The Making of PlayStation 60
The Making of the Sony PlayStation | |
author | Reiji Asakura |
pages | 230 |
publisher | McGraw Hill |
rating | 6/10 |
reviewer | Jon Katz |
ISBN | 0-07-135587-1 |
summary | How gaming engineers convinced Sony to make the PlayStation |
You can hardly overstate the success of the PlayStation home game machines, even though Asakura, a Japanese journalist who was granted unlimited access to Sony engineers and executives, comes close a few times.
The first PS had annual sales of more than $7 billion after only four years; total worldwide shipments as of September, l998 exceeded 40 million units. And that doesn't include the PS2, released last year.
Sony's engineers transformed gaming as well as cornered the market on one of the most lucrative technologies ever. In l999, Sony Computer Entertainment's contribution to Sony's consolidated profits reached 23%. The PlayStation, says Asakura, is at the heart of Sony's success and represents one of the most successful engineering, programming and marketing triumphs in business history.
The interesting part of this book is the look at the politics and strategizing that goes on inside a hi-tech global entertainment corporation. At first, Ken Kutaragi's plan -- Kutaragi is without doubt the hero of this story -- to engineer a revolutionary new type of gaming console was ignored or resisted. Sony, he was told, wasn't interested in the "toy" business. The decision-making processes of a corporation like this, and the tensions between corporate and technical people are pretty interesting. So is Asakura's account of the cultural and business differences between Japan and America that dogged the marketing and distribution of the PlayStation.
Be warned, though. This is an authorized and nearly worshipful biography of Kutaragi, and in many ways, of Sony itself. The politics and technical details of the making of the PS will be interesting to many, but this is hardly a detached, outsider look.
You can purchase this book at FatBrain.
L998!? (Score:1)
Kick Ass! (Score:1)
(Moderators, I have a +1, and didn't use it. Consider this post already modded down.)
The real Threed's
--Threed
Re:A better review (Score:1)
http://www.joystick101.org/?op=displaystory&sid
Conquer, smonquer (Score:1)
I say maybe because I don't know who won the sales war back in the 16 bit gaming days.
What I do find amusing is that in almost every generation, the machine that comes out on top isn't necesarily the most powerful bang for the buck.
Coleco was definitely more powerful than the Atari 2600, and comperably priced, but Atari won.
The Sega Master System was technologically better than the Nintendo, but it lost early.
Of the Genesis, SNES, TG16, Jaguar... all systems that around 1991-1993 or so were fairly comperable in price (heck got so bad they were giving the Jaguars away), the Jaguar was arguably the most technically superior per-se, but it had no games, so no one bought it. The SNES had a slower processor but a higher color count, plus it had mario, so it probably won.
Then we have the Playstation, Saturn, N64 era... where N64 and Saturn fall hard to the might of the Sony Playstation. Even though the saturn and N64 had better hardware. True the N64 crippled itself by being a cartrige based system... but...
So we're walking into the era of PS2, Dreamcast, X-box, GameCube (whatever they're calling that these days). Of course, we all know that Dreamcast has already lost. The interesting thing will be watching Microsoft duke it out with Sony, I think. Certainly, both companies have a lot of money with which to fight a war. And when two gaming companies get into a war, the real winners will be the consumers, I think.
Though I own one of the first original playstations to hit US shores, I didn't buy a PS2 because I'm dismayed at how Sony is treating the 3rd party developers this time around. Now that they are no longer the upstart, they think they can make people play by their rules. Ah well. I can't wait to watch the war...
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/media/398.gif [theregister.co.uk]
And no, it's not a goatse.cx [goatse.cx] link either.
--
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
Later,
ErikZ
Re:what a bunch of horseshit (Score:1)
this article is about sony and the playstation, not "Sony -vs- The World"
and nintendo never was any good
Re:bah (Score:1)
playstation games are recorded to dvd-rom's. i guess their reasoning behind this is that dvd's hold alot more and not many ppl can duplicate dvd's these days
as for the usb.. im not sure if the playstation has an internal modem or not but i guess they are for expandability, ie. modem/broadband/ethernet for networked gameplay?
correct me if im wrong, i havnet read much on the PS2
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:1)
The Saturn's real advantage over the PSX with sprites was the RAM add-on, which allowed the Saturn to handle all of the animations in arcade ports. The PSX had to drop a lot of extra stuff, which killed games like MvC.
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:1)
Check out the music in Castlevania 64 or Wipeout 64 for some great examples of incredible game music.
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:1)
Yes it did. The Saturn was an all quads machine. Go pick up a used Saturn and some 3D Saturn games, they are all quads with a few exceptions that used rendering tricks to produce triangle rather inefficiently.
"The fact is that there is no PS1 game that cannot be equaled visually by the N64, given the storage"
Go compare Quake II for the N64 with Quake II for the Playstation. Both ports were done by the same people, and the playstation version blows the N64 version away, because of the detail. Effects might be nice, but not if all of the models look like crap because there are not enoigh polygons.
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
Could we get a "Making of the DreamCast... (Score:1)
Anybody can give us links to some good stuff about the history of the gaming industry (consoles) and not only about Sony?
what a bunch of horseshit (Score:1)
Judging by sales figures [ign.com], Nintendo is the king.
Sure, 90% of their sales might come from GameBoy, but that only goes to further show that the only company that has a true, long term lock on the Video Game market, was, is, and shall be Nintendo.
Sony was a late comer that never dethroned anyone. They never revolutionized a thing, except perhaps by bringing a bit more mature content to console video games, and quality pre-rendered CG (via CDROM capacity).
Then in their own self-delusion, they unleased that monstrosity known as the PS2. They bought their own hubris and are doomed to choke on it.
Funny how the american media seems to believe that the platform war is between Sony and Microsoft and never give The N any airtime. Utterly delusional.
-- kwashiorkor --
Leaps in Logic
should not be confused with
Video game industry books (Score:1)
I beg to differ. "Joystick Nation" by JC Herz comes to mind immediately. The magazine Next-Generation (back in the day) ran many articles on the industry's history (I've got several with the history of Yamuchi-san of Nintendo and the Pong fiasco). Steven L. Kent, who wrote articles for Next-Gen also wrote "The First Quarter : A 25-year History of Video Games".
I'm sure I'm missing many books, especially books in Japanese - since it seems that the nation would have many on the mega corporations.
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
Like it Dave. Where's the sound though? ;)
On a related issue, shouldn't you like be taking your finals and not doing amusing animated gifs for slashdot consumption?
Re:PS2 probably more reliable than Xbox (Score:1)
Microsoft
Intel
nVidia
And you don't think this PC-in-a-Box will have bugs?
Re:what a bunch of horseshit (Score:1)
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
Re:Quote of the year (Score:1)
I remember the first time I heard a certain quote, it was:
Better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
The last time I heard the same quote it had devolved into something like:
It's better to keep your mouth shut, and let people think you're stupid, than to say something and confirm it.
I'm not sure what the original version is. I've never been able to find it in a dictionary of quotations, but I find the former far more elegant, and am therefore inclined to think it's closer to the original. I've been hearing ever more mangled versions over the years.
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
but really... is sound needed? I liked the primitiveness of it. not all flashy
Um. Yea. (Score:1)
"You can hardly overstate the success of the PlayStation home game machines"
Then he shows us all how easy it is:
"...represents one of the most successful engineering, programming and marketing triumphs in business history."
One strong Chritmas season is hardly a marketing "triumph"... that's just barely enough to put it in the same class as the Cabbage Patch dolls (which were hot-ticket gift items for two years in a row).
It's a game console. It's just a game console; not even really that good of one. By this time next year, nobody on Earth will care about the PS2 anymore.
Re:Could we get a "Making of the DreamCast... (Score:1)
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Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:1)
Oh, now you have to come and spoil my day by mentioning f***als. :)
And it's bad enough having it a 200kb GIF without some format that allows sound. :)
Anyway, you could have asked me on IRC... we are chatting there after all :-P
Re:aiiiiyeeeee! GOATSE link! (Score:1)
http://dave.magd.ox.ac.uk/katz.gif
Of course, I can't prove it's not the goatse.cx picture called katz.gif... (but it isn't :-)
bah (Score:1)
The only reason that they probably didn't add the PS2 sales was because they only released a couple thousand :)
I think sony made a big mistake in making the PS2 the way they did. I mean they only release a small portion of the demand I wonder if that is in this new book cause that really pisses me off. A while ago I read that they couldn't afford to put 2 more controller ports but the new PS2 has 2 usb ports and a dvd??? what does dvd movie playing have to do with a video game conceal they should have sold it as an entertainment unit instead. It would have at least made me a little more happy. I also read in enough place that the video card doesn't have allot of ram. I dunno if that one is true because I had never heard of the source before some /. post. But tht would really suck on the
frame rate
Hope this isn't too much flame bait. I think that PS2 is good but it shouldn't have been marketed as a video conceal system
Re:bah (Score:1)
The other thing is that there are other ways of getting that much storage without using dvd's and having to spend 200 more dollers on the systems creation. they basicly used it as a sales gimic. The dreamcast used GD-Roms that hold about 1.2gig er something like that and are extreamly hard for the average person to rip. you have to basicly hook your computer up to your dreamcast via usb.
I never spell check
Sony usually progressive thinkers? (Score:1)
This surprises me, as Sony is one of the very few multinational corporations that have been open to utilizing their massive resources to investigating alternative or previously unexplored arenas. The revelation that Sony was investigating extrasensory perception [forteantimes.com] in their very own ESPER psi-lab greatly increased my respect for them as open-minded, progressive scientists.
Therefore I am surprised that Ken Kutaragi came up against such resistance within Sony. But then, it's an enormous organization and I guess the ESPER-type culture may not have been prevalent throughout.
Asikaa
Re:Could we get a "Making of the DreamCast... (Score:1)
Re:Video game industry books (Score:1)
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:1)
The Atari 2600 was released in 1977. Colecovision was released in 1983. It's not surprising that Colecovision had superior technology. In any case, most of the 2600s were purchased before Colecovision existed.
That was very complete (Score:1)
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:1)
I built my own Playstation... (Score:1)
Re:Quote of the year (Score:1)
Book Reviews (Score:2)
Quote of the year (Score:2)
Re:Tomes of Videogame History (Score:2)
I literally just started reading "Revolutionaries" this morning on the train to work. They writing style is kinda dry, but the first ten pages (short train ride) were interesting anyway.
Pete
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:2)
Re:Quote of the year (Score:2)
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:2)
Re:Quote of the year (Score:2)
--
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:2)
In addition, the textures (more accurately, "stretched sprites") were stored in a linear fashion rather than the PSX's 2D layout, and you couldn't skip texels at the end of each line. Essentially, you couldn't provide texture coordinates (although you could lie about the start position and height of the texture).
This meant that you couldn't easily subdivide polygons (which would involve subdividing the texture coordinates) in the u direction. If you wanted to do this, you would have to copy out a slice of the texture.
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:2)
At the same time the Playstation was booming with its adult (17+, such as intense RPGs, strategy/wargames, sports titles.) business. Adults have more money for games, and games for adults can more easily be ported to the PC for easy profit. Therefore it made little sense to produce N64 titles.
After all, cartridge prices were jacked up to make up the difference, and N64 games still sold quite well.
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:2)
Exactly. Any console game can easily be ported to the PC, but the large adult market makes it easy to sell more copies.
Re:Short Attention Span Theater (Score:2)
Short Attention Span Theater (Score:2)
Ok...Ok...go around that corner...look! There's a book! Blast it! That blowed up real good!
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:2)
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Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:2)
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Re: (Score:2)
Re:Tomes of Videogame History (Score:2)
The author managed to keep a nice balance between Nintendo bashing and Nintendo worshipping. The business practices Nintendo engaged in, such as the cartridge building process, were just absolutely insane. Scary thing is, they're still on top in many ways. International video game sales, the top hardware and software sales belong to Nintendo.. by far. Granted, it's got Zelda and Pokemon to back them up.
The book touches on the Playstation, and Nintendo's efforts to combat Sony's prodigy. It's definately worth reading the updated version of Game Over if you enjoyed the first version and read the making of PS.
Sounds allmost like an anime story.. (Score:2)
I mean, we all know that Kutaragi has had a rough time to put his Playstation on track. Everybody knows he was first producing sound hardware elements for Nintendo, and gradually added to his inventory of usuable parts until his machine was sort-of "conceived". On itself, it`s a bit like Jobs and his Apple. It`s an achievement, a milestone. But if you look in IBM`s history I think you`ll find many of these kinds of achievements, and no one will give a rats-ass about the people behind them.
Putting a whorship-book together on the details of this story is probably another attempt to help playstation II fend off the X-Box. Now we can even believe that Sony, as short-sighted as their management probably is, will still make the 'right' decisions for us happy bunch, so we should stick with them. Don`t buy it folks, you won`t learn anything from this "success' story. I bet the book doesn`t mention the number of malfunctioning PSII`s out there.
Re:Short Attention Span Theater (Score:2)
Re:Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:2)
PS2 probably more reliable than Xbox (Score:2)
Seriously, though, I think Sony should be worried about the GameCube more than the Xbox. At least the GameCube will run instead of crash, and they have Mario and Link...
For a quick overview... (Score:3)
A better review (Score:4)
Re:Conquer, smonquer (Score:5)
Ummmmm... no.
The Sega Saturn hardware was grossly inferior to the Playstation. The Saturn was designed only to support quadrilateral polygons, which are absolutely terrible (And extremely unpopular.) for video game use. Beyond that, it had a dual CPU architecture that only allowed one CPU to access memory at a time, which made programming for the machine a huge pain in the ass.
As for the N64, the hardware really only looked great on paper. In practice it processes far fewer polygons than the Playstation, making 3D games a pain. It also has far too little memory (Later fixed with an add-on card.) which made it very, very hard to make textures look decent on the system.
"True the N64 crippled itself by being a cartrige based system.."
That only crippled the N64 in regards to full motion video, which does little to actually enhance a game. Plenty of games went over quite well on the Playstation without video clips.
Tomes of Videogame History (Score:5)
Also, Leonard Herman has some reportedly great books, Phoenix: The Rise & Fall of Videogames and ABC To The VCS (A Directory of Software to the Atari 2600) about what people think of as the classic age of video games and the Atari 2600 specifically. Sadly, I have neither bought nor read these, but I hope to someday when the 25-hour day and 8-day week are implemented. You can find Herman's site here [rolentapress.com].
Someone had to do this sooner or later... (Score:5)
For the permamently afraid, it's not a goatsex / anything else revolting link, just a bit of a laugh :)
Dave