A post on r/gaming celebrated the launch PlayStation 3 from 2006: native PS1 and PS2 backward compatibility, support for CDs, DVDs, SACDs and Blu-ray, and free online gaming. The poster added, "We were genuinely spoiled back then and we took it for granted." It drew nearly 59,000 upvotes and more than 4,000 comments.
Card readers, USB ports and a Blu-ray player
The top comment added more to the list: around four USB ports and a set of memory card readers. Another reply named them: CompactFlash, SD and MiniSD, and Sony Memory Stick formats.
Many people remembered the PS3 as one of the best Blu-ray players of its time. When it launched, dedicated Blu-ray players were rare and expensive, so the console was often the sensible way to get one. One commenter said the PS3 is the reason Blu-ray beat HD DVD, since every PS3 owner got a Blu-ray player built in, while Xbox sold HD DVD as an extra add-on.
"We were not spoiled"
The strongest reaction was to the word "spoiled." "We were not spoiled, we were valued differently," read one of the most upvoted replies. Another said, "What we have now is not normal. Back then was normal." Many argued that a console playing your old games, reading your memory cards and running physical media was simply what people expected.
It was not perfect
Commenters were honest about the downsides too. The launch model was expensive, and one person estimated it would cost around $1000 today adjusted for inflation. Some remembered that the early models failed more often than later ones. The PS2 compatibility also did not last: later models removed it, and only certain early units had real PS2 hardware inside, while others used emulation. All PS3 models can still play PS1 discs, though.
Why it still matters
The launch PS3 is a good reminder of what physical media gave players: one box that could play a whole library across three generations, plus films and music. Today many of those PS1 and PS2 discs still work, and they are still being bought and traded. Keeping them in circulation is the best way to make sure that library does not disappear.