Japanese electronics giant Sony is set to celebrate 30 years since it launched the PlayStation console, the little grey box that catapulted the firm into the gaming big league. Picture: AFP
Ken Kutaragi, the visionary behind the PlayStation, faced significant resistance in the early 1990s while pitching his groundbreaking console. Even Sony’s top executives and game developers doubted it would succeed.
“Everyone said we would fail,” Kutaragi shared in a rare interview with AFP.
The original PlayStation, launched on 3 December 1994, brought a revolution with its 3D graphics and mature titles like Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid. Back then, gaming consoles like Nintendo’s NES were seen as “kids’ toys,” offering only 2D experiences.
At Sony, skepticism ran deep. Executives worried the project would tarnish the company’s reputation for high-end electronics, while game developers balked at the idea of creating real-time 3D games – a feat they deemed impossible at the time.
Despite the naysayers, Kutaragi pressed on. “We wanted to harness technology to create a new kind of entertainment,” he said, recalling the spark of ambition that drove him forward.
His perseverance paid off. The PlayStation became a household name, and its successor, the PlayStation 2, remains the best-selling console of all time, with over 160 million units sold.
Before the PlayStation era, Sony and Nintendo collaborated on a CD-ROM reader for the Super Nintendo. Sony even began developing a hybrid console, called the “Play Station,” capable of handling both CDs and cartridges.
However, their partnership collapsed spectacularly. Hours after Sony unveiled the project at a 1991 trade show, Nintendo announced a surprise deal with Philips, citing concerns over Sony’s rights to the games.
The fallout was a major blow for Sony, but it became a turning point. “Without that split, the PlayStation wouldn’t have been born,” Kutaragi said, noting the fundamental differences in philosophy: Nintendo saw games as toys, while Sony believed in the potential of cutting-edge technology.
When the PlayStation launched, Nintendo dominated the gaming market. But Sony disrupted the status quo by leveraging its music industry expertise. Instead of selling consoles in toy stores, it introduced them to electronics stores, creating localized supply chains that catered to different markets.
Kutaragi, who eventually became Sony’s vice president, left the company in 2007 after the rocky launch of the PlayStation 3.
Looking ahead, Kutaragi sees challenges for traditional consoles as cloud gaming and mobile platforms grow. Remarkably, he predicted these shifts years ago by analysing long-term technological trends – a vision many struggled to grasp at the time.
Now heading a robotics and AI start-up and teaching in Japan, Kutaragi envisions a future shaped by artificial intelligence.
He likens AI tools like ChatGPT to breakthroughs in how language has become computable, predicting similar innovations in fields like medicine, music, and visual art.
“Imagine if time and space could also be computed,” he mused. While this concept currently exists in gaming, Kutaragi believes it could one day leap into reality. “What was once science fiction could soon become our world.”
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