Father of PlayStation Discusses Origins of Iconic Console; „Everyone at Sony Told Us We Would Fail in This Project”
The father of the PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, revealed that there was no faith in the success of the console at Sony. In 1993, the failure of the hardware, which eventually became the apple of the company's eye, was prophesied.
30 years ago, Nintendo was the undisputed leader among console developers. SEGA was hot on the giant's heels, but the balance of power seemed unshakeable. The premiere of PlayStation 1 changed everything. Ken Kutaragi was then in charge of the department. Sony authorities were afraid to challenge Nintendo, with whom they had recently collaborated.
Sony thought that the PS1 would be lost
Ken Kutaragi appeared at the Tokyo Game Show 2024, which took place from Thursday, September 26 to Sunday, September 29. The "father" of PlayStation talked about the history of the first console and revealed new details about its history. Sony had a negative attitude towards the console, and everyone Kutaragi spoke to at that time believed that his team would not succeed.
History has shown that such people were wrong. PS1 started Sony's path to success, as proven by the special editions of the PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro, which refer to the colors of the first PlayStation. The platform is currently one of the key components in Sony's portfolio and is continuously evolving, including the launch of the new PS5 Pro, whose pre-sale began today.
A short anecdote about the PS1 was not the only topic that Ken Kutaragi addressed. He also presented his opinion on the development of gaming and the industry associated with it. According to Kutaragi, the era of real-time computing is coming, which will allow the entire industry to grow "hundred-fold." This will also affect game development, which could suggest situation-dependent NPC reactions in games to player behavior.
This would cause new games to become a unique experience every time, as we wouldn't be familiar with the reactions of the side characters, which are currently pre-programmed. The constantly developing artificial intelligence technology is also expected to contribute to the upcoming changes.
