“We will never be betrayed again”: The Real Story Behind PlayStation Is Pure Rage After What Nintendo Did to Sony That They Never Forgot

SUMMARY

• There was a time when Sony used to look down upon video game development, and Nintendo had the largest market cap.
• Things changed once Ken Kutaragi, a Sony engineer, came up with the idea to develop a better audio chip for the console as a side project.
• After successfully collaborating with Sony, Nintendo decided to go behind their back and humiliate them publicly.

PlayStation was born out of a dramatic controversy that allowed Sony to retaliate. Nintendo stabbed Sony in the back in 1991 when video games were relatively young and technological advancement was at an all-time high with innovation happening at a rapid state.

Sony Computer Entertainment was born out of a tragedy. Image Credit: Sony

During this time Nintendo dominated the video game market with its NES and Game Boy. The Game Boy was so popular that astronauts took it to space with them; it also gave people the widely celebrated game, Tetris. Whereas Sony, on the other hand, was more inclined towards developing CD-ROMs, and used to look down upon video games and felt like it was a thing for kids. Things changed when Ken Kutaragi, a Sony engineer, came into the picture.

Sony fought back with all its might against Nintendo

Nintendo backstabbed Sony on a public forum. Image Credit: Nintendo

Kutaragi once stumbled upon her daughter’s NES and realized that the audio quality of the console was horrible. Nintendo later approached him to develop a sound chip for the console. He was excited about the offer, but the higher-ups in his office did not support his decision.

He took a leap of faith anyway and began working on the chip, risking his livelihood. He was successful in his endeavor, which gave birth to Sony’s SPC700 chip.

Kutaragi came quite close to losing his job, but he still had one friend in the company who believed in him and his talent, Sony’s President Norio Ogha. He not only saved his job but also encouraged him to work on his new project. The result was the birth of the greatest sound chip of its time, and it also marked the start of a new partnership between Sony and Nintendo.

Now in the early 1990s, video games were becoming increasingly large for cartridges, and Nintendo was desperate for a solution. Sony had been experimenting with its CD-ROM technology capable of running heavy files. The company decided to partner with and develop a console with a fully functional CD drive.

However, things did not go as planned; during the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in 1991, Nintendo, fearing Sony’s desire to enter the video game industry, went behind Sony’s back and announced publicly that it would be partnering with Philips, Sony’s biggest competitor, resulting in a public humiliation. This rift began Sony’s journey into the world of games and gave birth to the giant that we now know as PlayStation.

The introduction of PlayStation changed everything

The introduction of PS1 changed the landscape of the console market. Image Credit: Sony

After the brutal betrayal, Sony was furious, and upon Kutaragi’s request, the CEO established Sony Computer Entertainment under the command of Kutaragi. This is how the studio was born. Not every console gave Nintendo tough competition except the PlayStation, which became its biggest nightmare.

Even PlayStation faced some difficulties initially since nobody was yet aware of its potential, but Sony made a smart move by enabling developers to build games for their console with a lot of ease. The company made the development process easier. Nintendo’s latest Switch does have a record that no other console has managed to beat.

PlayStation has now grown to become the behemoth of a console that we know today, and there is a chance that it would not have happened had Nintendo kept its side of the bargain and had not publicly humiliated Sony. What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by Anupam Lamba

Articles Published: 449

Anupam Lamba is an avid gamer and film lover. After completing his bachelors in Mass Communication he started working as a writer in the Indian film industry before his love for gaming made him venture into the lanes of Fandomwire and he started working as a gaming writer here.