Many years have passed between the PS1 and the PS5, and the PlayStation has since become indispensable in the console market. However, its creator reveals that no one at Sony believed in its success.
The title image is a symbolic image by Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels.
The Japanese executive Ken Kutaragi is the former head of Sony’s then brand new gaming division and is considered the “father of PlayStation.” At the Tokyo Game Show 2024, he spoke as a keynote speaker and reminisced about the year 1993 – almost 2 years before the PS1 launched in Japan.
30 years later, we have reached the PS5 Pro:
Developers said: “Don’t do it, you will fail”
What happened back then? As Kutaragi reports, he and other co-founders traveled around the world with plans for the PS1 to gather opinions from numerous developers. However, they were not interested at all.
We visited dozens of companies, if not hundreds. We visited many game manufacturers; it is a great memory. […] They simply told us: Don’t do it. […] You will fail.
Ken Kutaragi at the Tokyo Game Show 2024
Even within Sony, no one believed that Kutaragi would be successful.
Fortunately, Kutaragi and his team did not let this deter them. The PlayStation eventually sold more than 102 million units, and its successor, the PS2, is the best-selling console of all time with over 155 million units – even though the Switch is now close behind (via IGN).
You can find the full speech on YouTube.
Kutaragi himself was still responsible for the development of the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation Portable, and the PlayStation 3; however, he stepped down after the PS3 launch fell short of expectations. The PS5 reached 60 million units sold in 2024, and with the release of the PS5 Pro, a few more could be added.
