Best-selling game consoles return from the dead

Exactly 24 years after its launch on December 3, 1994, Sony is bringing back one of the most popular video game consoles of all time: the original PlayStation. In a move that feels partly like a deserved celebration of an iconic device and partly like jumping on the Nintendo Classic bandwagon, Sony announced the PlayStation Classic earlier this year for a launch on December 3.

Like the NES Classic and the SNES Classic before it, the PlayStation Classic is a miniature version of the original system and comes with 20 pre-installed titles, some of which left fans of the original console disappointed. As our chart, based on company numbers and estimates by industry website VGChartz, shows, the first-generation PlayStation is the second best-selling home gaming system of all time, trailing only its successor, the PlayStation 2.

While the rekindling of old classics certainly worked for Nintendo, it remains to be seen how far the industry can ride the nostalgia wave. Sega has also announced a classic re-boot of the Mega Drive / Genesis and Nintendo has been rumored to bring the Nintendo 64 back from the dead next.