Five years ago today, the PlayStation 4 released in North America – and the rest is history. The console sold one million units in 24 hours, making it the fastest-selling launch in PlayStation history. Some of you may remember a live launch event that the platform holder hosted, where it announced Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and also teased Sony Bend’s next project, which would later be revealed as Days Gone.
To date the device has shipped 86.1 million units, and the most remarkable thing is that sales seem to be speeding up rather than naturally slowing down; the company was forced to revise its fiscal forecast for the format, and it’s just announced a $199 Marvel’s Spider-Man bundle for Black Friday. It’s also enjoying one of its best ever years for software, too, with the manufacturer scoring a whopping 20 nominations at The Game Awards 2018.
What are your memories of PS4 launch day? Did you get the console day one, and which games did you pick up alongside it? Are you satisfied with what the system has offered now it enters the twilight years of its lifecycle? Are you ready for the PlayStation 5 now, or do you think the current generation still has a lot of life left in it? Take a trip down memory lane in the comments section below.
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I remember the PS4 launch period so well. Was an exciting time both personally as a PlayStation fan and also as the editor of this site.
@get2sammyb only console i ever brought day one, that i ever wanted to buy day one
had to wait a couple months to get mine because i was to late ordering one and they where all sold out.
planning to order the ps5 day 1 this time though.
I remember getting it on launch day along with... Killzone Shadowfall and Assassin's Creed Black Flag, I think. How far we've come!
Im ready for ps5 as long as it has backward compatibility.
I remember spending PS4's launch day crying in a corner because I couldn't get one. It wouldn't be until last year that I'd get my hands on one.
I’ll celebrate by finally giving Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag a chance. From what I understand, it’s better than the mediocre Assassin’s Creed III.
I waited a few months as none of the launch titles really grabbed me at first. The release of Bloodborne was when things really kicked into gear for me personally and now I'd probably say that the library is possibly the best I've ever seen on a console. Certainly up there with the best at any rate. PS5 is going to have its work cut out!
I got my PS4 as a Birthday present in May the following year I do not think i have ever bought a console at launch
Been an amazing 5 years, was awesome from the day 1!!
@RogerRoger Yes, the share button! Let's not start in on our 'spectator mode' habits again though!
Come to think of it 'spectator mode' sounds kind of creepy doesn't it! haha
Got mine with Uncharted 4. 10th May, 2016. What a great day that was! So exciting.
Best console ever. Word up son.
Two days early November 13 2013. Also it was free thanks to Taco Bell giving them away. I had one pre-ordered and ended up giving one to my Grand Daughter for Christmas.
My first unit was pretty glitchy and it drove me crazy for a time.
It was affected with auto-eject bug and would eject during play.
As I recall, the games wouldn't suspend, they just closed with no save.
Had to open the unit and put electrical tape over the metal touch button sensor pad.
After that it was fine, and then Sony redesigned the whole thing...
I bought ps4 a couple of months after launch because the price too high in my country, same as ps4 pro. After a couple of months thankfully ps4 price is down to usa launch price
I got my PS4 in December 2015 because (1) I don't buy launch day consoles and (2) I couldn't afford one anyway with the extremely high prices here in Barbados at launch. My PS4 was my Christmas gift to myself that year. Even though I had been always with PlayStation since PS1 after moving on from Sega Genesis (skipped the PS3 due to financial constraints at the time), I was actually considering an Xbox One because of Forza and...that's it. Then I remembered all the great times I had and the excellent franchises back on PS1 and PS2 and that sealed the decision to go with PS4. I've had hours of fun with the system so far, and I do believe the current generation, though it may be winding down, has plenty of life left. I'm looking forward to getting the PS5 in a few years, but I'm also watching with keen interest what Microsoft will be doing with the Xbox brand.
Happy anniversary PS4, you're looking as fresh as ever to me.
Only got mine a couple of years ago and played it incessantly for a good year and a half. I don't play much anymore but it's still a great console. The only console I've gotten launch day is the Wii and that launch was insane.
happy birthday ps4
I got the Knack bundle a few months after launch along with a brand new 1080p tele. I remember how awestruck I was at the crispness of it all.
It's been a cracking 5 years.
Wow,I didant realize it had been five years already!I managed to get one the following January to help me get through the recovery of my second kidney Transplant 3 months off work mostly playing games..awesome lol
Got mine day 1 with Killzone which I played for about an hour then gave up and went on to Resogun and Contrast. I remember it being a bit sparse for games at launch only things I remember playing early days was Fifa 14 and Knack. Remember my fifa would crash after one game in season mode took about a month to find a fix for the bug.
86mil is averaging just over 21mil a year for 5 straight years. After everyone was talking about the downfall of home console video gaming due to everyone having a phone.
https://www.wired.com/2012/10/consolation-prize/
Hey pundits.
All the people predicting the death of the home console 5 years ago are probably the same people who spent 2 years telling us Trump could never win.
One of the best consoles I've ever owned, hands down. And this year has been its strongest yet.
@ApostateMage well not really because before bloodborne there wasn't really much to talk about on ps4
Got mine when Infamous Second Son came out, thanks to the Plus games, crossbuy titles and F2Ps I must have had about 12 games ready to play day one lol
@manu0 In your opinion. In my opinion, I think the souls game are very overrated.
Merry Birthday! I bought a PS4Pro when Horizon Zero Dawn released, v.glad I did! Absolutely loving PSVR + the Aim too 💕🌅😻
Awesome. It's been a great 5 years. I got mine around March/April in 2014 and picked up a pro about half way through last year. I've had a lot of different consoles over the years but the PS4 already has one of the best libraries of games.
I got 5 on it luniz. congrats PlayStation 4👍.word up son
@Fight_Teza_Fight haha ps4 is amazing.word up son
Got my PS4 December 2017, so I was pretty late to the party. However, over the past year I've played Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, Until Dawn, Resident Evil 7, and 50+ other titles. I also upgraded from a 26" 720p TV to a 43" 4K UHD TV with HDR, and my oh my, what a difference. I'm excited to see what 2019 and 2020 have in store for the PS4.
@playstation1995 God of War for GOTY!
@Fight_Teza_Fight i agree with you.kratos the g.o.a.t.word up son
@Turismo4GT sega genesis was my favorite console before PlayStation.word up son
Happy birthday, arguably Sony's best home console to date. Of course, like I've often mentioned before, I never considered it due to the very fact that it's a HOME console - the situation only changed in 2016 thanks to my Vita and to my cell service provider finally kickstarting 4G in Belarus (yes, took us this long). That, the library amassed (including the PS+ offerings and sales that allowed to build up a collection at a neat pace) and the fact that Disney Infinity servers were going down soon combined to make this the first home console I've owned since a bootleg Sega Mega Drive back in early 2000s. And despite using Remote Play 98% of the time, I experienced enough to consider DS4 Sony's best (and most Nintendoesque, in the complimenting sense) controller to date, too.
Despite all the disappointments with control schemes, connection hijinks and the naturally added toll of mobile data spendings, I've yet to regret the purchase. There's a lot to experience, and even though many of Sony's own most imaginative classics seem to have been born on portables, PS4 has seen its share as well. And the third party library has given me experiences like Stories and Dishonored, two of the best games I've played in the recent years - on top of introducing me to a lot of the stuff I'm recurrently double-dipping on nowadays.
PS5? It'll take confirmation of: a) at the very least, Vita RP support (which is already up in the air since the console got officially discontinued) and b) backwards compatibility to get me interested. And of course, PS5 has yet to be revealed at all - with the answer whether it's really something new or PS4 Ultra Mega Pro in all but name. Until then, like all of my consoles, PS4 has a backlog that could last me until [the inevitably hybrid] PS7 if needed.
Picked up a PS4 in December of 2014. Basically only played Resogun until I sold it for an Xbox one in Summer 2015( Rare Replay). Might pick one up in the near future if those Kingdom Hearts titles don't come to Xbox. Not much to say. Kind of in a rocky state with Sony after buying a Vita at launch.
I remember the videos of people showing it being uneven, and the post-it note fix
@playstation1995 Ditto. Genesis was my first home console, so that will always hold special memories for me.
@RedMageLanakyn thankfully, all those firmware updates have made the system 'stable af'
@get2sammyb when did the site really start to take off, Sammy? I think I found you guys a couple years into this generation
I remember that day well, standing in the midnight launch line, being so excited, seeing it glow when I tuned it on. Resogun was the prettiest thing I ever saw with those particle effects. Then playing it all day once I woke back after the midnight launch and trying the thing all day afterwards. It’s been such an amazing console.
Crazy how time flies.
Love my PS4.
I got my first ps4 a couple months after release when the library had built up a little, loved it to bits but had to sell it because it was still worth a fair bit second hand at the time and I needed a car for work. So after about another year of graft, the Witcher 3 releasing and not being able to play it and many, many tears I forked out for another one and I never looked back. I, like quite a few others on here, have seen many home consoles come and go and I can honestly say, for overall quality, ps4 is my favourite. Just so many grade A titles. I’m physically sat looking at them in front of me all alphabetised and blue. What a time to be alive.
And some idiots were saying that consoles were finished.
PS4 is the best place to play, word up son.
Damn that was a quick 5 years. Feels like 3!
I only got mine around two years ago, though I've never been one to rush out and get a console on Day 1. It's been a great journey so far, and there's still plenty of excellent games on it that I've not bought yet.
Damn, 5 years already? I remember working in Game on the midnight launch. Happy Birthday PS4!
Got mine 2 years afterm as it was actually unexpected as my girlfriend bought me it with The Last of Us Remastered, Dragon Age Inquisition I thought I was getting Timberland boots and some jeans unfortunately it landed in the year the network got attacked and I couldn't play hardly any game because of the patches and I prefer to make sure my games are patched in case of any errors
@PS_Nation I'm going to say PS3 was a bit better only because we had like 12 Ratchet and Clank games vs 1. Pretty much my favorite Sony IP
@Sinton it is
I remember going in to EBGames a week before launch and being laughed at by the staff there because it was impossible to get one. I walked into Target and made a pre-order and had the console on the day it released
@DerMeister Same here man, but it was well worth the wait. I've got a 200+ PS4 game backlog by now and it's only gonna keep on growing.
Now to just find the time to play them all haha.
Got mine on a Black Friday from Argos in November 2014. when the price dropped below the magic £300. Came with LBP3 and Minecraft - they were hastily traded in for Dragon Age and Diablo!
Took the punt a few months ago for a PS4 Pro for about £300 (I can see a pattern)
Anyway, happy birthday PS4 - the best and most played console since the PS2.
Bought one 2 weeks ago for Red Dead and then decided against it after witnessing how boring it was at my brothers. Loving Spiderman though.
Nintendo Switch still the best console ever released though.
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