Sony's miniaturized redesign of the original PlayStation, released in 2000. Roughly half the size of the original, the PSone extended the platform's lifespan and sold 28 million additional units. The white clamshell design became iconic in its own right.

The PlayStation's original rectangular controller lacked analog sticks. The distinctive face button symbols — triangle, circle, cross, square — were designed by Teiyu Goto. Cross was acceptance, circle was OK in Japan, but the mapping reversed in Western markets.

The DualShock added two analog sticks and vibration feedback to the original PlayStation controller design. Released in Japan in 1997 alongside Ape Escape, it became one of the most influential controller designs in gaming history — essentially unchanged for over two decades.

The PS1's 15-block memory card stored game saves in a proprietary format. Each block held roughly 8 KB; most games required 1–3 blocks. The memory card market spawned a cottage industry of third-party cards, card managers, and the iconic PocketStation accessory in Japan.

Sony released an official 5-inch LCD screen that clipped onto the PSone, turning it into a portable gaming station. Combined with a car adapter, it became a popular road-trip companion. The screen used a composite input, giving it a soft but charming picture quality.

Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi secretly worked with Nintendo on the SNES sound chip before convincing Sony's leadership to enter the gaming market. His vision produced the PlayStation in 1994, the PS2 in 2000, and the PS3 Cell processor architecture. Known as the "Father of the PlayStation."

Before Sony built its own console, it had a deal with Nintendo to produce a CD-ROM add-on called "Play Station." Nintendo cancelled the agreement and announced a deal with Philips instead — at the same show where Sony had just announced the device. Sony responded by building its own competing platform.