Sony has today shared a brief look behind the curtain at its plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of PlayStation. The PS1 released in Japan on 3rd December 1994, and 30 years later, the brand is still trucking along — and Sony wants to commemorate the occasion. Part of its plans include a new Gran Turismo demo, game soundtracks, and merchandise.
Detailed in a PlayStation Blog post, Vice President of global marketing Isabelle Tomatis said: "Your enduring support has made these past three decades possible. While PlayStation’s 30th anniversary is still a few months away, today we’re delighted to share some of the ways we’ll be commemorating this milestone with all of you." From its first batch of party plans, the headliner is a (sort of) new Gran Turismo title called My First Gran Turismo.
This is a free trial version designed to attract players of all skill levels and ages to Gran Turismo 7, and will have "some of the favorite cars, tracks, and race events that evoke the nostalgia and excitement of the very first GT experience". It releases for PS5 and PS4 for free towards the end of the year.
Next, from October through until January 2025, a selection of digital soundtracks from classic PlayStation franchises will be released for the first time onto streaming services like Spotify. The soundtracks are for:
There'll also be some physical products for you to purchase to mark the 30th anniversary in the Shapes of Play collection. Made "by the team behind the design of PlayStation consoles", there's a board game, a set of magnetic blocks, and PlayStation-themed stress balls. The items are launching in December 2024 via the official PlayStation Direct website. There'll then be the usual PS Plus free online multiplayer weekends and e-sports tournaments.
The blog post rounds off by saying: "As we celebrate 30 years of play, these upcoming activities and releases are just a taste of what’s to come. Be on the lookout for more announcements in the near future!" When Jim Ryan left the company, a PS1-themed PS5 console and DualSense controller were spotted, which fans have been hoping would be made available for PlayStation's 30th anniversary. There's no word on that happening yet, but it sounds like there's more news to come between now and the big day in December.
Are you interested in any of these celebratory products and initiatives? Let us know in the comments below.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 48
@LiamCroft You had me with that headline, I thought they had actually confirmed a proper new game! Great for those who haven't jumped in and a must for VR customers (the few of us).
Mech is a bit meh but sound tracks are cool, really want that PS1 design Dualsense though!!!
Give me a new Killzone over gran turismo anyday
Nice to see them use Astro Bot's launch as the start of PS 30th anniversary celebrations. Would be really cool if a PS event during the celebrations brought back dormant IP.
@Mostik Yeah I've changed it to "Demo" haha, "Game" probably insinuated a bit too much!
Maybe they will have something else more special to reveal. Like native emulation for all generations of PlayStation for those that have physical copies! Or better yet remasters that many of us want from the PS3 and earlier generations. Such wishful thinking I know.
Give me PS1 themed PS5 plates and Dualsense and I'm golden
Give me Rayman remasters, God of War remasters and Rachet and Clank remasters. Oh and Mortal Kombat remasters too.
Wipeout and club culture made PS a success. If they don't acknowledge that they've forgotten their roots.
Can't wait for that Unit 13 soundtrack!
Would be great if Sony announce a new Arc the Lad, Battle Arena Toshinden, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Wipeout, or Jumping Flash since these IP's was released in the early year (94/95) of PS1 and attracted many people to own a PS console.
But i guess that would be too much to ask since the new SIE president claimed that Sony doesn't have enough original IP's. I doubt he know what's Arc the Lad or Warhawk 😐
Anyway...
Those merch probably will be gone the moment Sony put up on their site.
So, what i want is simple: just give me free dynamic theme and avatar. That's it.
Look, let's just cut to the chase. We all want the DualSense in the original PlayStation grey with the coloured face buttons don't we? That's all we want from this anniversary. Be honest.
Will they be headlining the celebrations with concord or Astro... hmm decisions, decisions...lol
Give us a new WipEout already. Or a remaster (as in, up-res and 60FPS) of 2097. I know the soundtrack licencing would be a potential nightmare, but for most people interested in such a re-release they probably already own that soundtrack several times over already and can just use that (or sub in whatever music they want).
@Czar_Khastik This x 100!
Just give me SOCOM trilogy remastered with multiplayer
PSVR2 WipEout, please. Nothing more. Nothing less.
@riceNpea Amen.
@johncalmc I would preorder it so hard it would rip space and time in such manner that even Concord would be brought back to life
It would be really cool if Sony announced atleast one new title in one of their dormant first-party IPs.
Now I just wanna laugh🤣 and then cry.😭
Should we be hopefully and expect some great classic additions to Ps Plus?!
Really would be nice to see something about Gravity Rush, Ape Escape and Bloodborne. Really, anything from their legacy titles. Sony really have this unique legacy titles in their pocket but keep pretending they don't exist.
A PS1 themed Dualsense to go along with the PS1 Dualshock 4 I bought would be great.
I hope the GT demo includes the VR mode - I really wanna try that but I doubt I'd play the game a lot.
All I’m hoping for is the PS1 style controller. I don’t usually buy controllers as they are expensive and few, for me, justify that cost but that original is a sure stand out.
@PuppetMaster I thought that was an odd statement given that Sony is releasing a game that is an homage to Sony's history - including a wealth of first-party IP.
Off the top of my head, I have compiled a list of IP that Sony has at its disposal:
Demon's Souls
Bloodborne
God of War
Ghost of Tsushima
Ratchet & Clank
Jak & Daxter
Sly Cooper
Horizon
Days Gone
Death Stranding
Gravity Rush
Uncharted
The Last of Us
Ape Escape
Parappa the Rapper
LocoRoco
Ico-verse Games
Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Legaia
Knack
Wild Arms
Alundra
Dark Cloud
Rule of Rose
Folklore
Siren
I am sure there are a ton I am missing. But to say Sony doesn't have the IP is just strange. The company could absolutely breathe new life into dormant series.
The biggest mistake they did with 25th anniversary on PS4 was not to let use a proper playstation theme. I mean wouldn't be awesome to be able to hear the PS1 diamond theme when playing your games and you can turn it on and off
new GT sounds nice
@GamingFan4Lyf Seriously though.
The last five years or so SUCKED for Playstation imo. Aside from R&C and now Astro Bot, not a single game has peaked my interest.
Meanwhile, on the PS4, i got blown away by all sorts of games; Sly Cooper, Uncharted, Gravity Rush, Knack (Yes really, I loved those games!), Horizon... There's almost none of this veriety on the 5, which is an absolute shame
@GamingFan4Lyf It was an odd statement. Either there's a mistranslation, Totoki was drunk when he said that, or maybe he really doesn't know PS history which is very concerning...
I would love for PlayStation experience to return.
@PuppetMaster @GamingFan4Lyf I feel like modern Sony leadership has a complete lack of awareness of Playstation before the PS4. PS fans identify PS with PS1 and PS2. PS management thinks those were Sega products.
Totoki's a corporate guy, probably knows more about TVs and car audio than PS. But even if he's out of touch he can't be worse than Jim + Herman unchecked. Jim and Herman put us into this mess without Totoki involved. He can't make it worse.
@PuppetMaster He was actually talking about Sony as a whole not just the PlayStation division but even still their movie division owns some good Ips as well.
WAITING FOR THIS 3 YEARS AGO, hope there is lot of merch like dualsence and console and hope some retro released.
Happy to see Unit 13 mentioned, played it only recently and had a blast with it!
Killzone 1-3 remasters on pc with shadow fall only if it includes the multiplayer component, infamous remasters and a days gone sequel is needed, how is sony just leaving this money on the table but going hard for overwatch rip offs 😡 gotta go back to what made playstation great.
Honestly playstation has such a great classic catalogue they could remaster graphically, recent games are just unappealing unless you watch superhero movies or buy every first party game.
Shut up and take my money!! And memories!
@Areus It still an odd statement for someone at the top of SIE, especially when Sony has been abandoned plenty of their IP's.
Just a load of crap play on people's nostalgia to make more money, of course you want more people playing Gran Turismo 7 think of all the micro transactions, proper backwards compatibility for old discs would be nice.
@NEStalgia:
Your takes regarding PS usually are a miss and hit, mostly the former one.
But Totoki has been working at Sony since 1987, he's the Sony Director, President, COO, CFO and Playstation Chairman.
So, he's basically a company insider, know the Company very well and has sufficient knowledge about Sony's IP's.
I think they couldn't choose a better replacement than him, he seems that will take Sony to higher levels.
@Maubari well the ps5 had a lot of games pushed back and delayed from the pandemic and the ps4 didn't have that , but people forget the ps4 started off pretty slow too.
@get2sammyb haha, my thoughts as well. Very niche. Though I do remember getting it with psplus and playing it a lot. Great game if you liked the psp Syphon filters.
@kazuyamushima believe it or not, I agree 😅. What I did NOT want to see was Hulst replacing Jim. While I didn't like that he still got a promotion, I was at least glad he got no control over platform, and also glad Totoki installed himself above both "CEOs". I do feel better with Totoki overseeing things directly. Although I still assume he knows very little of PS history and IP, as, like you said, he's an old school SONY guy. The hardware, consumer electronics, audio, commercial broadcast, optical, magnetics, etc lines are much more likely to be things he's been closer to than entertainment production content. Even if leading the transition to entertainment is his key priority.
Unit 13 really? Surprised Sony even remember it.
Sony has the IP they are just too lazy to use the IPs for soundtracks/merch/books/a new game. They prioritise what suits them for their strategy nowadays. Ignorance.
They are ok backgrounds but that exciting no. They fit the style they go for though. The artists know what they are making and it executes it well.
The IPs they picked were safe and also for a certain adult audience too hmm I wonder why. Why just God of War, Unit 13 then Socom, their mature IPs, what about HMMMM I don't know any of their older ones? Any of the family friendly IPs whether recent or a gen ago if they don't want to dig too deep. They are so lazy it's astounding. Surprised Twisted Metal is even here as besides the TV show what else have they even done?
Even if it was trickling out I highly doubt it. Even if they had to pick 5 only, the lack of variety is what annoys me most there. If they had only 5 they wanted to stick to, they can offer variety from various IPs they have and I'd be totally ok with this even if not IPs I'm absolute on either. I'm buying up many of their older IPs, no idea what the OSTs are like or care anything I find most OSTs forgettable or boring structurally to listen to.
Oh they would just love people to play GT7 a game so pathetic, so live service, so garbage of a career mode, dealership that's less exciting then Project Gotham Racing 2 to walk around in not a 1 off cutscene and eh menu design, a story so bad even the Tokyo Extreme Racer dialogue to talk to on the side is better and you talk to them not a bunch of profile pictures with dialogue, a background and profile pictures, visual novels with Live 2D look more appealing then these and with dialogue less awkward. The modes are ok but not that great and the feeling in GT Sport to 7 was so eh of minor I don't care. I hate 5 & 6's physics more but hat was due to the comfort tires restrictions Polyphony forced on events not just the really bad physics they have.
I didn't even mind seeing Jeff Gordan in GT5, the model was fine to me compared to the cars/crowd, they tried and I respect that, progression structure of Forza Motorsport 6 and GT5 combined that are so infuriatingly dumb for level systems and parts/invitations, why bother. I won't even try the free demo it's trash. I could to see 'what' it offers. But GT Sport I hated too but even if I bought it 2 years before the 1.69 offline patch I still found it better.
Polyphony try to do new things but the problem is they aren't fun or exciting to me. The modes are ok, the career was confusing, the music rally is forgettable even if saving on licensing money and things done in the past/not repeating which is fine and the cars/tracks cost to much of licenses. But why not something ORIGINAL. Why less garbage attempts to make their old tracks look garbage and realistic then well have the fantasy element to them still, it was more appealing that way. Why Vision GT? Can't car manufacturers make simulations themselves? They have the money to do so. Why so many boring tracks. Why such boring decisions.
They don't want to dig deep enough, renew many other trademarks or anything, dig up enough of OSTs at all. They don't care. Sony can keep pushing their current IPs all I care, I don't care for merch, I don't care for them, the PS5 isn't worth my time.
Sony ‘Hey! We’re excited to celebrate 30 amazing years of PlayStation!’
Usual suspects on these forums ‘I hated Jim, now I hate Hermen and where’s my F2P 4K 120FPS VR-capable Ape Escape/Killzone crossover you b******s!’.
Give it a rest! Let’s enjoy our games and some positive discourse.
How about using it as an opportunity to tell us what games your studios are actually making?
Now this is how you celebrate a milestone!
A demo for a 5 year old game, some soundtracks on a streaming service you have to pay for and some magnets that you can buy.
@Czar_Khastik THIS THIS THIS. I almost did a colorware order for a PS5 dualsense, but the price was too much.
I would buy both of these without hesitation
Bring back the PS1 intro when it boots up
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