How Sony ᵃˡᵐᵒˢᵗ ruined the PlayStation

The real story behind the origins of the PlayStation is one of internal fights, personal missions and industry clash that would take three unlikely heroes into the adventure of a lifetime.

#PlayStation

0:00 Intro
0:38 Ohga
3:00 Kutaragi
4:30 The Famicom incident
11:56 Developing the PlayStation
14:40 Seducing game devs
17:43 Secret Weapon
20:19 The pricing incident

Corrections:
7:17 We accidentally referred to the Famicom as having "FM synthesis": this was due to a mistake in one of our sources (Asakura), and the Famicom actually has a programmable sound generator, not an FM chip.
15:50 The original name of the company was Sony Computer Entertainment. It would not change to Sony Interactive Entertainment until much later.
20:49 Clarification: This was the launch prince in Japan where this history takes place. It was reduced to $299 by the time it reached the US.

Credits

Research and Writing: LowSpecAlex, F4mi
Voice over: LowSpecAlex, Caddicarus
Editing: Henrique von Buren, LowSpecAlex
3D animation: Windy, Divye
Art: Maiku no Koe
Spanish Translation, Audio editing and QA: Henrique von Buren
Camera work: LowSpecAlex
Thumbnail design: Maiku no Koe

Social media:

Sources:
Asakura, Reiji (2000). Revolutionaries at Sony: The Making of the Sony PlayStation

Clips used:

Stock Footage from Getty

[pattyoneill]

I tried to go get eggs at the store the other day but the OIL CRISIS OF THE 1970'S totally stopped me.

[legiran]

This video deserves 2 sequels. How Sony almost ruined the Playstation 3 and part 3 how Sony ruined the Playstation Vita.

[mineland]

These documentaries have been pretty fun to watch. Kudos to everyone who worked on them, theyre nice

[HeadsetHistorian]

I can't get over how good your new videos are. Easily some of the best content on youtube.

[lain]

This is the type of history we need in textbooks.

[jefgirdler]

The kickass soundtracks for various PS1 games after finding out they were tightly connected to Sony Music now makes a lot more sense. Ridge Racer Type 4 and Ape Escape come to mind. Spyro, et al

[Twisted_Logic]

Sony has always been the one major console manufacturer that I never got into. Really interesting hearing their end of the story. I often wonder what would've happened had Nintendo not stabbed Sony in the back in favor of Phillips

[Imagine_Breaker]

Amazing video, coming here from f4mi's channel, this and intel's history video were amazing, it's so cool to be able to see these big companies in a time when they were just newbies trying desperately to enter a new market.

[MatthewCobalt]

As much as I hate overbearing corporations, it’s good to see how a conglomerate would leverage every aspect of the Company into creating an innovative product and aggressive business strategies.

[poisonsnivy]

The big push on cd’s was a great move on sony’s part, the DAC on launch model PlayStations are actually borderline audiophile-tier so they still make as a fantastic CD player

[xployalist]

Great video. Sony Music being heavily involved explains why the PS1 has such good onboard audio equipment like the DAC.

[I.____.....__...__]

Yup, Nintendo stabbed both Atari and Sony in the back (and probably others as well), but only Sony managed to bounce back from Nintendo's betrayal and successfully bite them back.

[FinFET]

Amazing video! Never imagined that the PlayStation history was so thrilling!

[dbrokensoul]

I remember I followed this channel for the fun technicals 'hack' to run game on low-end PC. So when I saw this amazing video, I was surprised. This is so well-made and so fun to follow. Not a simple retelling of history, but also presented in a fun and entertaining way. I'm gonna trace back and see how much amazing video I missed.

[enetheru]

The sidequest is so far the only strategy that has successfully gotten me to watch people on nebula. Good job.

[niks]

Kutaragi's father is one in a million a real angel, those are the dying words every son/daughter would give everything to hear, and never forget until death..

[foxdart]

Another excellent slice of history with enough creative licence to help the story flow. Great stuff Alex, as someone who was basically raised by the History Channel/Discovery/NatGeo I can say this piece is totally on point 👍

[RockOrso]

This is probably one of the most fun tech channels I've watched, appreciate the change of vision of your channel.

[kaitlyn__L]

Another fun instalment! I knew about Sony Music’s involvement in the design philosophy, but didn’t know a lot else about this (such as the 3D engine being based on work they did for broadcast)!

One minor nitpick though, the Famicom never used FM synthesis. The FDS sound system is often incorrectly called FM, but that is not true either.

But like I said, that’s very minor. It’s absolutely true that the PCM sample-based hardware in the SNES was vastly superior, even compared to the software audio layers in the N64 and GameCube.

It’s so strange to me that digital was second-class in Sony, even after they helped invent PCM audio codecs (such as those boxes which output to videotape) and the CD! I guess inertia goes a long way…

[FunkyM]

Profit margins. I had wondered. Sony went from "Zero to Hero, in no time flat", to quote the song. I'd never have imagined it was off of the profit margins. But hey, the rest is history.