USA TODAY International Edition
Both Xbox and PlayStation changed the way we play
Sony and Microsoft saw the future in advance
With new video game consoles out, Microsoft and Sony are decades- long incumbents in the industry. But that wasn’t always the case.
More than 25 years ago, Sony unleashed its first PlayStation, barging into a marketplace dominated by Nintendo and, to a lesser extent, Sega. And seven years later, Microsoft brought forth its Xbox.
Whether you are voting with your wallet this holiday season for a new Xbox Series X or S, or PlayStation 5, you can’t argue these two tech giants have made countless contributions to advance video gaming over the years.
Sony and Microsoft also expanded the audience. The PlayStation, released in the U. S. in September 1995, would sell more than 102 million units, blasting past sales figures for previous video game consoles that connected to TVs.
Nintendo continued to dominate in portable game systems, but it would be a decade until one of its consoles cracked the 100 million sales mark: The Wii, released in November 2006, would go on to sell 101.6 million.
Meanwhile, Sony solidified its position with the PlayStation 2, a console that remains the top- seller ever at more than 155 million systems sold. In comparison, the PlayStation 4 has sold more than 113.5 million since its arrival seven years ago.
As the latest consoles arrive in homes, Microsoft is gaining on Sony for dominance. And the titans are building out cloud- based game services – as are Google, Amazon and Facebook.
This round of new game systems could, said Pedro Palandrani, analyst for research firm Global X, “be the final chapter of the console era.”
Sony entered the video game market with a different strategy than Nintendo and Sega: It wanted to take over the living room.
Ironically, Sony had sought a deal with Nintendo to create a new Super Nintendo with a CD drive that would play games and music discs. When Nintendo spurned Sony, the electronics company opted to go it alone.
Ken Kutaragi, known as the father of the PlayStation, wanted to take video games from “a flat 2D environment” into “360- degree ‘ space’,” he told USA TODAY in 2015. That goal to “develop and adopt state- of- the- art technology that is forward- looking for a gaming console” was meant to change the image of video games from that of toys to highend entertainment.
The first PlayStation would play CDs, the PS2 played DVDs and the PlayStation 3, launched in 2006, played all of those discs and new high resolution movies on Blu- ray discs, a format developed by Sony along with other electronics companies, including Panasonic, Pioneer, LG and Samsung.
“Sony, given its background in consumer electronics and physical media distribution, was able to position the console as a DVD player early on, and a Blu- Ray player as well,” said P. J. McNealy, an analyst and consultant at Digital World Research.
And Sony differed from Nintendo, which focused on its own games, such as “Super Mario World” and “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.” Instead, Sony sought out third- party game developers, such as Namco and Konami, to make games such as “Ridge Racer” and “Metal Gear Solid” for PlayStations.
The Psycho Mantis boss battle and mind- reading scene from “Metal Gear Solid” is “one of the defining game design moments in history,” said Gordon Bellamy, a visiting scholar in the USC Games program who teaches a course on the PlayStation 4. He is also the past executive director of the International Game Developers Association and currently on the board of directors of the virtual entertainment company Wave.
The Metal Gear games and the Grand Theft Auto series, which gained a following on PlayStation, continued “to redefine the boundaries of the art form,” Bellamy said.
“Sony was able to marshal the support of third parties who made PC games ( and to some extent, arcade games) and bring them into consumers’ homes,” said Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Securities. “That was a big deal.”
Eventually, Sony’s own studios created hit franchises such as “God of War,” “Gran Turismo” and “Uncharted.”
“That is a distinct advantage and has helped drive Sony’s dominant lead over Xbox in units sold over the past two cycles,” McNealy said.
The success of the PlayStation brand shifted the balance of video game power, interrupting Nintendo’s dominance, speeding Sega’s exit from the business and spurring Microsoft to join the game.
In the ’ 90s, Microsoft had a strong PC gaming studio with hits such as “Age of Empires” and “Flight Simulator.” But the company’s hardware division wanted to make it easier for consumers to play PCquality games and connect with each other. With co- founder Bill Gates’ approval, work on what would become the Xbox began in 1998.
“I think Microsoft had a fear of missing out,” said Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat and author of “Opening the Xbox” and “The Xbox 360 Uncloaked.”
Players could connect their Xbox systems together to compete in multiplayer games. Then, in 2002, Microsoft turned on its Xbox Live online service, which let players connect via broadband. Today, Xbox Live, which is required for online multiplayer games, has nearly 100 million subscribers.
“Microsoft had the vision of multiplayer gaming, and fortunately pushed into shooters with Halo as the poster child for multiplayer,” Pachter said.
Microsoft also “discovered and unlocked the untapped talent of Western game developers, who were successful with PC and Mac games but had been left out of the console market,” Takahashi said.
The Xbox sold more than 24 million units. Its successor the Xbox 360, which debuted in 2005, would sell 84 million.
The Xbox 360, which would also play DVDs and CDs, solidified Microsoft’s online presence with a well- designed Xbox Live update in 2008. It was also the first console to let you use Netflix.
“Before everyone had Apple TVs and Chromecasts, and before TVs came with Wi- Fi and an app store – we had our consoles,” said Morgan Webb, who works in community and culture for Bonfire Studios and is a former producer of the long- running X- Play series on G4.
Video game consoles “played games, but they also showed us a little bit of the future,” she said.