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Remembering the Playstation - Now that Sony has killed the Playstation in a fit of mindless avarice, I'd like to eulogize it by taking a look back at its meteoric rise to success. The king is dead. Long live the king. |
Something from nothing
The year was 1995. It seemed obvious, from a consumer perspective at least, that the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 would rule the 5th generation of game consoles. After all, why wouldn't they? To say Sega and Nintendo dominated the video game market at the time would be an understatement. They were the market.
It was a two horse race if there ever was one, and the idea of a third company entering the fray and finding any kind of success was laughable. Indeed, the 3DO and Atari Jaguar were both notorious failures, proof positive that the world wasn't big enough for three consoles. The future clearly belonged to the Saturn and the N64.
And so the Playstation was met with much skepticism. If the industry veteran Atari couldn't even make a 5th generation console succeed, then how on Earth could the inexperienced Sony? It seemed like yet another flop in the making. Just add its carcass to the pile.
But from the perspective of developers, things were very different. The Saturn was a nightmare to work with as a result of its poorly designed architecture, and the N64 was unattractive due to its use of expensive, limited cartridges, Nintendo's exorbitant licensing fees, and the fact that its release date had been pushed back deep in to 1996.
Developers wanted a CD-based system that was easier to develop for than the Saturn, with reasonable licensing, that would hit shelves sooner than the N64. And the Playstation happened to fit the bill. So they flocked to it and began creating a cornucopia of games.
As soon as consumers saw these games, games like of Warhawk, Battle Arena Toshinden, and Ridge Racer, the skepticism vanished. The Playstation, the console that once seemed like the next 3DO or Jaguar, was now a must-own.
Just like that, in the proverbial blink of an eye, Sega and Nintendo were beaten.
Words are insufficient to describe how surreal it felt to watch these two giants that ruled the industry suddenly fall to a total newcomer. It boggled the mind.
By mid-1996, the battle of the 5th generation consoles was over and Sony had won. The N64 was fated to being a distant second before it even launched in North America. The Saturn appeared to be hanging in there, but with developer support and sales both drying up, its death was sealed.
The Playstation was simply the right product, in the right place, at the right time. Through a series of profound misjudgments by its competitors, it received an unthinkable window of opportunity to take over the industry. So it did.
But it wasn't purely thanks to good games and fortunate timing. It was also thanks to Sony's shrewdness.
They recognized that the gamer demographic was growing up and longing for edgier, more mature content. So instead of aiming the Playstation at kids and families as had been done with consoles before it, they aimed it squarely at teenagers and young adults.
And it worked. The older crowd ate it up, and combined with mature games like Duke Nukem 3D hitting the PC in tandem, the Playstation was instrumental in changing the perception that video games were for kids. And, naturally, legions of kids ate it up too, specifically because it "wasn't" for them.
Sony was also extremely consumer-friendly, as hard as that is to believe now. They gave away demo discs like candy, allowing people to try games before comitting to buy them. They even lowered the price of new releases from $59.99 to $49.99, with many retailers discounting them further to $39.99.
Were they doing it out of altruism? Of course not. Sony back then was exactly as greedy as Sony is now. The difference is that their greed was guided by intelligence. The bean-counters knew that the best, most sustainable way to make money was to treat customers well and give them what they wanted for a good price. The Playstation brand revolved around this philosophy for many years and was wildly successful, and widely beloved, for it.
But as someone once said, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
RIP Playstation
Today, in the year 2026, Sony's greed is guided by stupidity. They want to phase out physical media so they can eliminate the entire used games market and exert total control of the consumer.
Over the coming weeks and months they're going to tout statistics showing that almost no one buys physical media anymore. These statistics will all be false. They're merely trying to gaslight people in to accepting a world where they own nothing.
The Playstation 6, being digital-only and having a terribly expensive price tag, will be a catastrophic failure and cause Sony to exit the console business. That is, if the PS6 even comes out. The fallout from this blunder might be so severe that Sony simply calls it quits at the PS5.
Will they backpedal? It's likely, but they'll do it too late to matter, after too much damage has been done.
The Playstation is dead and watching it fall has been just as surreal as watching it rise. I'm not sad, though. Once you get old enough you come to realize that nothing lasts forever, and honestly, it's hard to be too upset about it ending after an incredible 31 year run. It climbed to the top of the mountain and did everything there was to do, so it's fine for it to sail off in to the sunset at this point. We're entering a post-Playstation era and that's okay. Like many, I'll just keep using my PS1, playing games stored on physical media that I own for life, and reliving the good ol' days.
There's an important lesson to be learned from all of this. If you're going to be greedy, you'd better be smart about it.
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