When did the PS4 come out?

Whilst the PlayStation 5 may be the latest console from Sony, its predecessor continues to be a popular choice of console for many gamers. Still holding its own with high quality graphics and sound, it’s still able to compete, despite feeling like it’s been around for a very long time. But when did the PS4 come out?

The original PlayStation 4

Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15th, 2013, in North America. It then reached Europe, South America and Australia on November 29, 2013 and, finally, Japan on February 22nd, 2014. So, it’s already celebrating its 8th birthday.

Is this length of time between releases typical?

One of the things that set the launch of the PlayStation 4 apart from its predecessors was that it wasn’t first launched in Japan. So, for the first three models, these were their initial launch dates, all in Japan:

• The original PlayStation was launched on December 3rd 1994
• The PlayStation 2 appeared, again in Japan on March 4th 2000
• The PlayStation 3 launched November 11th 2006

As, you can see from this, six years was the typical time between releases, until the PlayStation 3, which remained on the market for seven years. Of course, although the PlayStation 5 is now with us, it’s been out since last year, which means that there was a seven-year gap between the release of the PS4 and PS5 too.

The PlayStation 4 Slim

On September 7th, 2016, Sony unveiled the smaller PlayStation 4 Slim. Apart from being about 40% smaller in size, it also came with a reduction in fan noise, heat, and power consumption as well as Wi-Fi improvements. However, it also omitted the optical port.

The Slim became available on different dates, depending on which size of hard drive it had. The 500GB model was released on September 16th 2016 and the 1TB version on September 29th 2016.

The PlayStation 4 Pro

The PlayStation 4 Pro became available from November 10th 2016. This was a higher-end model of the PS4, and was really a PlayStation 4.5, in many respects.

It is a similar size to the original PS4 but adds in an extra USB port, restores the optical port missing from the slim and, most importantly, packs a much more powerful CPU and GPU, with 4K support.