When Sony Computer Entertainment first established its PlayStation flagship brand in 1993, its executives ’main concern was to ensure that the company’s first offices were located in an area with nightclubs. At least that’s the story that Ken Kutaragi, who is widely known as the father of the PlayStation, told Katsuhiro Harada of Bandai Namco on the latter’s new YouTube show: Harada’s Bar.
“We started in Aoyama-Itchōme,” Kutaragi told Harada, filling out the document Tekken director of video game history. “The reason we chose this as an office was because we wanted to drink together.”
Sony’s main office at the time, Kutaragi said, was in an area of Tokyo’s Shinagawa neighborhood, where the holes were closing at 8 p.m. So when it came time to open Sony Computer Entertainment’s first location, he and his associates thought it might be best to find a “sleepless city” in which they could take people from other companies to take drinks. Aoyoma, a neighborhood in the nearby Minato neighborhood, ended up being that place.
In addition to Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment had another parent company at Sony Music Entertainment Japan. According to Kutaragi, the subsidiary used to organize huge celebratory parties with artists recording from midnight. As such, video game executives became fond of the tradition and wanted to take it to their fledgling business.
Harada even remembers that Kutaragi gave the Tekken team up with an expensive sake bottle every time they shipped a game. Apparently, he became so accustomed to the treatment that he was surprised when they did not receive any liquor from Microsoft after the 2007 release. Tekken 6, the first game in the series to get an Xbox platform.
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Harada’s conversation with Kutaragi also covers some careful moments in his shared history, as well as the debate over current trends in technology such as artificial intelligence and robotics. See if you’re interested in two game legends having a good chat at a bar.