Before the existence of the PlayStation, Sony worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM drive for the Super Famicom. Nintendo decided to unplug the device, and so Sony itself entered the console business and became a direct rival and an industry superpower.
With this in mind, “The Father of PlayStation” Ken Kutaragi recently visited Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada bar and took some time to reflect on PlayStation’s relationship with Others companies – such as Nintendo – in this day and age.
Kutaragi said he enjoyed working with the Nintendo team and believes the media at the time, along with “outside perspectives”, misrepresented these relationships. He explains how this idea of ”conflict” between Sony, Nintendo and Sega has only helped the industry grow in the long run. Here’s the full rundown:
“Before joining PlayStation, I worked with Nintendo on Super Famicom, and I really liked Mr. Uemura and his team. I was with them a lot and got along well. But from the outside we were seen as fighters.” We didn’t fight at all. “
‘I only got those kinds of questions’, is [PlayStation’s] competitor Sega or Nintendo? “they asked me, but we never thought who the competitor was because we were all colleagues. But people on the outside didn’t think so … they didn’t know the truth …They have revived our industry. “
While comments like this may not have been as compelling in the ’90s, today Sony and Nintendo occupy different segments of the video game industry. If you’re curious about Nintendo and Sony’s past, check out our feature on the SNES PlayStation.