VideoGame Wars 2002
Nintendo versus Sony
Part 1
Nintendo and Sony may be the top companies in the videogame industry right now, but did you know that Sony had once decided to make their world-famous PlayStation for Nintendo?
That's right! The Sony PlayStation originally began as a joint-concept between Nintendo and Sony. In the early 1990's, Nintendo had decided to use Sony's help in developing a CD-ROM add-on for their mega-popular Super Nintendo, in order to join the growing popularity of CD-ROM technology. Sony agreed and the two companies immediately began work on the project, code-named "PlayStation". Their work seemed to be paying off, until a few months later, when Nintendo realized that if any games were made for the PlayStation, the profits would go directly to the Sony company, leaving Nintendo behind with nothing to profit on except for the Super Nintendo and the Game Boy.
Of course, Nintendo was outraged when they heard of these plans, so they immediately quit the joint-partnership with Sony; and instead, teamed up with Sony's arch-rival Phillips. After hearing of these sudden change of plans, Sony decided to go solo on the "PlayStation" project and simply developed it for their own use...
The partnership between Nintendo and Phillips soon ended after that, due to the horrible success of the Phillips CD-I system. Meanwhile, Sony was still working on their project when Nintendo announced a successor to the Super Nintendo, code-named "Project Reality". The new system would be a complete departure from the 2-dimensional 16-bit days of flat graphics, and would usher in a new era of incredible 3-dimensional gameplay! Around 1995, Nintendo finally unvieled it's successor to the public, named the Nintendo "Ultra" 64. This new system was an extremely powerful 64-bit machine that could produce 3-dimensional polygonal graphics that had never been seen before on any other videogame system. The system also used cartridges instead of CD's, because Nintendo didn't have enough money to incorporate the CD-ROM technology into it.
Sony felt a potential threat from Nintendo, and hurriedly rushed their PlayStation (which was what it was finally called) out to the unweary public in 1995...with enoumous success! The PlayStation was a powerhouse of 32-bit technology that had never been seen before on any other system of it's time! The PlayStation featured a CD-ROM drive that could play music CD's as well as game CD's. The PlayStation was immediately sold out in many stores across the country, which was a very good success for Sony.
Around mid-1995, Nintendo knew their "Ultra" 64 wasn't getting anywhere, so they too hurried up production in order to keep in line with Sony's growing popularity of the PlayStation. So in late 1996, Nintendo finally released their system to the public; with one major difference. As a last-minute change, Nintendo dropped the "Ultra" from the system's title, and simply called it "Nintendo 64". So from then on, the newest war in the videogame competition had begun, with Nintendo and PlayStation beating out the competitors... Who would eventually win this brutal battle? Wait and see in my next edition of VideoGame Wars 2002!
VideoGame Wars 2002
Nintendo versus Sony
Part 2
The Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation both led very successful lives throughout the late 1990's. Every year there seemed to be great games that both companies were willing to show off to the public. Nintendo had Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64, while Sony had Crash Bandicoot and Final Fantasy (which was actually made by Square, under a contract agreement between the two companies...). The battle for supremecy reigned on until 1999, when Sony announced a successor to their PlayStation, code-named "the emotion machine". Nintendo knew this was a threat and soon after announced a successor to their Nintendo 64, code-named "Dolphin". Now it was still too early for either of the companies to unviel their new systems just yet--since fans were still buying Nintendo 64s and PlayStations off the store shelves like they were brand new!
In early 2000, Sony revieled the true identity of their successor to the public: PlayStation 2. The public was stunned; never before had anyone seen a system as powerful and as sleek as the one Sony was presenting to them.
PlayStation 2 featured a whopping 128-bit graphics processor; the most powerful processor of any system. Sony even announced that it had backwards-compatability to play PlayStation 1 games! And the next thing Sony announced left the public and the media reporters stunned: a built-in DVD player! This was a milestone for Sony. The public was anxiously eager to get their hands on the newest "next-generation" system.
Meanwhile, Nintendo had finally unvieled their newest system at a Japanese expo in early 2000. Given an official name "GameCube", Nintendo's newest system proved to be a popular showcase among loyal Nintendo fans. The system featured a new kind of disk technology that was being developed by Panasonic; called mini-DVD's, these new game disks could hold over twice the amount of normal CD's and were about half the size.
In October of 2000, the public was relieved when the PlayStation 2 was finally released on the stroke of midnight. Huge lines of PlayStation fans were waiting outside the stores in the bitter cold all night for the arrival of PlayStation 2. When it finally arrived, it turned out to be the biggest system launch in the history of videogames; over 200 million systems were sold within 24 hours! There was one major drawback, though. Due to a parts shortage, Sony only shipped about half of the expected amount; which meant getting a PlayStation 2 by Christmas would be extremely rare. Still, the launch was a major success for Sony, and many people were wondering if Nintendo would ever get their new system out to the public...
The Nintendo 64 was starting to die out soon after the launch of PlayStation 2. Even with successful games like Mario Party 3 and Conker's Bad Fur Day, the system was beginning to feel the pressure of Sony's newest success. Another year had passed, and still no sign of the GameCube. Finally, in November of 2001, the GameCube was released to the public. Although the launch was nowhere near as exciting as the previous year's PlayStation 2 launch, the system still sold out in many stores across the United States. And there was another big plus for Nintendo, the GameCube had no parts shortages and therefore, no shipments were delayed! This marked the official beginning of the "next-generation" consoles war!
So now you have read the history of Nintendo versus Sony. The two companies are still battling for supremecy; and even newcomer Microsoft, with their powerful Xbox, hasn't made much of an impact. Hopefully, Nintendo and Sony will keep the competition going for years to come!
This document was written by Anthony Tarantino on January 7, 2002. Much of the information in this document was concieved by reading various magazines and studying reports off the Internet... :)
This report was updated on January 21, 2002.
