It might be hard to believe now, but there was a time when Sony was the laughing stock of the gaming world. Golden Joystick Awards 2021 We're celebrating 50 years of gaming together with the Golden Joystick Awards 2021, the world's largest publicly voted gaming awards ceremony. This year's show will celebrate a milestone in video game history, the launch of Computer Space, the world's first commercial arcade machine in November 1971. And we'll be looking for your votes on the best console of all time (starting in 3:00 pm GMT, Nov 8): Will the N64 work? The Japanese tech giant, famous for its Walkman personal stereo, had had ambitions of becoming a major player in the world of interactive entertainment since the 1980s, gleefully supporting Microsoft's MSX computing platform in the hope that this would allow the company to break into the gaming industry. However, this venture largely failed, and Sony attempted to join forces with Dutch rival Philips, a venture that would result in CD-i, a multimedia product that also failed at retail. During his time with Philips, Sony also tried to get into software publishing through its Sony Imagesoft brand. Leveraging its ownership of Hollywood Studios Columbia and TriStar, Sony has released several ridiculous spinoff movies like Dracula, Hook, and Cliffhanger. These mediocre efforts led to the publisher becoming infamous for its shoddy products. Sony would likely have remained a second-tier player in the industry had it not been for other events taking place in the depths of its electronics development divisions around the same time.
Unlikely allies
Go back to the dawn of the 90s, and Sony had signed an agreement with the Japanese video game giant Nintendo to create the sound material for its next Super Nintendo console, the successor to the Nintendo Entertainment System, the undisputed champion of video game consoles. 80. . The resulting SPC-700 was nothing short of a revelation, blessing the system with CD-quality sound that made other consoles sound like buzzing doorbells by comparison. The chip was designed by Ken Kutaragi, an electronics expert who had seen his daughter play on a Nintendo console and was immediately impressed by the potential of these devices. Despite resistance from his superiors, Kutaragi was able to take advantage of the good working relationship between Nintendo and Sony and convince the two firms to collaborate on a CD-ROM adapter for the SNES.
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The "Play Station" Plug-in for SNES Integrating CD-ROM technology into cartridge consoles was by no means a new concept: NEC had already pulled the same trick with its PC-Engine system in the late 1980s. 16 and Sega was working on the plugin. Mega CD for your 1991-bit Genesis (aka Mega Drive) - but it was a gimmick for Sony anyway; By partnering with the market leader, the company has managed to establish an important position in the field of gaming equipment. The case was simple; Sony would produce a CD-ROM drive for the SNES, which would be manufactured under the Nintendo brand; Sony would also create the "SuperDisc" software standard for the device. The most attractive part of the deal, however, involved Sony producing its own "all-in-one" drive that supported both SNES carts and SuperDisc CDs, dubbed the "Play Station." By allying with the market leader, Sony would gain a significant foothold in the field of gaming hardware. Sony also stipulated that it would collect license fees from all publishers who released software in the SuperDisc format, a move that almost certainly had something to do with the deal's collapse. When Sony made its deal with Nintendo public at the XNUMX Consumer Electronics Show, Nintendo delivered the ultimate humiliation by announcing the next day that it had, in fact, signed a deal with Philips. Nintendo had clearly been uncomfortable with giving Sony an advantage in the video game market and creating a rival in the process, and had ruthlessly pulled the plug; she didn't know, she had also unknowingly ended her period. from the realm of home hardware at the same time.
Next stop, PlayStation
While prototypes of SNES Play Station consoles were being produced, in fact a working unit appeared online not too long ago, Sony was forced to abandon the project and go back to the drawing board. Some at Sony headquarters balked at the idea of suing the company after being so publicly humiliated by Nintendo, but Kutaragi appealed to Sony boss Norio Ohga, passionately pointing out that the perfect revenge would be to take down the gaming giant. Kyoto at its own game. from the PlayStation (now with no space between the two words) would continue, with the emphasis on 3D visuals rather than the 2D sprites that have characterized console games thus far. A lot of people had written off Sony opportunities after the deal with Nintendo fell through. When the company unveiled its new system to the world, they were surprised and impressed. Capable of producing cutting-edge 3D visuals in real time, the PlayStation effortlessly stole the thunder from established gamers in the industry, resulting in some very red faces.
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The Sega Saturn Sega boss Hayao Nakayama was apparently so exasperated with Sony's reported console specs that he went into Sega's R&D division and personally criticized its staff for allowing a newcomer to outshine them. Sega's mistake had been to build its console as a 2D powerhouse; a curious oversight given that the company had been instrumental in popularizing 3D graphics with arcade titles like Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter. PlayStation effortlessly stole the thunder from established gamers in the industry, resulting in some pretty red faces. Sega was also guilty of writing off Sony as a competitor; According to former Sega of America boss Tom Kalinske, Sony had approached Sega after the deal with Nintendo fell apart, but the union was rejected by Sega's Japanese bosses, who viewed the systems as the unlucky ones. Atari Jaguar as its true challengers. Trying to keep its aging Genesis relevant through the disastrous 32X plug-in, designed as a bridge between the 16-bit system and the 32-bit Saturn, Sega has spent much of the goodwill it had earned during the Gun War. consoles
The new reality
Nintendo, on the other hand, knew it would be late to the party. The company was working with the American firm Silicon Graphics to create what was then called "Project Reality" but would eventually become the Nintendo 64. It was clear that the N64 would not arrive in time to challenge Sony or Sega, both They were aiming for a late 1994 release in Japan, so Nintendo rejected the Virtual Boy, a half-hearted attempt to capitalize on the fleeting popularity of virtual reality in the '90s. Known as Nintendo's biggest hardware flop of all At the times, Virtual Boy lasted less than a year on the market and was quietly discontinued.
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With industry veterans fumbling for the ball, the stage was set for Sony's ultimate triumph. The company left nothing to chance in the months leading up to the console's launch in Japan in late 1994; Realizing that it lacked the internal resources to compete with Sega and Nintendo's enviable internal talent, it diligently courted third-party publishers such as Capcom, Konami, Electronic Arts, and Namco, the latter providing what was The Launch Console's undisputed killer app. - A surprisingly accurate conversion of their hit coin-op game Ridge Racer. The developers largely preferred the sleek, streamlined hardware of the PlayStation over the obtuse and complex architecture of the Saturn. Sony's purchase of Liverpool-based Psygnosis in 1993 was another attempt to bolster its chances; the company would produce WipEout, a major Western launch title for the console in 1995, accompanied by a mature marketing campaign and an impressive soundtrack filled with esteemed dance and techno artists.
![Metal Gear Solid para la PlayStation original, todavía considerado uno de los mejores en videojuegos]()
Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation, still considered one of the best in gaming While history may show PlayStation as the clear winner of this particular console war, things were a little closer to begin with, at least in Japan. . The Saturn launched at the same time and both consoles performed admirably in their home countries, but in six months Sony has clearly moved away. In this region alone, two million consoles were sold in six months, while in North America, the system achieved 800.000 sales in four months. The American battlefield would prove to be incredibly important, and Sony scored an early victory over Sega by slashing the retail price of the Saturn by $100. Over the months, the depth of Sony's third-party support became revealing, and the Developers largely preferred the sleek, streamlined hardware of the PlayStation to the obtuse and complex architecture of the Saturn, which used an inconvenient dual-processor setup. Notable releases like Tekken, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII, and Metal Gear Solid proved that PlayStation is the system of choice for major third parties, while Sony's own release, which included Gran Turismo and WipEout 2097, did. You must have a 90's console.
Game over
By the time Nintendo limped into the market in late 1996, all but the screaming was over; Sony had a commanding advantage around the world. Nintendo's console was competitively priced and more powerful than anything else on the market, but its reliance on expensive cartridges hurt its chances with publishers, developers, and consumers; CDs were cheaper to produce and offered more storage. The Saturn would sell for less than 10 million units and in 1998, four years after its release, Sega would kill it off in favor of a new system, the Dreamcast. The Nintendo 64 is getting better and...