Sony Playstation Launches in Europe
29th September 1995 Sony's First Playstation Releases in Europe.
A few months before the launch of the console, there had been nothing but talk about Sony's lack of experience in the gaming market, and really why were they bothering to compete against the experience of Sega and Nintendo, who roughly held half the world's console markets each.
What they had not banked on was Sony's experience at selling consumer electronics, so when the machine appeared in shops in Europe, it was with a clever marketing blitz the two old stagers could not match.
The machine launched with far more software than Sega had managed in the previous months since the Saturn's European launch, including an excellent version of Namcos Ridge Racer, and Wipeout, an excellent futuristic racer with licensed music, and all marketed at the 20 somethings who had grown up with the earlier consoles, but now had more money to burn.
The machine undercut the Saturn by £100, although a separate memory card was required, there was no in built memory, and a disc with demos of games on it, while the Saturn by this time had Virtua Fighter as a pack in game.
The console was an immediate success in Europe, wiping out the sales of the Saturn, and continuing on an upward trajectory until the release of it's successor in 2000.
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