Sony PlayStation Company
From: “PlayStation”
By: Gabrielle Williams
History of PlayStation
•
•
•
•
•
Ken Kutaragi
“The Father of PlayStation”
System G
Wanted to integrate into the Famicom
Neither Sony nor Nintendo were
interested
Beginnings of PlayStation
• Nintendo and Sony make partnership
• First work: Project PlayStation
• Used a built in CD-ROM Drive
• Revolutionary for its time
• Nintendo breaks contract
• Sony countered
• Used System G in their PlayStation
• Groundbreaking 3-dimensional graphics
Launch of PlayStation
• Goal: sell 100,000 units in the first day
• Not a multimedia player, just a game
machine
• Namco Ridge Racer: first game for PS1
• NHL Faceoff
• Had five different camera angles
• Had fans act different ways depending on
home or away games
Keeping it Alive
• Had to find ways to keep interest in the
PlayStation while they developed PS2
• Began marketing to different age groups
• Re-released old games as “Classics”
• Charging half the price
• 1995-2000
• 800 game titles made
• 80 million PlayStations sold
New System: PlayStation 2
• New components
• 128 bit chip
• Called “emotion engine”
•
•
•
•
New laser module
CD and DVD Player
Optical port to plug into speakers
Expansion port for high speed connection
• For digital cameras or external hard drives.
Continued Success
• Why is PS2 still so popular?
• Gamers can play both PS and PS2 games
on it
• Same generation consoles, original X-box
and Gamecube, are no longer produced.
• Cheaper prices: now $130
• DVD Tie-ins
• Still new games being produced for PS2
PS3: A New Generation of
Gaming
• Major contributions
• Internet linked supercomputer
• Has digital server for living room
• BluRay disc
• Holds five times as much as DVD
• First to integrate (X-box 360 still uses DVD)
• New cell microprocessor
• More powerful than most home computers
PS3 Setbacks
• Many delays for release
• Problems with copy protection of BluRay disc
• Limited production for holiday season
• Problems with producing laser to read BluRay
• Once released had many technical glitches
running old games on new machine
• Cost: $599
• X-box’s head start
• Shared success
PlayStation Portable (PSP)
Has gaming, music, video, and photo
capabilities
• Improvements to new version
• Video port for TV and double memory
• Slimmer with more colors
• Ease of use?
• New Direction
• “My Stylist”
• Wardrobe organizer
Online gaming: EverQuest
• 3-D fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer
online role playing game)
• First commercially successful MMORPG
•
•
•
•
Developed by Sony Online Entertainment
Uses 47 servers
Expansions and graphics overhauls
24 hour staff
• Game coders on call
Sony: Past, Present, and
Future
• PlayStation started with one man, but grew
to an empire
• By 2002, game unit of Sony made up 10% of
profits
• PlayStation 3 still not meeting expectations
• Change in leadership
• Ken Kutaragi is replaced by his former second
in command Kazuo Hirai
• Hirai is expected to lead the Sony PlayStation
Company into many better years to come.