Sony · 2006–2017

SonyPlayStation 3

Blu-ray, HD and the Uncharted years — plus the JRPGs that only ever shipped on disc. Demon's Souls, Tales, Ni no Kuni, Metal Gear Solid 4.

[n] PS3 games available

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Why it mattered

The $599 machine that took three years to find its footing

Sony walked into E3 2006 with a supercomputer chip, a Blu-ray drive nobody had asked for yet and a price — "$599 US dollars" — that became a punchline before the console shipped. The Cell processor was so hard to program that early multiplatform games ran worse on the more expensive box, and the Xbox 360 had a year's head start. Then the price came down, the Slim arrived in 2009, and the studios Sony had been quietly building — Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Media Molecule — started shipping the games the hardware was bought for.

By the end the PS3 had one of the strongest exclusive libraries of any console: Uncharted, The Last of Us, Demon's Souls, Metal Gear Solid 4, Valkyria Chronicles, and a run of Japanese RPGs that never left the system. The blue Blu-ray cases hold up well, but the early spider-font spines mark first prints and Greatest Hits editions wear a red band. PS3 editions vary in their original contents. Some later releases used digital manuals, while special editions could include inserts, bonus discs, or redeemable codes. Check each listing for what's actually included; previously issued codes may already be used or expired. We photograph every case and disc.

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Fast facts

ReleasedNovember 17, 2006 (North America)
Launch price$499 (20 GB) / $599 (60 GB)
MediaBlu-ray Disc — up to 50 GB on a dual-layer disc
Units sold~87 million worldwide
Best sellerGrand Theft Auto V, by a wide margin
Did you know?Sony's Kaz Hirai announced the price at E3 2006 as "five hundred and ninety-nine US dollars," and the room went quiet. That bought the 60 GB model; a $499 20 GB version dropped Wi-Fi, the memory card readers and the chrome trim, sold poorly, and was discontinued in North America within months of launch.
Did you know?The launch 20 GB and 60 GB consoles contain an actual PlayStation 2 inside — the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer chips — for near-total backward compatibility. The 2007 80 GB model emulated the CPU in software, and the 40 GB and every Slim dropped PS2 discs entirely. The 60 GB is the one collectors want, and the one most prone to the Yellow Light of Death.
Did you know?The Cell processor was designed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM: one main core plus eight smaller ones, of which one was disabled for manufacturing yield and one reserved for the system, leaving six for games. Developers found it so difficult that early ports like Bayonetta and The Orange Box ran noticeably worse on PS3 than on Xbox 360.
Did you know?The original PLAYSTATION 3 logo used the same typeface as Sony Pictures' Spider-Man films, and it sits on the spine of every game printed before the 2009 Slim redesign. When the console became "PS3" the spines changed too, so a spider-font spine marks a first- or early-print copy of any launch-era game.
Did you know?Greatest Hits reprints launched in 2008 at $29.99 with a red band across the top of the case and spine. The qualifying rule was usually described as roughly ten months on sale and about half a million copies, so a red band means the game was a hit.
Did you know?The PS3 was region-free by design — a Japanese disc boots on an American console — and for six years no publisher broke the rule. Atlus was first, region-locking Persona 4 Arena in 2012 to stop cheap imports undercutting the Japanese price. It remains one of the only region-locked PS3 games ever made.
Did you know?Printed manuals started disappearing in 2010: Ubisoft announced it would stop including them on PS3 and 360, starting with Shaun White Skateboarding, and the other big publishers followed within a couple of years. A late-generation PS3 game with a bare case may be complete as issued, which is why our listings say exactly what is inside.
Did you know?The PS3 outlived its own successor's launch by years. The Slim arrived in 2009 at $299, the Super Slim in 2012 swapped the slot loader for a sliding top-loading disc door, and Sony kept manufacturing the console in Japan until 2017 — a ten-year production run, the longest of any PlayStation home console.

Find your next PS3 game

Start with a familiar favorite, explore a theme, or browse by what’s included.

Counts are listings in stock — the same game can appear more than once in different packaging.

The grails

Cult favorites, Japanese standouts, and memorable physical editions from the PlayStation 3 library.

Naughty Dog's decade

Uncharted, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, The Last of Us — four games that turned a Crash Bandicoot studio into the reason people bought the console.

Greatest Hits, red band

Popular PS3 releases returned at budget prices in distinctive red packaging. Explore the reprints and editions collectors still recognize.

Only on PlayStation

God of War III, Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo 5, Ratchet & Clank, MLB The Show — Sony's own studios, and the games that never left.

Ubisoft's annual

Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Rogue — one a year, every year, until the PS3 could not hold Ezio any more.

Capes and cowls

Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Injustice, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, Spider-Man, X-Men Origins — the superhero shelf, DC and Marvel on speaking terms.

Things in the dark

Dead Space, Resident Evil 5, Dead Island, The Evil Within, Silent Hill Downpour — survival horror's HD generation, with the lights off.

Japan's RPGs

From Final Fantasy and Tales to distinctive Japanese adventures, the PS3 offered an unforgettable library of RPGs and collectible physical editions.

Third time's the charm

Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3, God of War III, Modern Warfare 3, Uncharted 3, Dead Space 3 — the PS3 was where every series hit part three, and a few hit thirteen.

Iron sights

Modern Warfare, Black Ops, Battlefield 3, Far Cry 3, Metro: Last Light, Killzone — the shooters that sold the most PS3s and the ones that deserved to.

The 2K shelf

BioShock, Borderlands, XCOM, Spec Ops: The Line, Mafia II — the publisher that let Ken Levine and Gearbox be weird, and won.

The 100-hour save file

GTA V, Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout, Dishonored, Just Cause 2 — open worlds that ate a whole winter, and the one where your horse fell off a cliff.

BioWare

Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening, Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 2 and 3 — the studio that gave you a party of six and made you talk to all of them.

Health bars

Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Tekken 6, BlazBlue — the generation that brought the fighting game back from the dead.

It came with plastic

Tony Hawk: Ride, Skylanders, Def Jam Rapstar, Rock Band, Wonderbook — games sold with a skateboard, a portal, a microphone or a camera, now sold without them.

Anime shelf

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm, Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit, One Piece Pirate Warriors, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Bleach — the licensed Japanese shelf, mostly Namco Bandai, mostly gorgeous.

Scoreboards and finish lines

FIFA, Madden, NCAA Football, MLB The Show, Tiger Woods, Virtua Tennis, MotoGP, Test Drive Unlimited — the sports shelf, and the racing games that share its aisle.

Based on the motion picture

Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, GoldenEye, Ghostbusters, Transformers — Hollywood licenses from a decade when every summer movie got a disc.

Limited Edition (they said)

Limited to however many they printed in the first run. Steelbooks, art books, DLC codes redeemed in 2011 — the bonus disc is usually still in there.

Came in the box

Welcome to PlayStation 3, Uncharted in a Not for Resale sleeve, the Blu-ray demo disc — pack-ins from the console bundle, complete games in plainer clothes.

Colon: Subtitle

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Dead Space 3: Limited Edition. Resident Evil: Revelations 2. The generation when no game left the building without a subtitle.

SonyPlayStation 3

The $599 machine that took three years to find its footing