Playstation

The Sony Playstation was 10 years old yesterday, I remember the excitement as it hit the shops all those years ago and the cramps in my stomach when I thought I may not get one. Since then the Playstation has sold into the millions, game titles number in the thousands and its become a household institution. Next year the must anticipated Playstation 3 hits the shelves and this month the sleek and very versatile Playstation portable arrived. Anyway here’s what some of the industry insiders had to say in a recent Guardian article:

Michael Hayes, chief executive, Sega Europe

Sony simply got the balance right between image, marketing and publishing. Nintendo and, to a lesser extent, Sega had built their empires on first-party profits. What Sony realised was that to support a large, mainstream base it needed to encourage third-party publishers, and it did so extremely well with access-all- areas support, marketing and good royalties.
They created a cachet for the brand without going over the top ... and remember, Sony was a broad consumer electronics badge: there was nothing of the geek about it.
Of course, since then others have learned the same tricks, and next time round Microsoft will give it a serious run for its money. But all things considered it has been a great decade to be a games publisher.

Rik Skews, production manager, Namco Europe

I was a freelance writer when someone came in with a Japanese PlayStation and a copy of Ridge Racer, and I remember being cynical that anyone could produce a great games machine from scratch. Don't forget, at the time, Macs and PCs were still streaming graphics off the CD - but with Ridge Racer you could take the CD out and still play it in real time. My jaw literally hit the desk.
The Sega Saturn was a great machine, but the PlayStation simply eclipsed it and the leap from 2D to 3D was exactly what consumers had been waiting for.

Roger Bennett, director general, Elspa

Before Playstation there was a lot of insecurity, in fact I remember Chris Deering [the soon-to-retire boss of Sony Europe] telling me he wasn't sure they'd be around in 18 months ... it's a different ballgame now. More than anything, Sony had fantastic brand awareness, they managed to make it both mainstream and niche - and it changed the market more than any of us expected.
Yes, there have been downsides; for independent developers, it's a lot more expensive to produce content - but those that succeed are growing faster, and without the PlayStation it's probably true to say we'd all be struggling now.