Ken Kutaragi, often referred to as “the father of PlayStation” for overseeing the development of the PS1, PS2 and PS3, says that initially no one believed that PlayStation would be successful in the hardware space.
Speaking at the official Tokyo Game Show 2024 keynote (time-stamped here), Kuturagi took us back to early 1993, just under two years before the launch of the PS1 in Japan. Kuturagi said that he and other founding members traveled around the world to get feedback from various developers and apparently received a lot of negative feedback.
Obviously, Kuturagi and company. It didn't listen to the naysayers and proved them wrong in dramatic fashion, but it's fascinating to know that PlayStation faced so much backlash in its early days. “Even within Sony, no one believed we were going to be successful.”
I'm also very curious as to the reasons why these developers and Sony employees were so sure the PS1 would fail. Kuturagi mentions that some people said other gaming hardware makers had failed, and there were definitely plenty of commercial failures from the late '80s and early '90s that might have inspired some trepidation, but damn, talk about tough love.
Fast forward to today, as PlayStation prepares for its 30th birthday in December, and Sony's PS5 Pro Bundle Sold Out As Quickly As Fans Found Out How Much It Really Costs.