The Birth of the Original Sony Playstation

The history of the Sony PlayStation is a unique one. The concepts behind the now hugely popular video game console were founded in 1988. During that year, Sony teamed up with Nintendo to help them with ideas for their Super Nintendo game, which was soon to be released. The two companies had planned on having an attachment to the Super Nintendo called the Super Disc. The Super Disc was going to be an innovative CD-ROM addition to the Nintendo console. However, because Sony and Nintendo broke up their collaboration before the Super Disc was complete, it was never part of the Super Nintendo release

ORIGINAL SONY PLAYSTATION 2 SLIM PS2 SYSTEM CONSOLE

ORIGINAL SONY PLAYSTATION 2 SLIM PS2 SYSTEM CONSOLE

Original Playstation Kiosk Display Gaming Center‏

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Xenogears Black Label Original Playstation w Guide MINT

Sony thought the concept of a CD-ROM driven video game was a good one. For that reason they took decided to use an altered version of the Super Disc to create their own console in early 1990. A Sony engineer named Ken Kutaragi headed the research team for this project. Kutaragi is also responsible for naming the console. He envisioned computers for work being workstations and those for games should be play stations. In 1991 Sony launched the original Sony Playststion (PS1).

The PlayStation was first released in Japan in December 1994. The North American and European launch followed it in September 1995.

The original Sony PlayStation; ironically, could only play Super Nintendo cartridges. This first version of this console was used to read music, video and computer compact discs as well as play Super Nintendo games. Only 200 replicas of the original Sony PlayStation was manufactured and sold by Sony. They marketed it as a multi purpose entertainment console, not putting much emphasis on its video game technology.

In 1992 Nintendo and Sony attempted to join forces again for the mainstream PlayStation release. However, the two companies did not see eye to eye. Nintendo still wanted the Playststion to be compatible with its Super Nintendo console and simply be an “add on” to its already popular unit. Sony envisioned a standalone video game system. The difference in business visions caused the companies to part ways once again, permitting Sony to go forward with their plans.

In 1994, a new console was released by Sony called the PlayStation X (PSX). This unit was no longer compatible with Nintendo cartridges it required CD-ROM based games. This console was not marketed as multimedia entertainments devise rather an innovative video game console.

Unlike the systems that came before it, the PlayStation model was intended to enhance video games from their 2 dimensional status into a three dimensional venue. It wanted video game players to be impressed with detailed game environments. Furthermore, Sony wanted players to be able to explore and navigate in the virtual gaming environment its games would provide.

The public w3as fascinated by the original Playststion and it won huge praise and countless awards. For example, in the 1990’s it won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Technology and Advanced New Media category presented by the U.S. National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Sony sales broke records. By the time it released its PlayStation 2, Sony had sold over 50 million original PlayStations worldwide. Most experts will agree that Sony’s video game success is amazing. At the time it entered the market there were already two established companies: Nintendo and Sega. Sony blew the competition out of the water. To this day PlayStation still generates more revenue for Sony than all of their other electronics combined. The success of Sony in the video gaming world is due in part to the utilization of Sony’s monster budget to back the launch of PlayStation.

July 20 2010 08:13 pm | PlayStation Articles

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