What does the first PlayStation mean to the world of gaming consoles and who is Ken Kutaragi, the engineer and CEO who promoted Sony’s entry into the world of video games – PlayStation

If there is a name the brand can be attributed to Play Stationthat it Ken Kutaragi. This engineer and executive was the main promoter of Sony He will enter the video game market. First, through the famous cooperation with Nintendo for SuperDisk and later as the mind behind the PlayStation project. This will be the name given to the Japanese company’s platform; One in its fifth generation that has been home to some of the most beloved sagas in the sector. Just like we did recently with Microsoft’s console; Today we want to devote space to the original PlayStation, to talk about its hardware and how it influenced modern video games.

An origin marked by controversy

For Sony in the 1980s, Video games were not a priority; Company executives saw what is now one of the world’s most thriving digital entertainment markets as a fashion product of its time. They had no intention of entering that volatile market and competing against already established Japanese brands.

It would be the intervention of Kutaragi himself, who already had the sympathy of a large part of the company, that would lead Sony to enter this market through an agreement with Nintendo. This agreement stipulated that Sony would be responsible for developing hardware for use in Nintendo’s SNES, the main project being for the console to have compatibility with the format. CD. In contrast, Sony continued to develop the internal components of the device SNESS – such as the audio chip used by the console – and some rights have been transferred to it. The culmination of the agreement will be for those in Tokyo to market the Nintendo PlayStation device and thus enter the video games sector.

As we all know, the agreement did not see fruition. Those from Kyoto considered the terms too favorable to Sony and decided to completely distance themselves from the project. Nintendo has finalized an agreement with… Phillips The original PlayStation prototype was isolated, and only 200 units were produced. However, the seeds of video games have already been spread among some members of the company and Kutaragi will once again find support from Sony to continue the project.

Created to face polygons

According to some members involved in the console’s development, after the project was launched, there were still a lot of doubts about how it would turn out. Play Station. Without the foundation that Nintendo would have provided with SNES for the original console, Sony Computer Entertainment had absolute freedom to play with, but it also had a lot of uncertainty. It was Sega’s arcade titles and their impressive artistic display of primitive 3D at the time that prompted Sony to move into 3D.

This decision will end in success. Sony had no experience in video game development; But she had the name and resources to launch the project. Japan, on the other hand, had some of the newest studios developing 3D games – in the country, arcades were still a big draw – and I contacted these studios to make sure they would start developing the system. . Namco, Konami, or Capcom And they were just some of them.

PlayStation specifications

The result was a controller that was easy to program and had enough power to handle the polygons that filled 3D titles. Mainly responsible for this was the R300 processor. 32-bit 33.8MHz RISC chip, capable processor Move over 300,000 polygons Triple shading per second; While for 2D graphics processing, it had a separate unit. This gave Sony’s console a lot of advantages over prominent releases at the time in the same region; Like the one that happened in Sega Saturn It was more difficult to program and had fewer 3D capabilities – around 250,000 polygons.

The result was a controller that was easy to program and had enough power to handle the polygons that filled 3D titles. Mainly responsible for this was the R300 processor. 32-bit 33.8MHz RISC chip, capable processor Move over 300,000 polygons Triple shading per second; While for 2D graphics processing, it had a separate unit. This gave Sony’s console a lot of advantages over prominent releases at the time in the same region; Like the one that happened in Sega Saturn It was more difficult to program and had fewer 3D capabilities – around 250,000 polygons

“Live in your world. Play in ours”

The title of this section was the first major logo for the PlayStation brand after its launch; One in which the newcomer had to face Sega at the time, the company that had the studios the first side Most desired at this moment. This was one of the main reasons why Sony approached the developers third party Most of the cutting-edge games came out of their native Japan shortly after the console’s development began: either they offered a catalog that could match their main competitors, or PlayStation wouldn’t survive.

To ensure this survival, they took some additional measures by leveraging Sony’s resources. the The PSX costs much less than its competitors at launch – just over €340 in comparison – and the advertising around it has been very aggressive; Regardless of the context, the PSX had to show up. The result of these business movements was immediate. Its success during its launch in Japan, reservations in the rest of the world’s markets, and the announced support from some countries Two-thirds For now they have raised expectations for further studies; They began development of the console and expanded their catalog, which started very humbly; While the media presence helped increase the success of the device.

As a result of this event, the console was able to obtain a good number of exclusive titles in the first years of its life; While establishing and acquiring studies such as With Sony Interactive Entertainment, helped lay the foundations for what are known today as the studios that make up Sony’s console catalog. PlayStation managed to quickly gain a foothold among the fifth generation of consoles.

Comments, issues and hacking

Sony’s rapid entry into the video game sector was gratifying for the company, but it came with its own problems. PlayStation’s development was rapid and the company had to make several revisions to the console solving problems manufacturing; Numerous revisions have been issued with modifications to the palette, readers, and even materials; However, where they had to make the most changes was in the console ports.

Betting on CDs It worked very well For PSX. They were cheaper to produce, had a larger footprint than cartridges, and their fast readability was ideal for video games. Unfortunately, it was also very easy to make copies of these discs, and the rush to get the PSX onto the market made it a console very vulnerable to third-party modifications, some of which were intended to run unlicensed copies of these video games.

Sony’s market strategy was to release a very affordable console and make money by selling software, but these practices hampered the console’s early years in Western markets. as a result of, Some features have been removed It was from this console that the reviews were launched, culminating in the so-called PSOne. Finally, without much success in his work; Although they solved the hardware problems presented by the first models.

Continuity and legacy

Sony recorded a paradigm shift with PlayStation. The console was launched in Western markets in 1994 and represented not only the entry of a new competitor into the already crowded fifth generation of consoles, but also the creation of a format among home consoles. Together with Saturn, PlayStation was founded The disc as a form of the future the next. With versions like Hard lime mineral, Final Fantasy VIIalso Crash BandicootShe knew how to create her own epics through studies outside the company; Whereas, thanks to the Kutaragi project, a different way of understanding consoles as a platform began. Although this will happen with its successor and its focus on the multimedia component that we see alive today on our consoles.

It’s surprising to see how relatively consistent Sony has been with what started with this console, and how that has allowed it to be the most dominant domestic platform of this generation; But we will always be in doubt about what would have happened to the world of video games if this deal between Nintendo and Sony had gone through – or one that was struck later It was under consideration with Sega – He’ll come out ahead. A real exercise of imagination.

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