Sony owns the PlayStation brand and became a major global electronics company.
Sony introduced the original PlayStation in Japan in December 1994, expanding from consumer electronics into video games. The brand later included consoles such as the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, along with software, online services, and accessories.
Sony was founded in Tokyo in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. The company adopted the name Sony in 1958. Its businesses now span games and network services, music, movies and television, electronics, imaging sensors, and financial services in Japan.
Sony is sometimes confused with Sony Interactive Entertainment, the subsidiary responsible for the PlayStation business. Sony Group Corporation is the broader parent company. Market-capitalization rankings measure the value of the publicly traded parent, not the standalone retail value of the PlayStation brand or any single Sony division.