Essentials (PlayStation range)

Essentials is the Sony PlayStation budget range in the PAL region, which covers Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa. It was launched in January 1997 as the Platinum range but was later renamed for PSP in 2010 and PlayStation 3 in 2012. Similar budget ranges from Sony include the Greatest Hits and The Best labels for the North American and Japanese markets, respectively.

Platinum Range titles were recognisable by a platinum/silver coloured band on the game's casing. This band runs along the top of the case's front. In old PlayStation 2 platinum games it is also common for the silver band to act as a border and to contain the game's original cover, which is shrunk to fill about 75% of the platinum cover. The PlayStation logo is repeated twice on the front case, once on the platinum border, and once on the original game's case. The new PlayStation 2 platinum games feature a new layout. They have a black border, and silver outlines around the shrunk original game cover. There is also a red orb located at the bottom of the original game cover with the words Platinum on it. The platinum band can also be seen on the manual. The PlayStation 3 Platinum range box art replaces the black background of the PlayStation 3 logo on the left with a yellow background, and has the original box art shrunk slightly, with a gray border, and a yellow rectangle on top of it, with 'Platinum' written in black.

PlayStation and PlayStation 2 platinum game discs do not feature any of the original game disc's design, it is replaced with a simple silver design, which, along with the copyright notices around the edges, feature the game's name in the center surrounded by a black outline. PlayStation Portable platinum games use the original games disc design whilst PlayStation 3 platinum games use the original disc design with a platinum design on the disc.

To become a Platinum release it was required that a game have over 400,000 total worldwide sales after generally one year on the market (PAL region sales in particular; games that sell over 400,000 units in another region alone, such as Japan or the U.S., do not necessarily qualify for a Platinum title).

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