How was the greatest gaming console in PlayStation history?

On December 3, 1994, PlayStation consoles hit shelves in Japan. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Guinness Book of Records has just recognized the PlayStation as the best-selling gaming console in the world with a total sales of more than 450 million units as of November.

After 25 years, the influence of PlayStation on the gaming industry and mass culture is still enormous. The story of this device is quite interesting when it is associated with arrogance, greed and betrayal.

On Children's Day 1991, Nintendo held a press conference at CES Electronics Show in Las Vegas (USA). Under the plan, Chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi will announce the details of a gaming machine production agreement between Nintendo and Sony, which was revealed a few days ago.

First generation PlayStation game console.(Photo: Wikipedia).

The change was confusing

But that did not happen. Instead, Yamauchi announced that Nintendo would partner with Philips (Netherlands) - Sony's biggest rival at the time.

"Under the agreement, Philips technology will appear on accessories that help Nintendo users play games on CDs, " quoted an article in the New York Times in 1991. Just a few days before, Sony had announced the "agreement." partnered with Nintendo for a product called Game Player ".

At that time, Nintendo wanted to partner with Sony to produce a game console that used CDs instead of traditional tape boxes. The contract signed, the two sides embarked on product development under the terms.

The contradictory statement by Nintendo and Sony confused many people, even Sony executives did not understand what was going on. Upon hearing Nintendo's Philips announcement, former Sony Chairman Olaf Olaffson said he did not know it.

The Sony gaming console that was made with Nintendo was never released.(Photo: Metro).

"This is a serious incident," Olaffson told reporters who were stunned after the press conference. He left open the question of whether Nintendo breached the contract.

It is known that Nintendo suddenly stopped contacting Sony before CES 1991. Share with Wired after Yamauchi died, his best friend recalled Sony engineers who developed the game console but did not have any instructions from Nintendo. .

Take revenge on the traitor

Upon further investigation, he discovered that the contract contained a clause that allowed Sony to directly produce and sell game discs without buying from Nintendo, but Nintendo wanted to monopolize the production of the game disc. Instead of discussing a solution, Nintendo voluntarily cut the contract, pushing Sony out to find another partner.

Nintendo did not want to lose the monopoly of game publishing. At the time, Nintendo was the dominant player when it first emerged over its Sega rivalry, arrogance that gave them the right to self-determination without fear of anyone.

Perhaps Nintendo did not anticipate the possibility that the friend that he once betrayed was the one who pushed them down.

After being abandoned at CES, Sony had a gaming console in hand but couldn't launch. The multi-million dollar product development was utilized to make the fully independent Sony gaming console.

If Nintendo didn't leave Sony at the time, it would not have been a successful PlayStation.(Photo: Polygon)

To pursue the plan, the Japanese company quickly cooperated with many famous game companies such as Electronic Arts, Konami and Namco, seeking to reduce production costs to make the model more affordable when sold to the market.

Three years after being "insulted" at CES, Sony attacked a betrayed friend with a PlayStation game console . After its launch, the PlayStation made a big splash, defeating all opponents to become the world's most popular gaming console.

By comparison, the Nintendo 64 released in 1996 sold just over 30 million units over its lifetime, while the PlayStation was more than 100 million - becoming the first home gaming console to surpass this milestone. To date, the PlayStation remains the number one gaming console in terms of sales while Nintendo, despite its efforts, is still the follower.

If Nintendo hadn't betrayed Sony that day, perhaps the gaming world wouldn't have had a successful PlayStation today.