Many years have passed between the PS1 and the PS5 and it is now hard to imagine the console market without the PlayStation. But its creator reveals that no one at Sony believed it would be successful.
The cover image is a symbolic image by Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels.
The Japanese manager Ken Kutaragi is the former head of the then brand new gaming division Sony and is considered the “father of the PlayStation.” At the Tokyo Game Show 2024 he appeared as a keynote speaker and remembered the year 1993 – almost 2 years, before the PS1 launched in Japan.
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Developers said: “Don’t do it, you will fail”
How did it work back then? As Kutaragi reports, he and other co-founders traveled around the world with the plans for the PS1 to get the opinions of numerous developers. However, they weren’t interested at all.
We visited dozens of companies, if not hundreds. We visited many game manufacturers, it’s a great memory. […] They simply told us: Don’t do it. […] You will fail.
Ken Kutaragi at Tokyo Game Show 2024
Even within Sony, no one believed that Kutaragi would be successful.
Fortunately, Kutaragi and his team were not deterred. The PlayStation ultimately sold more than 102 million units, and its successor, the PS2, is the best-selling console of all time with over 155 million units – even if the Switch is now hot on its heels (via IGN).
You can find the whole speech on YouTube.
Kutaragi himself was responsible for the development of the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 3, but stepped down after the launch of the PS3 fell short of expectations. The PS5 reached 60 million units sold in 2024, and a few more could be added with the release of the PS5 Pro.