Sony officials have confirmed that the company has stopped production of the PSone console, in light of the existing PS2 backwards compatibility, the upcoming release of the PlayStation 3, and proposed PSone emulation for the PSP. As Sony’s first entry in the video games market, the original PlayStation was first conceived as far back as 1988, as a CD-ROM peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A CES debut in 1991 was nixed by then Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, following a dispute over profit sharing, and Sony began promoting the project as a stand alone console later in the year. The PlayStation launched in Japan on December 3rd, 1994 and in North America and Europe in September 1995. as of June 2005, the original PlayStation had shipped a global total of 103 million units, behind only the PlayStation 2 and the original Game Boy. The PSone – the smaller, redesigned version of the original console – was introduced in September 2000 and according to Sony, continues to sell around the world, with consumer website GameSpot quoting a Sony representative as claiming that the closing of production does not necessarily mean the end of availability for the landmark console.