5 FACTS ABOUT PLAYSTATION AND XBOX

1 Nintendo almost owned Playstation

Originally the Playstation was developed as a CD-ROM add-on for Nintendo’s Super Famicom, the Japanese name for the SNES. Nintendo pulled out of the deal with Sony, who decided to release its own disc-based console.

2 Green was the only option

It’s been reported that the reason that Xbox’s iconic X logo is green is because the designer, Horace Luke, only had a greencoloured marker after all his other markers were stolen.

3 Towers of data

If you remember the loading screen of the PS2, you might recall a series of towers shooting up and down. This wasn’t just a fun graphic – they represented the saved game data. More towers meant more data was stored.

4 Overseas slump

The first Xbox only sold 123,000 units in its first week of release in Japan in 2002. Microsoft slashed the price of the Xbox from $299 to $199 only two months after release to boost sales, barely making a profit in the process.

5 Playstation played CDS

Not only was it a revolutionary console for the 1990s, but the first Playstation was also a music CD player. Some PS1 games would double as a music disc, playing tracks from the games on conventional CD players.