Videogaming has come a long way since it has started with the Atari 2600 in 1978. It has seen the birth of amazing game consoles sporting the latest technology in their times until they eventually die and maybe get replaced by a better one, if they were successful. Amidst all the trials the videogame industry has come across through the years, it is now one of the biggest industries in the world.
Videogaming did not use to be the big time business it is now. It was more of a specialty hobby having only a small fan base here and there, but certainly not everywhere. Analysts considered gaming only as a fad that will eventually pass. Unfortunately, these naysayers have been proven wrong, thanks to Sony and its Playstation. I can safely say that the Playstation gets the biggest blame for taking videogaming into the mainstream level.
In 1991, the Sony Play Station, as it was originally written, was first planned as a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). But these two companies had different visions, Sony wanted to create an independent game console but Nintendo wanted Sony to just make an add-on for their SNES and so they parted ways. Sony then continued on developing the Play Station. .
Learning from the failure of Atari, Sony knew that for a game hardware to be successful, it needs great software and Sony being an electronics giant just had the tools to deal with that - a good name, a great marketing strategy and of course, big bucks. With these, they were able to gain the trust of software developers worldwide. By the end of 1993 they had round up at least 250 developers in Japan alone, including Namco, Konami and Capcom - the three biggest developers in Japan and in the whole world. In 1994, the Play Station was finally released in Japan as the Playstation. It was a massive success and Sony hailed it as their most important product since the Walkman in the 70s. The combination of the amazing hardware performance and looks, the great lineup of games, big-budget advertising campaigns and a revolutionary controller that is light years ahead of the competition made the Sony Playstation sell to millions.
