Nintendo Playstation?

As Gamers we all know that back in the day Nintendo and Sega were the big dogs.  Neither could be touched, and those who tried quickly suffered the worst dog bit imaginable.  Of course times change, Sega faded away, and Xbox and Sony found forever homes in our hearts.

But, did you know that things could have been different?

Back in the early 90’s Nintendo Nintendo knew that the SNES was a powerful system for the time but how could they guarantee defeat over the Sega Genesis?  Would their staple characters and robust game collection be enough?  This is where Nintendo began to talk with the creators of the ever popular Walkman.  Although they originally planned on working with Phillips, their CD-I’s weren’t impressive enough, so they began to talk to Sony.

Both Sony and Nintendo seemed to always be a step ahead of the game, so this relationship seemed like a given.  The results of their talks was a CD-ROM peripheral for the SNES.  The lead on the project was Ken Kutaragi, The Father of the Playstation.  They system was originally planned to be called the Playstation.  The Playstation could play both SNES cartridges and “super discs”.

Unfortunately, as the result of a sour deal back in 1988, Nintendo parted ways with Sony.  Apparantly, the old deal would give Sony full control to games played on the CD’s. obviously Nintendo would not allow another company control over its core characters and possible profits.  Nintendo cut ties with Sony and made friends with Phillips again.  Unfortunately, Sony did not realize that Nintendo had completely dumped them until CES 1991 when they displayed a working demo of the Playstation unit.  Nintendo did not back the unit and instead expressed their devotion to Phillips “superior” products (a vast contrast to the reason they left Phillips in the first place).

Sony was understandably upset, but was not about to let this bad deal bring them down.  Since Nintendo broke the original deal, Sony had the right to release the Playstation that we know today under their own name.  Sony knew they had something here, so they decided to go with it.  To make the console an instant success, they guaranteed that it could Play SNES cartridges, but Nintendo soon put a stop to that.  Regardless, Sony made an impact with their console and became what it is today.

If Nintendo never approached Sony, would we even have a Playstation today?  What if the collaboration went through, Do you think the Nintendo Playstation would be the Top Dog, or the Pound Puppy?

 

 

Essel Pratt has spent his life exploring his imagination and dreams. As a Husband and a Father, he doesn't have as much time to write as he would like. However, his mind is always plotting out his next story. Someday he hopes to quit the 9-5 grind and focus on writing full time. Currently, Essel has three published short stories and is working on a handful of novels. Essel focuses his writings on mostly Horror/Sci-Fi, however is known to add a dash of other genres into his writings as well. In his spare time, he can be found playing one of the 40+ video game consoles in his collection, especially his Wii U (NNID: EsselPratt). Click the links below to follow Essel's exploits in the writing world, and be sure to follow his blog at http://esselpratt.blogspot.com/ as well as his articles on Nerdzy.com.