Happy birthday PlayStation!

Fifteen years ago – on Sept. 9, 1995 – Sony changed the course of the video game world.  

This sounds like hyperbole – and maybe even the first line of a press release from the company – but it’s actually the spot-on truth. It has now been 15 years since the PlayStation hit retail shelves and the changes it brought were monumental.

The company quickly knocked Nintendo off of its throne and ushered in a new look and style for video games that continues to evolve today. It was also the first to focus on the CD as a storage medium, rather than cartridges. If it weren’t for the PlayStation, odds are there would be no Xbox. And, frankly, the gaming industry would probably not be nearly as big.

A little over five years later, the company would kick that revolution into overdrive with the launch of the PS2. Today, the company has sold over 377 million consoles life to date and more than 2 billion games.

It’s an achievement worth noting, no matter what your preferred gaming platform may be.