25 years ago, the original PlayStation was first sold in Japan. With a lineup led by Ridge Racer and the promise of a 3D future, Sony quickly outperformed Sega and Nintendo and dominated the video game console market.
To celebrate the jubilee, we wanted to do something different, so earlier this year we talked to the video production group Archipelago – which you may know from their recent Dreamcast retrospective – about producing a documentary that looks back on how Behind the movie, there were scenes on Sony’s first console.
The result is the video you see above: Memories of Play, a look back at PlayStation for a casual dinner in Tokyo.
Instead of focusing on games, we wanted to highlight the business and technology behind Sony’s hardware. That’s why we brought together former Sony executives Makoto Iwai and Shuji Utsumi, as well as technology experts Kazuyuki Hashimoto (Final Fantasy 7) and Masanori Yamada (Tekken), to reflect on the challenges that Sony and its developers faced as PlayStation in Operation was taken.
From working with the spirited visionary Ken Kutaragi to the limited space available for games to the fact that the group was not allowed to leave their office without permission due to tight deadlines, the group was prepared to tell stories.
Please try it out and let us know what you think.
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