PlayStation's Ken Kutaragi "Never" Considered Nintendo To Be A Competitor

The Crash Bandicoot advert from 1998 begs to differ. ;p

That's nice to hear, a lot of people think companies are cut throat enemies but in reality they're made of individuals and they can form any relationship or opinion they want of their competitors.

LOL
I still choose PS1 over than N64 for basic looking video game machine, Dance Dance Revolution based on Arcade, Bishi Bashi, Pepsiman, Chocobo Racing, FF VIII, FF IX, FF Tactics, Chocobo Mystery Dungeon 2, Monster Rancher 2, Magical Drop 3, Pocket Fighter, Hello Kitty, etc.
Also, PS1 game packaging in CD case looks more interesting to be collected and displayed than N64 game box packaging.

@Tourtus Mostly Fanboys. These companies just want to make money to keep their investors happy.

It’s just like how plenty sportspeople who compete against each other are actually really good friends outside of sports. Competition doesn’t always have to be cutthroat.

The PS1 is such a wonder machine. It kept 2D and linear 3D platformers afloat on consoles at a time where Nintendo were collectathon-crazy.

Most times in business, people who are with the competition might have at one point been your customer or your former colleague. It's a small world out there and you never want to burn bridges.

I got a Nintendo 64, but I will admit the PS1 was the better machine. While I loved Super Mario 64, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time, the game library on the PS1 was far superior. In fact, the N64 is probably one of my least favorite consoles from Nintendo. It hasn't aged well at all. Nintendo blew it by sticking with cartridges and it hurt them with third party support. It took the Switch being a massive success for them to win it back.

I think he's full of sh#&$
this guy's where on one another's throats (nevermind the stories about Yamauchi and his fame)
But that's only my opinion

Corporations don’t have friends (they’ll get rid of anyone at anytime), but certainly people do. And given the former, it might just be wise to make friends with those at other companies.

In the end gaming is gaming and no matter who you think has the better stuff it's all the same hobby. If you're only doing it on one companies devices you're doing it wrong. I never paid one lick of attention to these so called console wars. I just saw a commercial or a magazine about games and when i noticed one that looked fun or cool I'd rent it or beg my mom to buy it.

Ken designed the Super Nintendo’s sound chip so at one time they were “workmates”

To this day I still prefer Nintendo by a lot. But the company from which I have owned the second most consoles is Sony. And actually the first console I ever owned myself, rather than it being owned by a friend or family member, was PS1.

@nessisonett Sports fans, however, can be a lot more hostile than sports players...

Clearly this is a case of.. first rule of fight club!!

I only just realised the PS1’s logo uses the same 4 colours as the SNES logo. I mean sure, they’re primary colours, but given the PS1’s origin, it seems more intentional than coincidental.

From my understanding, Kutaragi was basically a Nintendo fanboy that wanted to work on Nintendo things. I don't doubt he didn't feel like a competitor. But Legal surely treated it as a cutthroat competition with the licensing contract. And Yamauchi certainly did when he tore up the contract. Kutaragi is the one the spurred the sense of competition to the Sony brass to get the budget and green light to develop a console of their own in response. HE may not have been competing, he just wanted an excuse to build a console and that was it. But he created a monster.

Then again if his "get a second job" line at ps3 launch is any indication, his real enemy was his customers.

American advertising has much to blame. Sega does and Plumber boy etc. It tends to not have any shame.

Yup. All true. And in other truthful news Sony also did not quietly get rid of the entire team responsible for the PS1's successful launch.

Still trying to imagine a world if the collaboration stuck.

I generally think it would be a better place!

They were still competing for a part of the market, do technically they were competitors. But like the pc/console war, I don't see why hatred should be involved when someone has a diffent platform.

What an amazing picture, two gaming icons together the Famicom, PS1. When you consider the Sound chip in the Snes/Famicom was sony designed. What incredible and exciting eras the 16/32 bit were.

@Tasuki Not sure how the article is "wrong"; it's reporting the opinion of one guy.

What a disaster N64 was. Cartridges were so overpriced compared to PS1 games. And yeah nice words from mr. Kutaragi on typical japanese fashion

The bitter rivalry people think they had was mostly a product of western marketing. Sega in the west was famous for this, and a lot of people in their marketing department went over to Sony which lead to stuff like the Crash commercial.

I miss the old Sony though, after PS2 they've just gotten worse to me, especially with PS5.

@eltomo ehhh not really, I'd hate to see a world where Sony California imposes arbitrary standards on Nintendo.

I was never interested in the PS1 at all back in the 90s. I had transitioned from Mega Drive to PC by 1995 and our home PC could do what the PS1 could but much better. Not knocking it, it had some excellent games, but I experienced things like Resident Evil 2 on PC first and nothing it had could really compare to games like Xwing Vs Tie Fighter or Doom/Quake. I got the N64 on a whim for my 16th birthday and the quality of games such as Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye (which admittedly I didn’t ‘get’ at first as I was used to using a keyboard and mouse for shooters) made it a much better choice, especially when it came to 4 player sessions every weekend. I’ve dipped into the PS1 library since and have the mini console but I just can’t really get excited for many of these games. However, funnily enough the PS2 became my main system in the early 2000s so it’s all swings and roundabouts really 😁

@Gamecuber So your name is gamecuber but your main machine was PS2?

@dimi yeah, that warrants some explanation. I actually had both systems but I have far more nostalgia for the Cube. I also have a much bigger cube collection than PS2 but I love both systems and have the both set up to play (though the cube gets more use).

This is one thing people who become rabid fanboys of things don't understand they think that these companies hate each other like that do. Showing blind loyalty to a product and feeling you have to defend it to the point of saying bad things about another product isn't what these companies want or care about. Sadly in my time I have found it is more adults as well that act that way when it comes to that behaviour and more online now not with just games but with so many forms of media that have alternatives too.

@kingbk The N64 was the better MACHINE but the PS1 had the better game library.

I mean, we all know that these guys have a some sort of respect for each other behind the scenes.

I just think it's fun to think these companies compete like it's WWE or something.

@Crono1973 the PS1 had the BIGGER library, but the N64 had more classics arguably (but that is subjective and down to nostalgia goggles on my part) 😎

@gaga64 if you want your mind blown even more.. check out Magi Koopas wizard spell formation from super mario games then check out the ps1 button formation

The PS1 and N64 had two distinctly different approaches to hardware capabilities, but I still believe it was a competition. As a matter of fact, I believe Nintendo was also still competing when the GameCube came around, and then they realized that it didn't have to be that way with the Wii.

After Nintendo turned Sony down, Sony went to SEGA of america. And they also almost made a deal about a console together. SEGA of Japan turned that down as well.

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/sega-and-sony-almost-teamed-up-on-a-console

So we could have had a Nintendo or SEGA PlayStation today? Who knows? At least SEGA would probably have had a big benefit of such a partnership.

After Sony got ditched by both Nintendo and SEGA, they went solo on the project. And it really turned out well for them.

@TheJGG Marketers and developers have very different mindset

@eltomo Sony wanted Nintendo to pay royalties for every nintendo games sold on playstation. They basically wanted Nintendo to become third party on Playstation. Nintendo just said no to be eaten by a bigger company. And they were right to do so. Look at the company who became Sony's third party during that time like Square, Namco or Konami and dare telling me they're in a better state than Nintendo now.

There's a difference in attitude that softens more and more as you get to the people doing the "grunt" work

At the top, your success is often based on the failure of your peers. At the bottom, you are focused on the job at hand and you benefit from the different perspectives and experience of peers in different companies. You are often inclined to seek out and nurture those relationships - though there are always a few blindly competitive types at all levels.

Furthermore, the need for sharing, learning, and camaraderie from peers, even from different companies, is understandably amplified when the number of people in the field (video game hardware in the 1990s!) was so incredibly low.

@Zenszulu You hit the nail on the head.

@TheJGG it seems like he was talking about before all that. The SNES era. I'm sure after Playstation became a huge seller it was different. But during that initial SNES era it seems like Sony and Nintendo were happy to play nice.

@Muh-ario absolutely, I saw you're comment above how since PS2 Sony's has changed and I agree.

Maybe we would have something today that was compromise of both sides. Probably not, but its all speculation, we'll never know what would have happened.

Obviously the employees themselves don't care who is "winning" the console wars. They don't get paid any more if their console is doing the best.

@Anti-Matter meanwhile, I'd choose n64 over ps1 any day. The n64 really brought a new style of gaming to light. It's my 2nd favorite console ever.

@eltomo i dont think the add on for snes would have sold well, but the first 3D console with Nintendo and Sony teaming up would have been huge.

@glaemay I don't blame Nintendo for not wanting to work under those conditions, but they should have gone over all the details before coming to any agreement. From what I gathered reading "Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children" by David Sheff, Hiroshi Yamauchi himself wasn't even in on the plan at first and he pulled the plug on the project immediately after finding out how the partnership would work. And what did Nintendo do when Yamauchi said no? They went behind Sony's back with Phillips instead of telling Sony the deal was off before announcing a new one with Phillips at the Consumer Electronics Show. Totally unprofessional and a real slap in the face. I guess sheer arrogance has that effect on some people, but that dismissive attitude is inexcusable. I'm still a Nintendo fan for some reason and I usually prefer Nintendo systems over others, but I refuse to defend such despicable practices no matter who is using them.
@NintendoByNature What's your first favorite?

Does anyone actually believe that Sony didn't think of Nintendo (the biggest game company in the world) as competition on their first console outing?

Nintendo had the NES, SNES and the Game Boy in 1994 when the PS1 launched and all were successful. Are we going to pretend that Sony didn't notice who their competition was?

@DrDaisy the switch by a wide margin

The N64 is still one of my favorite consoles to this day. I just thought it blew PS1 away in the visuals department. It did have a lot less games on it, but man it was one sexy ass looking console. Heh, I remember teasing fanboys of the PS1 about load times and needlessly long cinematics. I eventually got a PS2 and played many of the big PS1 games I missed and learned it was stupid to pick sides when you can have both.

The PS1 and PS2 era of gaming was truly something special.

My cousin introduced me to the PSX and that became the console of choice for me over the N64. I'll play the N64 now and then though.

@Tasuki he did say that although I do not know if it is all true about what kutaragi said.

I loved my PS1 and had so much fun with it.
Nintendo lost me at the end of the SNES. They kept screwing around with things. Eventually I did get a N64 but to me the games couldn't hold a candle to PS1 games. All said and done though 90s gaming was something special as a whole.

@TheJGG marketing, my friend.

@StarManNXN what are you doing?