Before the PlayStation existed, Sony worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom. Nintendo decided to shut down the device, so Sony entered the console business on its own – becoming a direct rival and an industry powerhouse.
With that in mind, “The Father of PlayStation” Ken Kutaragi recently visited Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada bar and took some time to reflect on PlayStation’s relationship with other companies – like Nintendo – during this era.
Kutaragi said that he enjoyed working with the Nintendo team and believes that the media of the time, along with “outside perspectives”, disregarded these relationships. He explains how, in the long run, this idea of ”conflict” between Sony, Nintendo and Sega only helped the industry to grow. Here is the full summary:
“Before PlayStation, I worked on the Super Famicom with Nintendo and I was very fond of Mr. Uemura and his team. I was always with them and I got along well with them. But outside, we were considered as fighters. We were not struggling in any way. “
“I was just asked that kind of question”, [PlayStation’s] competitor Sega or Nintendo? “, they asked me, but we had never thought who the competitor was because we were all co-workers. However, outsiders did not think so … they did not know the truth …They animated our industry. “
While comments like this may not have been as convincing in the 1990s, Sony and Nintendo now occupy different segments of the video game industry. If you’re curious to learn more about Nintendo and Sony’s past, check out our PlayStation SNES resource.