Sony Interactive Entertainment / PlayStation
Born of a falling-out with Nintendo, the console that swung gaming towards the CD and the adult player.
- Founded
- 1993
- Headquarters
- Tokyo / San Mateo
- Parent company
- Sony Group Corporation
- Flagship product
- PlayStation 1 to 5
In 1991 Sony was due to unveil a CD drive for the Super Nintendo at CES. Nintendo announced a deal with Philips from the same stage; humiliated, Ken Kutaragi won leave from his board to turn the project into a standalone console. The PlayStation shipped in 1994 and sold a hundred million units.
The firm forced through three breaks: optical media, which made cutscenes and recorded soundtracks possible; a catalogue that addressed teenagers and adults while Nintendo aimed at families; and a network of in-house studios — Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Insomniac — built to produce big-budget, narrative-driven games. The PlayStation Network now counts over a hundred million monthly active accounts.
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