Thirty years now. In December 1994, Sony launched itself into a market segment where it was not expected: video games. An industry then dominated by Nintendo and Sega who did not see who could try to interfere in their confrontation. Bad luck for them. Three decades later, if they laid the foundations of the industry, the two tenors of yesteryear had to bow before the tornado that took over the video game in their footsteps.
And all of this could never have happened if Nintendo had kept its commitment, in the late ’80s, to design a CD-ROM player with Sony for its Super Nintendo. But the video game giant preferred Philips and Sony found itself with its player on its hands. A humiliation for Ken Kutaragi, the engineer responsible for the project, who will do everything possible to convince his management to let him design a 3D-focused and more affordable console. But above all a product that makes video games more adult and more creative.
DNA innovation
“Sony has always been an innovative company,” explains Eric Lempel, Senior Vice President of Business and Product at PlayStation. “If you think about the Walkman, it was revolutionary and completely changed the way people listen to music. PlayStation was born from that same desire: to offer a new way to connect consumers with entertainment.”
When the console launched in late 1994, he was not yet employed by Sony, but he was already in the industry. An industry that didn’t really believe in it, Eric Lempel humbly admits. “I think it surprised a lot of people, because the Playstation came out of nowhere,” admits the American. “To be honest, I was skeptical at first. Many had already tried it without success. And then I could see the console and I was like, ‘wow, this is really different.’ The industrial design of the hardware itself, with the disc tray that opened, the controller was very different from what was available at the time.”
For those who now direct product development, the strong point of the “Play Station”, as it was called then, was to facilitate development for external studios, allowing them to create in 3D, “what they could not yet do on existing consoles.” Enough to seduce and gain the trust of the market, then of consumers, to become a massive success.
“Above all, the Playstation has managed to make video games something cool, anchored in culture,” analyzes Eric Lempel, who especially highlights the opening to a new generation of interactive experiences. Without forgetting the power, the visual impact of the iconic gray design of the PS1.
The PS2 takes Playstation to another dimension
If the first console was a video game earthquake, the Playstation 2 will be a consecration and a tidal wave. To this day it remains the best-selling console in history with almost 160 million units sold. “I saw it before its launch at E3 and I knew it would be incredible. It played DVDs, music and offered games at a level never seen before,” recalls with amazement who moves from New York to California to embark on the adventure. Arriving at Sony just before its launch in 2000, he understood that something special was taking shape behind the scenes for video games.
Because the secret of the console is simple: learn from the first Playstation by trusting a little more in the talent of external developers and strengthening internal studios to build a strong brand. “Now the name PlayStation means something to people,” proclaims the manager.
Six years later, the Playstation 3 will also fit into the spirit of the times and usher in a new era for Sony: that of connected gaming. “Gamers wanted to play together, even remotely. That’s where the PlayStation Network was born,” says Eric Lempel. Launched in 2001, Xbox began the connected era of consoles in 2002. A (r)evolution that advances and the Playstation ends up doing the same and getting on the Internet train. The PS3 offers one more innovation: connectivity. And it will cause a big stir, despite a complicated and expensive start-up.
With PlayStation Network (PSN), Sony now identifies each of its players, offering them the possibility of having friends online, of playing with them. But unlike Xbox Live, which includes everything, playing online with friends is free. Added to this is the arrival of trophies and the Playstation Store. “It was an important turning point,” proclaims Eric Lempel. “The network we launched 18 years ago still exists and has continued to grow. It remains the heart of our ecosystem.”
While the PSN impresses, the console is poorly handled by the Xbox 360, which also knows how to innovate a lot, particularly with the arrival of its Kinect camera that frees up players’ hands and allows them to play together in their living room. But the PS3 era marked the rise of cult franchises. OfUnexplored has the last of us passing through god of warPlaystation defines its DNA and becomes the den of high-flying single-player narrative games.
The player at the center of everything
With the technological foundations and philosophy well established, Playstation is accelerating towards the next generation. Almost 18 years after its launch, the initial slogan The game has no limit He experiences his first change. The PS4 now claims to be for the players and wants to focus on the player again. “We wanted a powerful and simple console, and a tool for developers to express themselves. ‘For gamers’ was not just a slogan,” says Eric Lempel.
The PS4 wants to be “a perfect canvas” for game creators. It will become your favorite and will prove to be hegemonic in its console generation. In a clear victory over the Xbox One, Sony sold more than 30 million PS4s in two years and 100 million in more than five years (more than 117 million in 2025, 12 years after its launch).
The Japanese manufacturer understands its hegemony and declines its offer in a more compact Slim version – but also more complete in connectors – and a more powerful Pro version. Sony is winning the war of consoles, of games, but also of communication. Its only drawback, which embarrasses players: it is not backward compatible with physical games from the first three generations.
Thirty years after the PS1, success is still there for Playstation. Launched in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic and in the face of a shortage of components, the PS5 remains the worthy heir to the lineage, with its Slim and Pro versions. “We have integrated all the lessons of previous generations and made it even better: SSD for instant loading, DualSense controller, haptic feedback. These are the details that bring the player closer to the game,” explains Eric Lempel, remembering that in five years, the latest addition has already sold more than 80 million copies. “She is prepared to become our most successful generation,” he slips.
An impact on the history of video games
But more than in numbers, the impact of Playstation is measured in notoriety. The brand has become more than just a console, it is a pillar of gaming culture. A symbol and a reference. “With great power comes great responsibility,” it was said, not in this sense of the formula, in the Bible, even before Spider-Man adopted this saying also in his version for Playstation. And the American managers of the Asian giant know it well.
And innovation now goes far beyond home consoles. Sony and Playstation opened up to new formats, agreeing to transfer their flagship licenses to the PC and try the adventure of cloud gaming. The company could have been one of the first to feel the wind of innovation when it bought Gaikai, a cloud gaming specialist, in 2012. But this time it was slow to transform the test, like the mobile gaming train with its companion Sony Mobile and its Xperia, which never worked wonders, despite the attempt to transfer the game also long before time. This shows that you can be a leader who feels things, but doesn’t always know how to translate them into success. Fortunately for the competition.
From now on, at Playstation we intend to reach players around the world, even those who do not have a console, to consolidate its position as an entertainment player. Will it still be like this in 30 years? Eric Lempel hopes so and to do so he knows that Sony will have to remain faithful to its initial philosophy: innovation and entertainment. But no matter what, “technology is evolving rapidly and the winner will be the consumer,” he proclaims with a smile. As long as it’s on Playstation, obviously.
Source: BFM TV
