Sony planning a re-run of the Playstation Slim Domination – Part 1
Every gamer would agree that out of all three console manufacturers, Sony was the one that lost the most while shifting to the current generation. Sony was the market leader in video games consoles in the last two console generations with the Playstation
1 (PSX) and the Playstation 2, yet now they find themselves in third spot behind Nintendo and Microsoft.
Sony launched the first Playstation in Japan in 1994 and brought the console to the West a year later in 1995. Back then it was a risky move by Sony to launch a 32 bit console and opt for using a CD drive as the physical media as opposed to the cartridges
which were popular at that time.
Sony had to go against the Sega Saturn, which was Sega’s first entry into the 32 bit right after the success of the 16 bit Sega Genesis and beat the PSX to the market by one month. The thing that gave Sony the edge was the difference in price between the
Saturn and the PSX. Saturn retailed for $399.99 where as the PSX launched at a retail price of $299.99.
Nintendo was late to the party with the Nintendo 64 (N64) but boasted a 64 bit gaming machine which was retailed at only $199.99. Sony having gotten a considerable market share and having a considerable games library for the PSX was able to compete with
the N64 with price drops but unfortunately Sega could not manage to do the same with the Saturn and was soon out of the game.
Nintendo had the superior hardware with the N64 but their console was bottlenecked by their decision to use cartridges instead of a CD-Rom. This meant that developers had more space available when developing for the PSX which in turn helped Sony to secure
many third-party exclusive games.
It was clear that Sony had the winning strategy: A cheap console which was easy to develop for, offered greater data storage when compared to cartridges, got to the market earlier than the N64 thus gaining a considerable market share which forced many third
party developers to consider console exclusivity.
The Playstation 1 was the clear winner of the fifth generation of consoles as it sold over a whooping 102 million units since launch with the N64 taking the second place but still far behind with over 32 million units moved. Unfortunately for Sega, the Saturn
only managed to sell around 10 million units before the company pulled the plug on the console.
With the PSX, Sony brought memory cards and Dual Analog Stick Controllers to the table and those two things completely revolutionised gaming as even current generation consoles are still inspired from the ideas that Sony brought to the market.
The Dual Shock controller was perhaps one of the best things about the PSX. The controller featured two Analog thumb sticks and featured Force feedback (Rumble) which completely changed how video games were played. Not being limited to the D-Pad meant that
many developers could bring brand new game-play experiences, those previously only found in Arcades, to the console. Sony was making all the right moves and their console was on top.
DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com.
Continued in Part 2
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