How Nintendo Created The Playstation

Sony's PlayStation seemingly came out of nowhere to dominate the market in the mid 90's. Many people are unaware that the original concept for the PlayStation was originally thought of back in the 80's or that it was originally Nintendo's idea. Amid massive competition from Sega and others Nintendo contracted Sony and Philips to create an add-on to its popular Super Nintendo console. This add-on would feature a CD-Rom versus the standard cartridges of the time and help Nintendo keep up as Sega was releasing their Sega CD and Sega Saturn consoles. Little did they know when the deal went south that they had created a monster.

The Deal

Originally contracted back in 1986 to create the CD-Rom add-on and stand alone CD based console, Sony had a finished product for Nintendo in June of 1991 when it was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show. It was never mass produced though as a financial disagreement between Sony and Nintendo developed as to how much compensation Sony would receive for the CD-Rom device and games. So a day after its unveiling the deal was called off, but Nintendo needed to tread lightly because their SNES console relied on Sony sound chips.

Negotiations continued but they never reached an agreement, and Nintendo had already approached Philips to create their CD add-on. But once again the device never reached production. Philips though still released their device known as the CD-i in 1991 for $700 a piece. Philips deal with Nintendo allowed them to create games with Nintendo's characters like Zelda and Mario but the console never really took off. Philips officially ended support for the device in 1998.

Sony's Next Move

Burned by Nintendo and embarrassed back in Japan Sony executives were faced with little choice. They had already invested a lot of time and money in the device so they decided to convert it into a stand alone game console. Still wary of the project Sony made this project part of its Sony Music arm where the spin off SCEI (Sony Computer Entertainment Interactive) was formed.

Sony's unique distribution plan as well as demos of its PlayStation to game publishers and developers in Tokyo in 1994 attracted two major partners, Electronic Arts and Namco. One of the reasons developers were attracted to the platform was the use of a 3D-capable, CD-Rom based console which was much cheaper and easier to manufacture for in comparison to rival consoles from Sega and Nintendo which used cartridges. The new console originally hit stores overseas in October 1994, and quickly became a hit. Popularity of the console only grew after its release worldwide.

Nintendo's Response

Nintendo wasn't just sitting around during all this, they were designing their answer to the PlayStation and that was the Nintendo 64. Released in the second half of 1996 the Nintendo 64 was an instant success, its great games as well as Nintendo's popularity helped regain a lot of ground for Nintendo.

The N64 was a based on old technology though, with its cartridge games versus Sega and Sony's CD based games it left Nintendo at quite a disadvantage. The games were capable of loading faster but the size of the games was extremely limited compared to CD's.

It took another 5 years until Nintendo finally started using CD based games with its Game Cube system in 2001. This was 15 years after they originally thought of the idea and they ended up being the last to put it into one of their consoles.

Sega

During the early 90's the Sega was coming into its own, while fighting Nintendo they were doing quite well. Their Sega CD and Sega Saturn were technologically superior to Nintendo and with the right marketing they surely could've kept a solid lead over Nintendo.

Then the PlayStation came along and made Sega's offerings seem less appealing and Sega started to struggle. They had always prided themselves on being more advanced and hipper than Nintendo, but then Sony came along and made Sega the odd man out.  Their final move came in 1999 when they released the Sega Dreamcast, it was the best system on the market and had some great games, but it was too little too late. While the Dreamcast may have been a great system many were waiting for the PlayStation 2 to release in 2000. The Dreamcast never took off and was completely abandoned by Sega in 2003.

Overall

Nowadays Nintendo is in a three way struggle with Sony and Microsoft, since the Gamecube Nintendo has abandoned the strategy of having the best hardware and instead now focuses on game play and unique features. Nintendo still has the most popular system out there but created quite a rival in Sony and as Sony catches up on some of Nintendo's unique features, who knows where Nintendo will land.

Sega ultimately died at the hands of Sony's PlayStation as they were unable to rival the PlayStation's great marketing, games, and advanced hardware. Sega now publishes games for all systems and it doesn't look like they will be reentering the console wars anytime soon if ever.

Microsoft showed up to the game late but has gained quite a market share in its short time on the market. Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 raised the bar for Sony and has helped keep things competitive. Microsoft so far seems rather disinterested in Nintendo and focuses much of their energy competing with Sony.

Sony took quite an embarrassing situation and turned it into one of their greatest achievements. Now on their third generation console the PS3, Sony boasts the best graphics and most impressive hardware of any system to date. They are also fighting Nintendo in the hand-held gaming market with their PSP device. While they have had mixed results and struggles, their PSP still has the best hardware out there, but unless they change strategies quickly their PSP will soon be a thing of the past.

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