Prior to the existence of the PlayStation, Sony worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom. Nintendo decided to pull the plug from the device, and so Sony entered the console business on its own, becoming a direct rival and a powerhouse in the industry.
With that in mind, “The Father of PlayStation” Ken Kutaragi recently visited Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada bar and took a while to reflect on PlayStation’s relationship with others companies – like Nintendo – during this time.
Kutaragi said he enjoyed working with the Nintendo team and believes the media at the time, along with “external perspectives,” misinterpreted those relationships. He explains how, in the long run, this idea of “conflict” between Sony, Nintendo, and Sega only helped grow the industry. Here is the full summary:
“Before PlayStation, I worked at Super Famicom with Nintendo and I really liked Mr. Uemura and his team, I was often with them and I got along with them. But from the outside, we were considered to be fighting. We weren’t fighting. Absolutely not “.
“I’ve only been asked questions like that,” he is [PlayStation’s] the competitor Sega or Nintendo? “, they asked me, but we had never thought who the competitor was because we were all co-workers. However, outsiders didn’t think so … they didn’t know the truth …They encouraged our industry. “
While comments like this would not have been so compelling in the 1990s, today Sony and Nintendo occupy different segments of the video game industry. If you’re curious to learn more about Nintendo and Sony’s past, check out our feature on SNES PlayStation.