Sony's PlayStation marks 15th anniversary
By Donald Melanson 
posted December 3rd 2009 4:42PM
posted December 3rd 2009 4:42PM
1994. A good year for many reasons, but for gamers it's best remembered as the year Sony shook things up in a big way with its original PlayStation game console (on this day in Japan, at least -- the rest of us had to wait 'til the fall of 1995). While Sega got a slight head start with its Saturn, the Sony PlayStation's lower price and strong launch line-up of games quickly vaulted it to the top of the pack, and helped bring in the slightly older audience that 3D0 and others tried and failed to capture. Of course, the original PlayStation was also just the beginning for Sony, and the company has taken this opportunity to reminisce a bit about the entire history of the PlayStation brand on a special 15th anniversary website (linked below). Feel free to share some thoughts of your own in the comments.
Happy Birthday Playstation!!
@Almo ... Interesting ... PlayStation is a Sagittarius according to Western Astrology ... Nice! ... Independent, Truth-Seeker, Traveler, Talkative, Theatrical, Athletic, Tactless, & Over-Confident. Sounds like PlayStation to me!!! :)
@Almo
Heres another website that was made in 2006. Same sort of thing. Has videos, screenshots of the old classics. Definitely worth a look for those interested.
http://www.historyofplaystation.com/
and to think Nintendo was responsible for this as well.
@Saturdays Why did Nintendo break the deal back then? What happened?
@Processing - If I remember rightly, Nintendo claimed that there were intersted in the feasability of CD based media, but decided against it as they were still advocates of the cartridsge due to the lower risk of piracy....
DOH!
@Saturdays
Are you kidding? the N64 was a brilliant console and the cartridges served it very well. As a 7 year old back in 96, I don't recall being able to take perfect care of CDs...
@Saturdays
Yeah, inadvertently and it was a joint venture at first. Nintendo did a nice little last minute bail on them apparently (and understandably if the info below is true). Check out wikipedia's page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation#History
"Sony also planned to develop a Super Famicom-compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.
The DualShock controller.
The SNES-CD was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.
After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand-alone console."
@Badison
I also remember that Nintendo had already developed 64-bit processed systems around 1994-ish. They sorta left Sony, among the other reasons, so that they could create the N64. They were using Sony before because of the combined advantage, Nintendo thought that this advantage was in their hands after developing 64-bit Gaming.
But who knows what would have happened if we did have a Nintendo Playstation, it'd be a mess of awesomeness
@Streetfights
I don't understand your comment bro.
I literally meant that Nintendo was the cause of Sony releasing the Playstation.
Read up on your Video Game history!
I think a reply from Badison sums it all up.
Wow...can you imagine how awesome it would be if Sony and Nintendo kept that same collab they had back in the early 90's?
@N900
Competition > Monopoly
I'm sorry I wouldn't of had it any other way. I have been happily playing many rated M games ever since. Oh and I don't think FF7 or MGS would have been as great on the N64.
@Eternity Lol! True there, but a man can dream
(Playtendo)
@Processing More like, Ninsony....do...nevermind. Happy 15th
@Eternity
SEGA was still a bit of a contender in that era. If they had picked up their game they could have replaced the place of SONY. Plus a CD+SNES would have probable tanked anyway, leading to a slightly altered but similar present to what we are experiencing.
Happy Birthday Playstation. =]
Thank You Sony for 15 years of an alternative to exercise!
HAPPY GEBURT HERR PLAYSTATION
@(Unverified)
lmfao!
So many fond memories. *Tears*
I remember being a Nintendo fan-boy, sticking to the N64 and saying PS sucked, until one day my friend brought over Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. I was sold, bought my own PS a few weeks later...i don't think I really touched the N64 after that.
While Xbox might be the "king" right now, I think developers for Playstation still take risks push the envelope for new games, and true gaming fans (Rather than rehash the same formula over and over again for frat boys).
I think the PS3 flop was a wake up call to Sony, and they are finally turning around, to get back on track..here's to another 15 years!
@(Unverified)
Well said.
@(Unverified)
playstation is is picking up steam and i will be right next to them for the long run!
@(Unverified) I like to say that I am a Nintendo fan boy, sort of...
Mario galaxy is the best game ever in my eyes, but I still love MGS2.
@iroq d mullet PS3 is finally picking itself up. Uncharted 2, especially, is starting to deliver on the Cell's benefits. The firmware too, has greatly improved. Let's see if they go anywhere with the console's social aspects and motion controls.
Thank You Sony.
I loved my PS and PS2. I love my PS3. NOW let me play PS2 games on it darn you sony! DARN YOU TO HECK!
@NinjaMonkey They are working on a software emulator (official word, not rumour). Until then, if you don't have a working PS2 you should pick one up for 100$ (or less if it's used).
Resident Evil 2...oh the memories!
I was innocent back then, an underage gamer. Sony-san you are my teacher, in all aspects, thank you for all the Midnights in L.A, the Hot coffee(s), the filters in Syphon(s), Solid Metal Gears, etc.
Happy B'day teach !
And about 12 year anniversary to the Dual Shock i.e. the same PS controller exterior we have today.
@Hydraulics hey imo thats the best controller!
@Hydraulics Because it came out 11 years ago, not 12... It was launched with Gran Turismo in the summer of 98 if I recall correctly
@Hydraulics
If it ain't broken, don't fix it bro.
@(Unverified)
The GameCube controller was better.
@harkening
The gamecube controller sucks
I bought mine used a couple of years after it was released... I played the hell out of Wipeout, and fondly remember the day I found that my games played better with the console turned upside down!
"Sega got a slight head start with its Saturn, the Sony PlayStation's lower price and strong launch line-up of games quickly vaulted it to the top of the pack"
Funny! You'd think that Sony would have learned from its earlier success, and Sega's missteps. Yet the PS3 suffered from a number of the same issues that plagued the Sega Saturn at the time. The Saturn was too expensive and difficult to streamline because of its complex multi-processor architecture. It was a pain for developers to write games for the Saturn, compared to the streamlined C++ libraries provided with the original PlayStation.
Fast forward to the launch of the PS3, and you find a very complex, very expensive machine that is more difficult to make games for than the competition. The same factors that Sony used to leverage the Sega Saturn out of the market are what caused Sony to drop from being the market leader to following Microsoft and Nintendo.
@(Unverified)
we will see in a few years what console people are still playing and which is going to be sitting collecting dust. my prediction is that the ps3, like the ps2, will out-run the other consoles. we have only scratched the surface of the ps3's potential.
@iroq d mullet While the PS3 has gained some steam due to the ability to play bluray movies, there is hardly more to be tapped than the Xbox has remaining to be "tapped." Sony did officially drop support of the Cell processor. So much for the processor that was supposed to be better than everything else out there. And while the bluray player has been a boon for Sony recently, 2010 Sony isn't really bringing anything new to the table. That can't be said for Microsoft which will be bringing Natal. The next few years are not written in stone yet.
Regardless, these machines are both already too long in the tooth for me. I'm switching back to PC gaming until they come out with the next round of systems.
@Gigaflop
You're wrong. Natal's not due in 2010. PS3's Motion Controller is. ;)
@Gigaflop Sony did not "drop" support of their Cell processor. Other companies who had a vested interest (Intel, Toshiba) have since backed out, but the Cell is alive and well my friend. In fact, a new and improved (and cheaper) Cell processor was put in the slims to cut costs. Thus, it is still a fact that the PS3 has hugely untapped potential, whereas the Xbox 360 has reached the end of the rope. Look up the facts, look up the specs.
@(Unverified)
The PS2 was very complicated compared to the Dreamcast as well. Developers had a very hard time getting good performance out of the PS2 and I still prefer the Dreamcast's smooth animation to the PS2's shimmery aliasing. The Sony marketing juggernaut was going full speed with the PS2 and Sega didn't stand a chance, even before people could compare the finished products.
Dear Sony,
Bring PlayTV to the US!!!
@flux73 That isn't going to happen anytime soon as unlike the UK, Japan and other countries, we don't have DVB-T.
@DBG I don't imagine it would be incredibly difficult for Sony engineers to put in an ASTC tuner.
@flux73 Typo...that's ATSC. I don't understand why people keep posting this argument - that it can't come here because it uses an incompatible tuner. It goes without saying that Sony would change the tuner. It just doesn't make sense that they don't bring PlayTV here. It would singlehandedly help PS3 to takeover the console market.
"thats my sexbox is her name is Sony"
@va jj no it MY sexbox
i won a USA 1999 the last year they made the fattys
runs like a champ
i have such fond memory's of resident evil and crash bandacoot and Tecmo's Deception Invitation to Darkness