Sony's entrance into the gaming market as a major player really couldn't have gone much better. While dozens of other electronics companies had tried and failed to go up against Nintendo and Sega in their primes, only Sony was able to burst onto the scene and even soar above its competition within only about two years after launching its very first games console. Ultimately the momentum gained early on (thanks to Nintendo delaying the release of N64, the Sega Saturn under-performing in retail, and the numerous cost/storage advantages of the new CD-ROM format for gaming) was enough to catapult them to continued success within the industry from that point forward.
But in 1994/1995, Sony was an unknown entity in the gaming sector. Sure, they had been successful as a general electronics manufacturer for decades, but convincing consumers that their Playstation was the better option over the next Nintendo console was not something that could be easily accomplished in that era. It was an unproven entity, but the Playstation brand would ultimately succeed through a perfect storm of marketing, first- and third-party support, and some killer exclusives (e.g. Final Fantasy).
So, with that quick recap out of the way, I'm now interested in hearing about what exactly convinced you all to go for a Playstation instead of sticking with Nintendo/Sega in those early years after its release. For some of you it might be a particular game that won you over, and maybe for others it was just the generally more mature "vibe" of the system and the type of gaming landscape it was trying to cultivate that appealed to you.
I'll start us off with my own story, as it's pretty short and to the point.
The PS1 had been out for about two years, and I had been happily enjoying my SNES right up through 1997 without any interest in getting a new console anytime soon. I had tried a Playstation once at an airport kiosk and wasn't impressed. The notion of load times was completely foreign to my 10-year-old self, and I was immediately put off by them when switching between demos on the kiosk.
But on one fateful day in the fall months of 1997, I ended up hanging out with some friends in a teacher's classroom after school hours. I'm not even sure what I was doing there (I usually took the bus home), but in this classroom an acquaintance of mine had hooked up a PS1 to the wall-mounted CRT TV that teachers used for showing educational VHS tapes and such. If you're wondering how this kid was getting away with this, the classroom belonged to his mom who was a teacher at the school.
Anyway, the four of us sat down, grabbed a pair of pre-Dualshock PS1 controllers, and then booted up Twisted Metal. Right out of the gate I was blown away. The game seemed so dark and edgy (in an unironic sense), and its character designs were like nothing I'd seen before in a game. Then when we got into the gameplay and I was partaking in a genre wholly new to me in glorious split-screen, fully 3D multiplayer... it was basically euphoria to my fourth-grade self. It was after that hour or so of play before we all went off to our homes that I was totally and thoroughly convinced that I had to have a Playstation.
A few months later for Christmas I received my very own PS1 along with a copy of Loaded. I have since owned every Sony console.
EDIT: Someone brought to my attention that Twisted Metal 1 only had two-player split-screen, so my memory about all four of us playing simultaneously must have been fuzzy. I've corrected that detail.
But in 1994/1995, Sony was an unknown entity in the gaming sector. Sure, they had been successful as a general electronics manufacturer for decades, but convincing consumers that their Playstation was the better option over the next Nintendo console was not something that could be easily accomplished in that era. It was an unproven entity, but the Playstation brand would ultimately succeed through a perfect storm of marketing, first- and third-party support, and some killer exclusives (e.g. Final Fantasy).
So, with that quick recap out of the way, I'm now interested in hearing about what exactly convinced you all to go for a Playstation instead of sticking with Nintendo/Sega in those early years after its release. For some of you it might be a particular game that won you over, and maybe for others it was just the generally more mature "vibe" of the system and the type of gaming landscape it was trying to cultivate that appealed to you.
I'll start us off with my own story, as it's pretty short and to the point.
The PS1 had been out for about two years, and I had been happily enjoying my SNES right up through 1997 without any interest in getting a new console anytime soon. I had tried a Playstation once at an airport kiosk and wasn't impressed. The notion of load times was completely foreign to my 10-year-old self, and I was immediately put off by them when switching between demos on the kiosk.
Games like Twisted Metal and Loaded showcased a darker, more mature tone than most console games of the time. This focus on more mature demographics helped differentiate Sony's Playstation from its mid-90's contemporaries.
But on one fateful day in the fall months of 1997, I ended up hanging out with some friends in a teacher's classroom after school hours. I'm not even sure what I was doing there (I usually took the bus home), but in this classroom an acquaintance of mine had hooked up a PS1 to the wall-mounted CRT TV that teachers used for showing educational VHS tapes and such. If you're wondering how this kid was getting away with this, the classroom belonged to his mom who was a teacher at the school.
Anyway, the four of us sat down, grabbed a pair of pre-Dualshock PS1 controllers, and then booted up Twisted Metal. Right out of the gate I was blown away. The game seemed so dark and edgy (in an unironic sense), and its character designs were like nothing I'd seen before in a game. Then when we got into the gameplay and I was partaking in a genre wholly new to me in glorious split-screen, fully 3D multiplayer... it was basically euphoria to my fourth-grade self. It was after that hour or so of play before we all went off to our homes that I was totally and thoroughly convinced that I had to have a Playstation.
A few months later for Christmas I received my very own PS1 along with a copy of Loaded. I have since owned every Sony console.
EDIT: Someone brought to my attention that Twisted Metal 1 only had two-player split-screen, so my memory about all four of us playing simultaneously must have been fuzzy. I've corrected that detail.
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