Do You Know The History Of Sony Entering The Field Of Video Consoles? A Very Rare Prototype Of The First Playstation Console Reveals Very Important Secrets In This Regard!

Today, PlayStation is one of the most famous brands in the world of video games and has many fans all over the world.

However, Sony has come a long way to make PlayStation the brand it is today.

This company was the first to bring the idea of ​​using CD-ROM to video consoles and made a huge change in the history of this industry. Next, with each generation of PlayStation consoles, Sony found a new way to improve the graphics capabilities or memory of its consoles, and each time, it pushed the boundaries of technology in this industry.

Therefore, it is not without reason that the consoles of this company have experienced such stunning sales, and the PlayStation 5 console, according to Sony, has sold more than 38.4 million copies since its launch.

Of course, the success of PlayStation was not achieved overnight and is the result of years of creativity, innovation, and perseverance of the Japanese.

Sony’s first experience in the video game market was by no means intended to be an independent console; Rather, at first, this company was supposed to produce and launch a joint product with one of its biggest competitors, Nintendo.

This console was supposed to be called Super NES CD-ROM, and it was a newer and more advanced version of Super NES that could play games from CD.

It is not bad to know that this interesting collaboration between Nintendo and Sony made many fans call this console “Nintendo PlayStation.”

Of course, as you predicted, this collaboration between Sony and Nintendo did not have a happy ending, so one of the most promising collaborations in the world of gaming led to failure.

In the continuation of this text, we are trying to examine this collaboration between Nintendo and PlayStation and the production of the very rare Sony console prototype.

How did the sweet collaboration between Sony and Nintendo begin?

According to reports prepared by the Kotaku website, following the successful launch of the NES console, also known as Famicom (short for Family Computer), one of Sony’s engineers named Ken Kotaragi decided to enter the company into the field of computer games.

Accordingly, Sony began negotiating with Nintendo to make the sound chip for the SNES console. The result of these negotiations was positive, and Sony became the manufacturer of audio chips for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System console. So if you are satisfied with the sound quality of the old Nintendo console, you probably have Sony to thank!

The stunning success of the SNES console made the parties want to cooperate more widely, Especially considering that CD-ROM was gaining strength and the conditions for using this technology in video games had been prepared more than ever!

Kotaragi, the engineer who paved the way for the cooperation between Sony and Nintendo, once again became the ground for further collaboration between these two Japanese giants and, for the first time, proposed the idea of ​​replacing cartridges with CD-ROM in game consoles.

According to published information and news, unlike Sony, which was interested in using CD-ROM in the next Nintendo console, Nintendo itself was not very interested in this work. It reluctantly provided the necessary funds to develop this technology for the SNES. Contract.

In this way, Sony was tasked with adding CD-ROM to Nintendo’s SNES console. Also, this extension of this CD-ROM and its accessories were supposed to be named PlayStation!

Nintendo’s betrayal of Sony, The founder of the formation of the PlayStation console!

Due to Nintendo’s initial lack of support for CD-ROM installation in the SNES console, it was predictable that this company’s cooperation with Sony would end very soon.

At the same time, Sony, who founded Sony Imagesoft in 1989 to publish video games, worked day and night on this CD-ROM add-on, hoping that by using it in the SNES, it would be able to enter the gaming hardware world. Log in. In this regard, Ken Kotarargi and his colleagues hoped a CD version of the SNES console would be shown at the CES 1991 event!

However, 48 hours before Nintendo’s official event at CES, Nintendo informed Sony executives that it did not like the company’s CD-ROM extension and would not use it in the new generation SNES!

But Sony did not give up its CD-ROM idea, and after being disappointed with Nintendo, it went to Philips and tried to turn the CD-ROM-equipped console idea into a commercial product with the help of this company.

In this way, Nintendo’s betrayal of Sony became the basis for cultivating the idea of ​​making an independent console from Sony, The console that this company officially unveiled at its conference this event.

Of course, Sony’s collaboration with Philips didn’t end well either, So both companies finally decided to produce their consoles.

The Philips CD-i device was not very popular and is not well known among the various generations of video consoles.

At the same time, these unsuccessful collaborations were not the end of the work and did not divert Sony from its path to release a powerful and attractive gaming console.

PlayStation prototype; Failed console or an item for museums?

One of the most important reasons why the dissolution of the SNES CD-ROM project surprised Sony was that this company had produced more than 200 prototypes of this console and was ready to unveil it.

The ArsTecnica website reported in this context that all prototypes produced of this canceled console were destroyed, except for one!

In 2015, a Reddit user published a picture of a prototype Super NES CD-ROM console owned by his father.

The publication of this image drew a lot of attention to this unique product, So that a few years later, the website Kotaku convinced the owner of this console to sell it in an auction.

The auction took place in 2020, and the main bidders were Pets.com founder Greg Lemore and Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Lackey. The prototype of the Nintendo PlayStation finally arrived at Pets.com for $300,000!

Of course, this price for a console prototype so influential in the video game industry’s history seems completely reasonable or even low! Who knows what would have happened in the industry if Nintendo had not rejected Sony’s idea?