The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November 17, 2006, in North America, and March 23, 2007, in Europe and Australia.The PlayStation 3 competed primarily against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. The console was first officially announced at E3 2005, and was released at the end of 2006. It was the first console to use Blu-ray Disc technology as its primary storage medium. The console was the first PlayStation to integrate social gaming services, including the PlayStation Network, as well as the first to be controllable from a handheld console, through its remote connectivity with PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita. In September 2009, the Slim model of the PlayStation 3 was released. It no longer provided the hardware ability to run PS2 games. It was lighter and thinner than the original version, and featured a redesigned logo and marketing design, as well as a minor start-up change in software. A Super Slim variation was then released in late 2012, further refining and redesigning the console. During its early years, the system received a mixed reception, due to its high price ($599 for a 60-gigabyte model, $499 for a 20 GB model), a complex processor architecture, and lack of quality games but was praised for its Blu-ray capabilities and "untapped potential". The reception would get more positive over time. The system had a slow start in the market but managed to recover, particularly after the introduction of the Slim model. Its successor, the PlayStation 4, was released later in November 2013. On September 29, 2015, Sony confirmed that sales of the PlayStation 3 were to be discontinued in New Zealand, but the system remained in production in other markets. Shipments of new units to Europe and Australia ended in March 2016, followed by North America which ended in October 2016. Heading into 2017, Japan was the last territory where new units were still being produced until May 29, 2017, when Sony confirmed the PlayStation 3 was discontinued in Japan.
As Kei Ikushima reaches the finals of the Sentoki tournament, Ranzou Kihara, who was watching over the tournament, would unleash K-001, a clone created in Kei's image and infused with all of the fight data collected by Orion, upon her. After a grueling battle, Kei was able to defeat the clone and win the match, until Ranzou, not liking the results, decided to restart the match right there and then. As the match got restarted, K-001 proceeded to attack the battered and exhausted Kei in cold blood, delivering vicious blows and strikes, which incapacitated her. She was about to be killed when Shin intervened and fought with the clone. He was eventually able to defeat K-001, but Kei barely survived after all of the injuries she suffered, and was sent to the hospital shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, outside the arena, a mysterious man who goes by the name of "Nixon" watches the entireity of the tournament through some of the TVs displayed on a surplus window. All alone on the streets, Nixon has no memory about his past, living his current life as a vagrant, walking the streets of Tokyo aimlessly and occasionally fighting in underground pit fights as his only livelihood. However, despite his amnesia, he seems to recognize the face of Ranzou Kihara. He dosen't understand it either. He just felt something... oddly familiar about him. It was as if Nixon's mind was drawn to this man, for reasons that aren't clear to himself at all. A rising urge builds up within him: a strong desire to meet Ranzou Kihara himself in order to make sense of his amnesiac mind. Almost a year after the last tournament, Orion would eventually announce the fourth Sentoki: Global Martial Arts tournament. Upon hearing the news, Nixon wasted no time and decided to enter the tournament, his mind dead set on meeting Ranzou, thinking he has all the answers to his past.
