He added, “You needed guns, you needed these larger-than-life characters.”

Houser framed Grand Theft Auto’s identity as a commentary on American life – politics, media, consumerism, crime, mythmaking, and suggested that transplanting that tone wholesale to other countries would change the series at a fundamental level. “It just felt like the game was so much about America, possibly from an outsider’s perspective…It wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere.”

The comments also help explain why GTA’s rare detour to the UK remained a one-off. While Rockstar’s cities have long been fictionalized riffs on New York and Los Angeles, the studio has kept its creative focus on the uniquely American mix that fuels the series’ commentary and outlandish characters.

Bottom line: Houser’s observation underscores how deeply Grand Theft Auto is woven into the fabric of American identity. The series doesn’t just use America as a backdrop; it thrives on its depiction. Relocating the game outside the U.S. would mean dismantling that framework and rebuilding it for a culture with different social tensions, institutions, and myths.

One of the big defining factors of Metal Gear Solid’s unique identity is the hardware it was relegated to. There’s a certain atmosphere from early 3D games that gets lost in the sauce with modern rendering techniques. One can almost feel the cold, desolate winds of the island. The entire experience retains that cold bluish filter throughout with the exception of the green-tinted codec calls. While the falling snow around Snake isn’t exactly groundbreaking today, the unpredictable trajectory of the flakes combined with the light mist and fog really set a mood of isolation and tension. This pensive and cold visual style is punctuated by the moody musical score, even if occasional comedic alert stings contrast that in a quintessentially Kojima way.

Another aspect of MGS1 that isn’t likely to be replicated today is its fusion of retro and innovation with regard to gameplay. Like the original Metal Gear titles from the ’80s, MGS1 is largely played from a top-down perspective. It’s a perspective exceptionally common in older arcade titles for its simplistic 2D routing and rendering, but it was quickly becoming outdated by the time MGS1 released. Metal Gear Solid dynamically fuses both the top-down view and breakthrough cinematic framing in a uniquely  unprecedented way.incredibly unique. The overhead camera resulted in more precise and capable stealth routing than an over-the-shoulder perspective could. This allocation of traditional perspective to gameplay and the newly developed 3D shoulder perspective to cinematics set a standard in story/gameplay framing. After MGS1, games started adopting more dynamic cameras that shifted based on story rather than sticking to just one perspective throughout.

This simple top-down camera angle allowed MGS1’s iconic stealth mechanics to flourish and thrive. First, there’s the iconic audio/visual indicators. The alert sting and accompanying exclamation mark have permeated pop culture just like Snake’s oh-so-clever box disguise became meme-worthy. These are all examples of super punchy and memorable feedback processes indicating an aspect of stealth gameplay. Just as the top-down camera allows ultra-precise radar-driven level design, so too do the various indicators and UX flourishes provide distinct and clear feedback of what’s happening to the player. Many modern games trip over themselves trying to come up with ultra-realistic stealth vision cones and sound mechanics. The sheer level of environmental detail in today’s games tends to obfuscate what matters most in stealth games: knowing what gets you caught. Metal Gear Solid’s simple and clean top-down layout and alert indicators are as much a breath of fresh air now as they were then. Players know immediately when they’re in the line of sight of an opponent, and it’s just as clear where to go to hide. No clunky textures getting in the way or even PS1-era fog effects to contend with. MGS1 is ultra clean and distinct. While indie games today love emulating retro visuals and mechanics, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get another AAA stealth game as punchy and precise as MGS1.

Nothing demonstrates the brilliant marriage of atmosphere and punchy mechanics better than MGS1’s boss fights. The Sniper Wolf encounter is a prime example. The industrial battlefield exposes Snake directly to the sniper’s line of sight. As a player, you’re tasked with navigating through the trenches, hiding from her rifle shots from above. It’s a tense feeling of being totally outmatched and utterly vulnerable—a theme that persists through other fights as well. A codec call from Otacon hints at the location of a sniper rifle that can greatly assist with the two Sniper Wolf showdowns, but most first-time attempts aren’t so privileged.

The tremendous scale of the hangar where players fight Vulcan Raven also emphasizes this feeling of vulnerability. Snake is like a tiny speck compared to Raven’s hulking mass and giant Gatling autocannon. It’s really only with the help of the convenient radar and minimap that Snake gets the better of him in the end. The shipping container pillars provide a fun and engaging environment to sneak up on Raven and maneuver around his shots.

And of course, how can a Metal Gear Solid retrospective be complete without the mention of Psycho Mantis? This boss fight became the de facto example of fourth-wall-breaking design in games for decades. It’s a psychological fight more than a reflex-dependent one. And it’s a fight that forced the player to think outside the normal rules of video game logic. What other boss in history was overcome by changing controller ports on the system console? Psycho Mantis even forms a kind of personal connection to the gamer with the memory card reading. This psychic trickery perfectly demonstrates the kind of gameplay/story integration Kojima has been so well regarded for.

Not that the quality of the story relied solely on gimmicks and tricks to impress. One glance at the voice talent confirms that. Without hyperbole, Metal Gear Solid gave us the best voice acting of the PS1 era, and it’s not even close. I love the cheesy voices in games like Mega Man 8, of course, but MGS1 supplied cinema-quality presentation that was simply unheard of in that era. And today, without David Hayter as Solid Snake, there’s nothing else that can replicate the voice cast from early Metal Gear Solid games, especially the first one. Much of the dialogue occurs within the context of the codec calls. Important exposition and mission details are handled through in-universe codec calls rather than some menu tab or text summary. What’s more, the codec was diegetic to the game world; it helped establish character development and context without breaking the immersion of the setting with extra menu clicks.

The plot itself was something of a rarity at the time. It took mature themes like nuclear war and genetic fatalism and didn’t reduce them to an arcadey, simplistic thriller. The themes of Metal Gear Solid are explored in depth throughout the series and sometimes expounded upon in lengthy diatribes by the characters. Many essays have been written on the themes of MGS—suffice it to say Kojima’s iconic stealth series helped catapult storytelling in gaming to new heights.

But nothing can quite capture that very peculiar and iconic atmosphere that the original PS1 Metal Gear Solid did. Even The Twin Snakes remake eliminated some of the old-school charm with its cleaned-up visuals and ramped-up action. The classic minimalistic tension of the PS1 original was lost in translation, if just a bit. I mean, Snake backflipping off missiles was admittedly rad, but admit it—some of that cold, isolationist grit was lost. As such, the original Metal Gear Solid remains a unique gem of the PS1 era, one that cannot easily be replicated or captured.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

But that’s not all. Enter the Settings menu and click on PlayStation 30th Anniversary to select options for changing the appearance and sound of the Home screen to resemble older consoles. These include PlayStation One, PS2, PS3, and PS4, mimicking their sound effects when moving through the menu screens.

Unfortunately, this option is seemingly available for a limited time, so cherish it. As part of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, we may also see the launch of My First Gran Turismo for PS4 and PS5. This free trial offers a selection of cars and events from Gran Turismo 7 to try out. Stay tuned for a potential stealth drop in the coming days.

a new PS5 update has brought back the original PS1 boot up screen and sounds to celebrate 30 years of PlayStation. You can also customize the home screen with sounds and designs from a variety of different PlayStation console generations pic.twitter.com/kMl7DjbfNL

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) December 2, 2024

here are all the sounds and designs from OG PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PS4 pic.twitter.com/TpLWRC1qOj

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) December 2, 2024

And we’re going to kick things off, as you may have imagined, by going all the way back to the series’ inception, with the release of its first instalment in 1995. Interestingly enough, the series debuted with a game that was titled Air Combat, not Ace Combat, releasing as a launch title for the original PlayStation. Originally, it was supposed to be a port of an arcade title that Bandai Namco (then known as Namco) had released a couple of years ago, but after the development team realized during development that the PS1 wasn’t powerful enough to be able to run the original game well enough, they decided to just make an entirely new game for the console from scratch.

Air Combat’s arcade-style flight combat gameplay endeared itself to many right out the gate. The game was well received by critics, which was reflected in solid sales as well- solid enough, in fact, that the franchise’s debut outing is still it’s third highest selling game to date, nearly thirty years on from its release. Air Combat was successful enough, in fact, that its publisher quickly greenlit a sequel. It launched not long after, releasing as Ace Combat 2 in 1997, just a couple of years after its predecessor.

One of the biggest things that drove Ace Combat 2’s development, interestingly enough, was designer Masanori Kato’s dissatisfactions with the visuals of the original game, and that, in turn, meant that upping the ante with the production values was one of the development team’s central goals while Ace Combat 2 was in the works. It’s fair to say that they succeeded. Upon its release, the sequel was praised by critics and players alike for not only its significantly improved visuals, but also greater variety in missions, more action-packed flight simulation gameplay, and more, which, combined with solid sales yet again, meant that Ace Combat had quickly established itself as an important IP for Namco.

The series’ third outing came not long afterward, as you may have guessed. Launching after another couple of years in 1999, Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere was the series’ final outing on the PS1- and, in many ways, also one of the series’ more experimental and weirdly ambitious games, especially for its time. In retrospect, there’s plenty that sets Ace Combat 3 apart, but series fans will tell you that its focus on story is one of the chief reasons. Ace Combat as a franchise has become strongly associated with its emphasis on story over the years, and many will tell you that Ace Combat 3 was the game that truly kicked that off in many respects.

The game also did so in a new, near-future setting (which, incidentally, also let you fly spacecraft in addition to your regular planes), while it also went on to become notorious for the stark differences between its Japanese and western releases. The latter, you see, ended up having to leave a great deal on the cutting floor due to severe budget constraints, which means there’s a significant portion of Ace Combat 3 content that is present in its Japanese version, but not its international one- most prominent being a branching storyline that changed based on players’ actions.

Understandably enough, Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere didn’t enjoy the best critical reception in western markets, and that was reflected in its sales. In North America in particular, the game underperformed, and in the end, its total sales were lower than Namco had hoped they would be. Thankfully, that wasn’t the end of the series. In fact, just a couple of years later, Ace Combat made its debut on the PlayStation 2, with Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies coming out in 2001. And as Ace Combat faithful will gladly tell you, this one ranks as probably one of the series’ most pivotal (and best) games.

There’s so much that we now strongly associate with the Ace Combat franchise in general that can be traced back to Shattered Skies. It was, for instance, the first game in the series to be developed by an internal development team dedicated entirely to the Ace Combat franchise, called Project Aces, which is still responsible for developing Ace Combat games to this day. On top of that, Ace Combat 4, which was designed as a reboot after the relative dip that was Electrosphere, was also the first game to establish the Strangereal setting that the series still uses to this day. For those unfamiliar, Strangereal is the name of the fictional universe where the Ace Combat franchise is largely set. Strangereal’s Earth is very similar to the real world in many ways, but things such as countries, the world’s history, weaponry and technology, and more tend to be quite different.

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies’ attempt to reset the franchise and bring it back on track turned out to be a successful one. It enjoyed widespread critical acclaim, drawing praise for everything from its story to its action-packed linear gameplay to how it leveraged the PS2’s more powerful hardware to deliver top-notch visuals (for the time, at least). In addition to being a critical hit, it was also a big commercial success. In fact, with over 2.64 million units sold, it was the series’ highest selling game until Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown overtook it just a few years ago.

Given how well Ace Combat 04 was received, it’s no surprise looking back that the series’ next game was the kind of iterative sequel that it turned out to be. Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War launched for the PS2 in 2004, a little over a couple of years after its predecessor came out, and by and large, the consensus was that much like Ace Combat 04, Ace Combat 5 was an excellent combat flight sim- for many of the same reasons, in fact. Ace Combat 5 was happy to be a “more of the same” kind of sequel, building on the previous entry’s foundations with a largely unambitious but well-made and compelling experience. From a sales perspective, it certainly wasn’t the kind of success that Shattered Skies was, but it still sold well enough in its own right.

From that point forward, Bandai Namco also opened up the Ace Combat franchise up to beyond just mainline numbered releases, with several spinoffs releasing over the next few years- like, for starters, top down 2D shooter Ace Combat Advance, which released for the GBA in 2005, or Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War for the PS2 and Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for the PlayStation Portable, both of which launched in 2006. A few more spinoffs followed in the years afterward- but not before Bandai Namco returned with another mainline numbered entry, with Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation releasing in 2007. This one, however, was another dip for the franchise.

Ace Combat 6 released exclusively for the Xbox 360, which, combined with relatively less enthused reception from critics and players compared to its predecessors, resulted in lower sales than Bandai Namco would have expected. In fact, to date, the game hasn’t managed to breach 1 million units sold even today, and is still the series’ lowest selling mainline entry to date. It doesn’t enjoy the best reputation among fans either. Though fun enough to play in its own right, Ace Combat 6 is deemed by many to be one of the series’ less engaging experiences, whether that’s because of its disappointing story, a handful of annoying design choices, or something else.

Given its unequivocal failure from a commercial point of view, it was no surprise that Fires of Liberation turned out to be Ace Combat’s last mainline game for a long, long time. Several more Ace Combat spinoffs were released by Bandai Namco in the years afterward, but there was a period where it seemed like the series’ stock was plummeting constantly, and whether or not it would ever claw its way back up was anyone’s guess- though, at the time, the smart money would have been on no.

That was thanks in large part to the fact that the series felt like it just didn’t know what it wanted to be with some of the spinoff instalments it put out in the years that followed. In 2010 came Ace Combat: Joint Assault, another PlayStation Portable spinoff, which was notable for being the first ever Ace Combat game to be set in the real world- though there really wasn’t much else that stood out about it. A year later, we got Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, which was also set in the real world, but in its own continuity separate from Joint Assault. Billed as a gritty, realistic take on the Ace Combat formula, Assault Horizon was ultimately an unremarkable, overly linear game that did little to bring Ace Combat back to its glory days. That same year, Bandai Namco also release Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy, which, confusingly enough, had absolutely nothing to do with Assault Horizon, and was instead a remake of Ace Combat 2- and, well, it wasn’t terrible. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t anything beyond unremarkable either, sadly enough.

Then came Ace Combat Infinity in 2014, and somehow, it was an even lower low for the series. Infinity was a freemium, multiplayer-focused game that came out in 2014 as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, which is just an awful combination of bad decisions. Unsurprisingly, it was lambasted by critics almost unanimously, and for many, it became a symbol of the state that Ace Combat had found itself in- a state of complete and utter ruin, to the point where it was being salvation. Or so we thought at that point, at any rate.

Impossibly enough, in spite of the widespread criticism it endured, Ace Combat Infinity somehow managed to be a commercial success for Bandai Namco, which led to the publisher greenlighting a new numbered entry, something that many had though was never going to happen again. Twelve years after the series’ last mainline entry, in 2019, Bandai Namco released Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, and without a shadow of doubt, proved to be worth the wait. A strong campaign, a wealth of modes, solid multiplayer gameplay, VR support, and more came together in one of the series’ strongest outings, and the acclaim it garnered also led to impressive sales. In fact, Ace Combat 7 went on to sell over 4 million units (as of 2022), which makes it the series’ highest selling game by far.

Which brings us to now, at a point where the series’ future is once again looking secure. Ace Combat 7 did an excellent job of bringing the beloved IP back into the limelight, and with its critical and commercial success, Bandai Namco has also reinvested into the franchise. In 2022, in fact, the company established Bandai Namco Aces as the new studio to lead development on all things Ace Combat, while the year prior, it was also announced that Ace Combat 8 was being developed in collaboration with support studio ILCA, and that it would be built on Unreal Engine 5.

It has, of course, been a handful of years since then, which begs the question- just where is Ace Combat 8? Bandai Namco has been working on it for a while, so are we to assume that we’re approaching the time where it will be officially unveiled? Prominent leaker Midori recently took to Twitter and claimed that the flight combat series’ next mainline instalment was indeed Bandai Namco’s next big game- but what exactly does that tell us about when it’ll come out? Is it being lined up for a release within next year or so? And if so, does that mean we should expect an announcement sometime soon?

At this point, all we can do is speculate- but there’s little doubt that there’s no shortage of excitement around what the future holds for the Ace Combat franchise. Hopefully, Bandai Namco will tell us more about exactly what that will entail sooner rather than later.

For PS4 players, there’s Circus Electrique, Dynasty Warriors 9, Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Monster Jam Steel Titans, Samurai Warriors 5, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and Undertale. PS Plus Premium players gain access to three new Classics, starting with Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2 on the PlayStation One.

Gravity Crash Portable on the PlayStation Portable is also playable. All three titles are available for PS4 and PS5. PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers can also download titles from the Essential tier, like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered and Endling – Extinction is Forever. These are available till July 31st, so claim them now.

If, according to Mortal Kombat series co-creator John Tobias, Mythologies: Sub-Zero was a chance to flesh out the mystique of one of the franchise’s most prestigious characters, then surely Special Forces presented the same opportunity. Taking the lead in this mediocre spinoff, however, is US Army Major Jax “this is a fatality” Briggs, an unremarkable character most recognisable for his meme-worthiness. Unremarkable too was Special Forces’ plot, with Briggs hellbent on seeking revenge for the slaughter of his Special Forces squad at the hands of Kano and his band of criminals, the Black Dragon. Along the way he undertakes a mission to retrieve a powerful artifact capable of blasting fighters through portals into other realms.

To take down foes, Briggs employed a blend of hand-to-hand combat with heavy duty weaponry and firepower. Levels were of an explorable variety, with puzzles to solve and keys and codes to find to progress through locked doors. Platforming was light and unvaried with tight fixed position camera and tank controls. Truth be told, the core concepts were solid but poorly executed, which is doubly surprising given the development team’s pedigree and ambition. Indeed, series co-creator John Tobias took an active role in Special Forces’ development, stating in interview at the time that they were looking to replicate the visionary exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with the engaging environmental puzzle design of Tomb Raider. Special Forces’ gameplay mechanics wore more than a passing influence of Metal Gear Solid too.

So, what went wrong? Why, with such a great foundation, did the finished article flounder? Well, principally, Tobias, alongside his inner circle of programmers and producers, upped sticks and left midway through production. Now, there are sound reasons for Tobias to abandon the franchise he had a hand in creating, but most crucially he felt a glaring disillusionment in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces being developed on aging hardware. Why, so he thought, should he plough his hard-earned skillset into old technology whilst other developers are already being granted keys to the next-generation castle? Yep, during this period in the late 1990s, Sony was already generating buzz around PlayStation 2, with the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft’s first Xbox firmly on the horizon too. It’s not irrational to view one’s own career as stagnating given those circumstances; the threat of an outdated skillset adversely affecting future job opportunities. And so, Tobias left Midway. Key programmers on the project – those who allegedly incorporated revolutionary real-time water refraction into its art design – jumped ship too.

With the game incapable of meeting the ambitious vision of its series co-creator, Midway should have taken the decision at this stage to cancel the project. But no, they forged on with a skeleton crew who, despite their best efforts, were incapable of matching the developmental prowess of Tobias and his departed team. The real-time water refraction was scrapped, the game’s seven levels were skimmed down to five, the over-the-shoulder viewpoint ditched in favour of ill-executed fixed cameras and view obstructing top-down perspectives. The level design that remained was beige to the core, with exploration rendered tedious through monotone environments and repetitive encounters. Purported platforming and swimming sections were dropped as the replacement developers simply lacked the creative skillset to see these ideas through to fruition. Tragically, all these cutbacks are remembered solely as a futile effort on Midway’s part to resuscitate a project that was long since dead.

Most criminal of Midway’s post-Tobias syphoning though was the axing of Sonya Blade as player character. Yes, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces could have played akin to Resident Evil 2’s dual-protagonist setup, but was instead replaced by a purely Jax Briggs affair. Removing Sonya from Special Forces diluted the game’s already pish story too, leaving a storyline with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. Yes, Tobias’ ambition really was worn down to an unrecognisable nub by this point.

Midway’s criminality continued right up until release day too. Not content with rushing the already underskilled workforce, the studio opted to massively undermarket the game as well. Did it receive the budget to fund a memorable campaign making players aware of its existence? No, not really. Did it launch at an already discounted price to entice – or maybe trick – players and series fanatics into buying the game? Why, yes, it absolutely did.

Did anyone who played it genuinely like the finished product? Well, yes, actually, a handful of review outlets scored the game a respectable seven out of ten, or somewhere in that range. However, most found the game severely flawed, bestowing it a score so low it is regarded as one of the worst reviewed games of all time. It currently hangs at a less than underwhelming twenty-eight out of a hundred on Metacritic.

Special Forces was released as a PlayStation exclusive, but there were plans to port the game to the Nintendo 64, with a Sega Dreamcast port to follow. Obviously, the effort to place Special Forces on these platforms was shelved, the N64 version being dropped during development and the Dreamcast version disappearing into the aether sometime after. Tobias, for his part, moved on to pastures new forming Studio Gigante together with Midway alumni Dave Michicich and Joshua Tsui. The company released only two games, both Xbox exclusives: beat ‘em up underachiever Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus and the laughably undercooked WWE WrestleMania 21, the latter of which commercially and critically nosedived, with Studio Gigante tanking shortly after.

Tobias’ fellow Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, who didn’t have a hand in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, did go on record post-release to decry the game’s chequered development. One thing is for sure though: no developer should be dunked on for showing ambition, and whilst Tobias, his team, and leaders at Midway couldn’t make ends meet for it, there’s enough of a solid foundation in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces that given time, guidance, and resources, it could have been semi-decent.

The fantastical lore and memorable characters of Mortal Kombat on the whole are crying out for spinoffs, it’s just a shame that on this occasion the stars didn’t align. In fact, it wasn’t until 2005 that a Mortal Kombat spinoff was attempted again with the well-received Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks – an adventure title which, alongside incorporating the best of Mortal Kombat’s fighting mechanics, actually featured Fatalities, which are an iconic aspect prevalent in Mortal Kombat games that were sorely missing in Special Forces. Not that a Fatality or two would have righted Special Forces’ already capsized ship, but there were clearly several design and direction decisions taken early on in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces’ production which doomed the spinoff to failure long before the wheels fell off.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

For PS5 players, action hack and slash title Soulstice will be available. PS4 players can look forward to Tacoma, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Killing Floor 2. A game trial for WWE 2K23 will also be available, though this is more than likely exclusive to PS Plus Premium.

It’s worth noting that several other titles like ELEX 2, Redout 2, MX vs ATV Legends, PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay, My Friend Peppa Pig and DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace for PS4 and PS5 are mentioned in a recent PlayStation Access video. You also have The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, A Hat in Time, Carto, Forager, Dodgeball Academia, The Wild at Heart and Thief coming to PS4.

Classics coming to PlayStation Plus Premium include Killzone: Liberation for the PSP and Worms and
Herc’s Adventure on the PlayStation One.

But when you spend 30 years doing anything, you’ll have some bad days and some good days, and Sony has, of course, had its share of relative disappointments and underwhelming outings to go along with its really strong ones. Here we take a look at everything it has done, and rank all of its platforms from worst to best, across consoles, handhelds, and VR.

#9. PLAYSTATION VR2

Sony’s newest hardware release has reportedly not had the kind of launch the company may have been hoping for, so it remains to be seen how it will fare in the months and years ahead. In the here and now, it’s easy to see the promise. The PS VR2 boasts excellent hardware, boasting impressive tech and some much-needed improvements over its predecessor. But though it’s still early days, its library isn’t exactly stacked full of games that justify its shockingly high price. Hopefully, Sony and others in the industry will have some really good games up their sleeves in the not-too-distant future. We wouldn’t mind a Half-Life: Alyx port.

#8. PLAYSTATION VR

Sony deserves a great deal of credit for being willing to experiment with something as niche and new as VR back in the day. Building on the incredible success of the PS4, the company decided to dip its toes in virtual reality with PS VR, and with the likes of Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Resident Evil 7, Blood and Truth, and more, the device did deliver some really good games. Of course, it also had its fair share of issues. The hardware, for instance, was quite finnicky and didn’t exactly have the best user experience. It was a decent start for Sony in the world of VR, and it does boast a solid library, but it didn’t exactly set the world on fire.

#7. PLAYSTATION VITA

Thinking about the PlayStation Vita just makes us sad. There was so much to love about Sony’s doomed handheld. It’s hardware was excellent, it had a gorgeous OLED screen (or at least the original model did), and it seemed like the perfect way to properly realize the promise of console games on the go that Sony originally made with the PSP. It was, however, a victim of a string of bad decisions by Sony, from the ridiculous pricing of its proprietary memory cards to how poorly Sony supported the device. It’s a real shame that the PS Vita bombed as horribly as it did, because if Sony had had its heart set on it, it could have done some excellent things in the handheld space. Speaking of which…

#6. PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

The PlayStation Portable launched at a time when Nintendo had an actual, literal monopoly in the handheld gaming market, before even mobile gaming was really a thing. Much like the original PlayStation, the PSP faced insurmountable odds as it sought to overturn that monopoly, and though it didn’t quite do that the way the PS1 did, it did make a significant chunk. With its slick form factor, more powerful hardware, and games that looked better than anyone had ever imagined they would on a handheld, the PSP raised the bar in ways that it doesn’t get enough credit for. It helped, of course, that it had an excellent library, which also doesn’t get the praise it deserves. God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Daxter, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – the list goes on and on.

#5. PLAYSTATION 5

It’s very, very likely that about four or five years from now, the PlayStation 5 will be higher on this list. The fact that it’s less than three years old and is already this high is, however, testament to the incredible start it has had. Console shortages in its first couple of years aside, the PS5 has been firing on all cylinders since day one. Incredible specs, one of the best console controllers of all time, excellent user experience and features- it ticks all the boxes. Including, of course, an impressive library. With the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, Returnal, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and more, the PS5 has already built up a solid catalogue of excellent exclusives, and there’s obviously plenty more to come. Of course, with it still being in the early years of its life, the PS5 still has some catching up to do with all of its predecessors, but so far, it doesn’t look like it’ll fall short of expectations.

#4. PLAYSTATION 3

By the time all was said and done, the PS3 sold over 87 million units worldwide and accumulated a stellar library of games, so it’s not exactly a failure. But is it a bit of a black sheep in the PlayStation console family? I think even Sony would tell you that. How complicated its hardware was to develop for for a number of developers across the industry, the fierce competition it faced from the Xbox 360, the ridiculous price it launched for- there were plenty of reasons for why the PS3 is the only PlayStation console to sell under a hundred million units. At the same time though, it’s also got an amazing library. Sure, the PS3 era had plenty of issues, but it also delivered games like Metal Gear Solid 4, the Uncharted 2, God of War 3, Killzone 2 and 3, and so, so much more. So at the end of the day, the good definitely outweighed the bad.

#3. PLAYSTATION 

Going up against the established dominance of Nintendo and Sega (but largely the former) as a newcomer wasn’t an easy task in the slightest, but with the PlayStation, Sony certainly made it look easy. It was less powerful than the N64, sure, but it was also cheaper and easier to develop for. That meant developers flocked to it in droves and crammed its library full of smash hits, and that, in turn, drove sales at a scale that the industry had never seen before, culminating with the PS1 becoming the first console ever to sell more than 100 million units. Not only is it one of the greatest consoles of all time, it’s also one of the most influential consoles of all time.

#2. PLAYSTATION 2

Many would argue that the PS2 should be at the top of this list – and possibly every list – and even though we obviously haven’t put it in that position, we very easily could have. More so perhaps than any of its competitors, predecessors, or successors, the PS2 signifies what a gaming console is above all else, and that is thanks first and foremost to its library of games, which might just be one of the greatest gaming lineups of all time. It’s the highest selling console of all time and remains the only console to date to have sold over 150 million units, but as staggering as that achievement it is, it’s hard to say that it isn’t justified by every metric.

#1. PLAYSTATION 4

After a bit of a stumble with the PS3 (albeit a stumble with caveats of success), Sony decided to pivot with the PS4 in more ways than one, from its reasonable launch pricing to its quick and easy user experience to its developer-friendly hardware, and all of those decisions paid dividends for Sony. What really elevated the PS4 as a console, however, was the sudden and aggressive improvements that we saw from PlayStation’s first party offerings. Don’t get us wrong, Sony’s first party has always been one of its strong suits, but in the PS4 era, it hit completely new heights. Bloodborne, which was technically a first party release, kicked it off in 2015, and then it was just a steady stream of stellar, must-play releases. Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima. With first parties and third parties both firing on all cylinders, the PS4 accumulated an incredible library of games over the course of its life, and of course, is still continuing to see consistent releases in the early years of its successor’s life. For our money, it would be silly not to recognize it as one of the greatest gaming consoles of all time.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

What is the milestone? PlayStation consoles put together have now sold over 500 million units worldwide to date – 504.19 million, to be precise – with the PS1 sitting at 102.49 million, the PS2 at 158.7 million, the PS3 at 87.4 million, the PS4 at 117.2 million, and the PS5, of course, at 38.4 million as of now.

Sony also becomes the first company to cross the 500 million units landmark, with Nintendo consoles currently totaling at over 403 million units. Of course, handheld platforms for neither company are factored into these totals.

Xbox is another story, given the fact that Microsoft hasn’t provided official sales numbers for its consoles for quite some time. Exact worldwide sales figures aren’t available for either Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S, though if we were to go by estimates, that would still put Xbox’s collective sales behind Nintendo and Sony by quite some margin, at roughly 177 million units worldwide to date.

As for the PS5, Sony clearly has no intention of slowing down the console’s momentum. To the contrary, the company is aiming to ship 25 million units in FY 2023/24, which is more than any console has ever shipped in a single fiscal year to date.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Alongside Solid Snake, Naughty Dog’s anthropomorphic marsupial is amongst the most iconic of the original PlayStation’s mascots. The first game’s tricky platforming and whimsical humour established Crash Bandicoot as synonymous with the platform and its sequel Cortex Strikes Back refined the experience further with graphical enhancements and more intuitive level designs. A handful of trial-and-error set pieces aside, Crash 2’s challenge was firm but fair, delivering a spinning romp through jungles, frozen tundra, and outer space which holds up as the best in the series.