Inside the Guide: Sony PlayStation’s Origins

The PlayStation’s origins go back to 1988, when it was conceived as a joint project between Sony and Nintendo in order to create a CD-ROM attachment for the Super Famicom console. By 1991, Sony had unveiled a Super Famicom with a built-in CD-ROM drive, called the “Play Station,” at the Consumer Electronics Show. Just a day after the CES announcement, Nintendo severed ties with Sony and opted to partner with the Philips company on the same tech; the split was primarily caused by disagreements on how the two companies would share revenue generated by the project.

Enraged by the slight, Sony President Norio Ohga gave Ken Kutaragi (an executive who had previously managed one of Sony’s hardware engineering divisions) the task of developing the PlayStation in order to go directly head-to-head with Nintendo in the console market. Sony eventually founded their Sony Computer Entertainment division in 1993, which is where the PlayStation was pushed forward into full development.

The first PlayStation arrived in Japan in December 1994 before arriving in the west the following year. Surrounded by industry hype after a series of tech demos, the console proved to be an immediate success around the world, featuring launch titles that included Air Combat, Ridge Racer and Rayman. The system differentiated itself from both Nintendo and Sega’s systems by focusing more on third-party developers, while the other two were very first-party focused.

Though the industry at the time was dominated by Nintendo and Sega, Sony was able to edge their way in by appealing to older gamers that were not being served by the other companies; the PlayStation was marketed as a more mature option than the other offerings in the industry. By the late 1990s, Sony was just as well-regarded of a console brand as Nintendo or Sega. The considerable success of the PlayStation’s disc format is regarded as a leading factor in the industry switch away from cartridge-based software.

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