Authors Mathieu Manent, Fabien Mellado, Franck Latour and Antoine Clerc-Renaud took on the daunting task of recounting the storied and elaborate history of the PlayStation brand. The book is currently available right now over on Amazon for $44.90.

The tale starts with the creation of Sony following World War II, and then moves through the history of the PlayStation brand leading up to the creation of the original PlayStation One and eventually ending with its retirement in the early 2000s.

Along the way the book will recount in vivid detail the various properties and games that emerged from the era, including the still-running series from Bandai Namco, Tekken.

The game marked a significant upgrade over the current crop of 2D fighters that were available at the time, and it included arcade-quality soundtrack music on a CD instead of the synthesized tunes made through soundboard modulation.

The book also covers the ups and downs as well as the remarkable feats that helped propel the PSX from a hardcore fandom device into the mainstream with games like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, along with a variety of other top name games that helped define the early goings of one of the most prestigious brands in gaming.

The book features 26 interviews with a variety of bright minds and forward thinkers from the era, along with covering a number of games that showed promised but were cancelled at the last minute.

The book comes in two forms, including a 458 page hardback collector’s edition and the standard 386 page classic edition.

The project was originally Kickstarted a while back but has finally come to full fruition.

I suppose for gamers interested in a little bit of history, this wouldn’t be a bad place to start. Heck, we all know someone in the gaming community has to be informed about history since game journalists refuse to educate themselves about the industry they write about.