Sort Platforms by Platform Release Date

📋 Summary

Add the ability to sort platforms based on the release date of the platform itself, rather than the release dates of the games within it.

❗ Problem

Currently, the generic “Release Date” sorting only applies to games:

• Users cannot sort platforms chronologically by when the hardware launched

• Difficult to browse gaming history in timeline order

• Exploring the evolution of gaming systems is cumbersome

• Existing platform sorting options do not support historical ordering

While users can manually assign a custom Sort Title / Sort Order to platforms, this is entirely manual and becomes tedious to maintain for larger collections.

💡 Proposal

Add a dedicated platform release date sorting option:

• Introduce:

  • Platform (Release Date)

  • Or Sort Platforms by Release Date

• Place it alongside existing filters such as:

  • Platform

  • Platform Category

• Use the platform’s actual hardware release date for sorting automatically

🧩 Use Cases

• A user browses systems from oldest to newest

• A user explores the “history of video game systems” chronologically

• Collections can be organized by gaming generation naturally

• Retro focused users get a more historically accurate browsing experience

• Users avoid maintaining large manual sort order lists

⚠️ Considerations

• Requires consistent platform release date metadata

• Could support ascending and descending sorting

• Should integrate cleanly with existing platform filters and views