When Sony Computer Entertainment first established its flagship PlayStation brand in 1993, its executives’ main concern was to ensure that the company’s first offices were located in an area with night bars. At least that’s the story Ken Kutaragi, who is widely known as the father of the PlayStation, said Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada on the latter’s new YouTube show, Harada’s Bar.
“We started in Aoyama-Itchōme,” explained Kutaragi to Harada, filling out the Tekken director in a little bit of video game history. “The reason we chose it as an office was because we wanted to drink together.”
Sony’s main office at the time, Kutaragi said, was in an area of Tokyo’s Shinagawa neighborhood, where all drinking fountains closed at 8pm. So, when it came time to open Sony Computer Entertainment’s first location, he and his associates thought it might be better to find a “sleepless city” in which they could take people from other companies to drink. Aoyoma, a neighborhood in the vicinity of Minato, ended up being that place.
In addition to Sony itself, Sony Computer Entertainment had another parent company at Sony Music Entertainment Japan. According to Kutaragi, the subsidiary used to throw large celebratory parties with artists that extended through midnight. As such, video game executives clung to tradition and wanted to bring it to their fledgling business.
Harada still remembers Kutaragi giving the Tekken team up with an expensive bottle of sake every time they launch a game. He got so used to the treatment, apparently, that he was surprised when they didn’t get any drinks from Microsoft after the 2007’s launch. Tekken 6, the first game in the series to grace an Xbox platform.
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Harada’s conversation with Kutaragi also covers some interesting moments in their shared history, as well as the discussion of current trends in technology, such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Check if you are interested in two legends of the game by having a good chat in a bar.