas in Home and was created by nDreams.[144][145]

Room for PlayStation Portable

"Room" (officially spelled as R∞M with capital letters and the infinity symbol in place of the "oo") was being beta tested in Japan from October 2009 to April 2010. Development of Room has been halted on April 15, 2010 due to negative feedback from the community.[146] Announced at TGS 2009, it was supposed to be a similar service to the PlayStation Home and was being developed for the PSP.[147] Launching directly from the PlayStation Network section of the XMB was also to be enabled. Just like in Home, PSP owners would have been able to invite other PSP owners into their rooms to "enjoy real time communication."[148] A closed beta test had begun in Q4 2009 in Japan.[149]

The XrossMediaBar, originally used on the PSX, is a graphical user interface used for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, as well as a variety of other Sony devices. The interface features icons that are spread horizontally across the screen. Navigation moves the icons instead of a cursor. These icons are used as categories to organize the options available to the user. When an icon is selected on the horizontal bar, several more appear vertically, above and below it (selectable by the up and down directions on a directional pad).[150] The XMB can also be accessed in-game albeit with restrictions, it allows players to access certain areas of the XMB menu from within the game and is only available for the PlayStation 3.[151] Although the capacity to play users' own music in-game was added with this update, the feature is dependent on game developers who must either enable the feature in their games or update existing games.[152]

LiveArea

LiveArea, designed to be used on the PlayStation Vita, is a graphical user interface set to incorporate various social networking features via the PlayStation Network. It has been designed specifically as a touchscreen user interface for users.[153]

Linux operating systems

Linux for PlayStation 2

In 2002, Sony released the first useful and fully functioning operating system for a video game console, after the Net Yaroze experiment for the original PlayStation. The kit, which included an internal hard disk drive and the necessary software tools, turned the PlayStation 2 into a full-fledged computer system running Linux. Users can utilize a network adapter to connect the PlayStation 2 to the internet, a monitor cable adaptor to connect the PlayStation 2 to computer monitors as well as a USB Keyboard and Mouse which can be used to control Linux on the PlayStation 2.[154][155]

Linux for PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 (excluding PlayStation 3 Slim) also supports running Linux OS on firmware versions prior to 3.21 without the need for buying additional hardware purchase. Yellow Dog Linux provides an official distribution that can be downloaded, and other distributions such as Fedora, Gentoo and Ubuntu have been successfully installed and operated on the console.[37] The use of Linux on the PlayStation 3 allowed users to access 6 of the 7 Synergistic Processing Elements; Sony implemented a hypervisor restricting access to the RSX. The feature to install a second operating system on a PlayStation 3 was removed in a firmware update released in 2010.[156]

Released in 1994, the PlayStation control pad was the first controller made for the original PlayStation. It featured a basic design of a D-pad, 4 main select buttons (  ('Green Triangle'),   ('Red Circle/Red O')),   ('Blue Cross/Blue X') and   ('Pink Square'), and start and select buttons on the face. 'Shoulder buttons' are also featured on the top [L1, L2, R1, R2] (named by the side [L=Left, R=Right] and 1 and 2 [top and bottom]). In 1996, Sony released the PlayStation Analog Joystick for use with flight simulation games.[157] The original digital controller was then replaced by the Dual Analog in 1997, which added two analog sticks based on the same potentiometer technology as the Analog Joystick.[158] This controller was then also succeeded by the DualShock controller.

DualShock series and Sixaxis

Released in 1998, the DualShock controller for the PlayStation succeeded its predecessor, the Dual Analog, and would go on to become the longest running series of controllers for the PlayStation brand. In addition to the inputs of the original, digital, controller ( ,  ,  ,  , L1, L2, R1, R2, Start, Select and a D-pad), the DualShock featured two analog sticks in a similar fashion to the previous Dual Analog controller, which can also be depressed to activate the L3 and R3 buttons.[159]

The DualShock series consists of four controllers: the DualShock which was the fourth controller released for the PlayStation; the DualShock 2, the only standard controller released for the PlayStation 2, and the DualShock 3, the second and current controller released for the PlayStation 3, and the DualShock 4, which went through a massive redesign and is the default input of the PlayStation 4, and upon release was compatible with the PS3 originally only via USB and eventually with a firmware update, Bluetooth connectivity was enabled. The Sixaxis was the first official controller for the PlayStation 3, and is based on the same design as the DualShock series (but lacking the vibration motors of the DualShock series of controllers).

Like the Dual Analog, the DualShock and DualShock 2 feature an "Analog" button between the analog sticks that toggles the analog sticks on and off (for use with games which support only the digital input of the original controller). On the PlayStation 3 Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers, the analog sticks are always enabled. Beginning with the Sixaxis, a 'PlayStation button' (which featured the incorporated PS logo and is similar in function to the Xbox 360 "Guide" button) was included on controllers. The PlayStation button replaces the "Analog" button of the DualShock and DualShock 2 controllers. Pressing the PS button on the PS3 brings up the XMB, while holding it down brings up system options (such as quit the game, change controller settings, turn off the system, and turn off the controller).[160]

PlayStation Move

PlayStation Move is a motion-sensing game controller platform for the PlayStation 3 video game console by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). Based on the handheld motion controller wand, PlayStation Move uses the PlayStation Eye webcam to track the wand's position and the inertial sensors in the wand to detect its motion. First revealed on June 2, 2009, PlayStation Move was launched in Q3/Q4 2010. Hardware available at launch included the main PlayStation Move motion controller and an optional PlayStation Move sub-controller.[161]
Although PlayStation Move is implemented on the existing PlayStation 3 console, Sony states that it is treating Move's debut as its own major "platform launch", planning an aggressive marketing campaign to support it. In addition to selling the controllers individually,[162] Sony also plans to provide several different bundle options for PlayStation Move hardware; including a starter kit with a PS Eye, a Move motion controller, and a demo/sampler disc, priced under US$100;[163] a full console pack with a PS3 console, DualShock 3 gamepad, PS Eye, and Move motion controller; and bundles of a Move motion controller with select games.[162]