The PlayStation 3 is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. The system was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and Asia, and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania. It is the first console with next-gen primary storage media, Blu-ray Disc, though it also supports DVDs, CDs, and HDDs. It is capable of playing back content from Blu-ray Disc (BD) at a bit rate of multiplex 48Mbps, the maximum bit rate defined in BD standards.