The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PSX (which it was known as early in development; not to be confused with the DVR PSX) or PS1) is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994. The PlayStation was the first of PlayStation series of console and handheld game devices. Successor consoles and upgrades include the Net Yaroze, PS one, PSX, PocketStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation was the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch. The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986. Nintendo had been attempting to work with CD-ROM technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems.

The discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual, and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips.

Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of the PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop a Super Famicom-compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

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