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A videogame story was a series of posts I made some time ago about the history of videogames, I reviewed all kinds of consoles and important moments that has lived this little passion that we all share here.
They were posts in which I spent hours researching more than anything else because of how curious it was to give a timeline to all the inspirations, decisions or events that have traced the path for us to have what we have today.
What would have happened to Playstation if Nintendo had collaborated with Sony as originally planned? Maybe Nintendo would have had a completely different roadmap, we wouldn't have seen the Wii or maybe the Gamecube would have used the classic CD instead of going for something more niche like the micro cds I use, I'll pick up this series with one of the most interesting What If's I've found out there.
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At the end of the decade of the 1980s Nintendo was undoubtedly the benchmark of an entire industry that was beginning to emerge as one of those that had more projection, the Japanese company had the best console, the best games and you could even say that the almost total monopoly of who developed or not on your console, at that time were Sega and the pc doing counterbalance but objectively Nintendo was the one who was ahead by far.
Nintendo was a symbol of success and had raised the foundations of video games after a crisis raised doubts about whether this field could give benefits.
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Nintendo, which has always put money on constant innovation as a method of survival, began to look at a technology that promised to revolutionise the way in which video games and other multimedia products were stored and distributed, introducing the CD.
The CD was jointly owned by two companies: Phillips and Sony, who held the rights to its use and charged royalties for each CD that was burned with multimedia.
Hiroshi Yamauchi is one of the main protagonists of this story, the now legendary president of Nintendo in the early 1990s saw a lot of potential in this technology and wanted to know a little more about how this leap would benefit video games but also wanted to continue to comply with one of the unwritten rules of Nintendo since its inception, majority control over everything.
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Nintendo initially got involved with Sony to create a peripheral for their SNES console that would integrate the CD very similar to what their competitor SEGA would do with MEGA-CD that added hardware functionality, much more CPU and better graphics as well as the ability to play games in CD format.
The man behind Sony was going to be Ken Kutaragi who had been one of the engineers responsible for the SNES audio chip, he had worked in the video game industry and had been able to participate with the best, so Hiroshi Yamauchi was interested in him and was the one who started the conversations around not a peripheral but a hybrid console.
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The project was named Nintendo Playstation.
Many may argue the extent of this collaboration, it is known that in 1988 there was already some kind of formalized agreement between the two companies to collaborate and design prototypes, some of these are wandering around and we have even seen how they planned to run the console initially, however I think this only remained a prototype until friction arose.
Sony y Nintendo are two highly competitive companies, willing to get all the treasure for themselves if possible, at Sony they could taste the potential of the CD format and were looking not to tie themselves exclusively to Nintendo but to work with as many developers as possible to massify the use of cds and earn more royalties for them.
Of course Nintendo in their usual fashion wanted to have control of the distribution of the format that this possible console was going to have, as well as exclusivity in terms of production, even today I feel that is something that Nintendo would do, not feel too comfortable with something because they don't have absolute control over delicate things like distribution.
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The agreement did not last much longer, but the resolution was cruel to a specific part, flash forward to the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991, one of the first conferences that were given in the area of video games was Sony, which announced the collaboration with Nintendo on a hybrid console, at that time there was not much public as in today's events but if there was surprise with what happened in the next conference.
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Nintendo certainly was the focus of attention in the gaming industry, anything that came out here had the potential to boost other companies so Sony was waiting for confirmation of that participation....
Which there was none.
In fact Nintendo had been negotiating behind the curtains with Phillips, also holder of the rights to the CD format but at the time a staunch rival of Sony, at the Nintendo conference they denied the collaboration with Sony and instead announced that they were going to work with Phillips on a new format for their consoles, the blow was brutal for Sony's board.
They had made a fool of themselves.
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There is a story after the conference, in the Sony offices between Kutaragi and Sony's president at the time, of course the latter was upset with Nintendo's backstabbing and wanted to call it a day, but Kutaragi, who had been learning all about how Nintendo's consoles worked and how their business model worked, came up with something outrageous.
compete
In normal situations the board would have seen this plan as suicide, Nintendo was by then the absolute dominator of the industry and even companies with good proposals like SEGA could barely get a small percentage of the market.
But Sony had an ace up their sleeve, the CD format, and they didn't hesitate to use it.
To be continued...
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Spanish Version
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A videogame story fue una serie de post que hice algun tiempo referente a la historia del videojuego, repase todo tipo de consolas y momentos importantes que ha vivido esta pequeña pasion que compartimos todos aqui.
Eran post en los que me pasaba horas investigando mas que nada por lo curioso que era darle una linea de tiempo a todas las inspiraciones, decisiones o sucesos que han trazado el camino para que tengamos lo que tenemos hoy.
¿Que hubiese pasado con Playstation si Nintendo hubiese colaborado con Sony como inicialmente tenia planeado? Quiza Nintendo hubiese tenido una hoja de ruta completamente distinta, no hubiesemos visto la Wii o quiza la Gamecube hubiese usado los clasicos CD en vez de ir por algo mas de nicho como los micro cds que uso, retomare esta serie con uno de los What If mas interesantes que he encontrado suelto por ahi.
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A finales de la decada de los 1980 Nintendo era sin duda el referente de toda una industria que empezaba a emerger como de las que mas proyeccion tenian, la empresa nipona tenia la mejor consola, los mejores juegos y hasta se podria decir que el monopolio casi total de quien desarrollaba o no en su consola, por ese entonces estaban Sega y el pc haciendo contrapeso pero objetivamente Nintendo era la que llevaba la delantera por mucho
Siendo maximo referente muchas compañias de tecnologia querian hacer acuerdos con ellos para participar en sus productos, Nintendo era simbolo de exito y habian levantado los cimientos del videojuego despues de que una crisis levantara las dudas sobre si este campo podia dar beneficios.
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Nintendo, que siempre ha puesto el dinero en la innovacion constante como metodo de supervivencia empezo a mirar a una tecnologia que prometia revolucionar la manera en la que se almacenaba y distribuian los videojuegos y en general todo producto multimedia, Introduciendo el CD
Este era propiedad conjunta de dos compañias: Phillips y Sony, que tenian los derechos de su uso ademas de que cobraban ciertas royalties por cada cd que se quemaba con multimedia
Hiroshi Yamauchi es uno de los principales protagonistas de esta historia, el presidente en estos dias legendario de la Nintendo de principios de los 1990 veia mucho potencial en esta tecnologia y queria saber un poco mas como este salto iba a beneficiar a los videojuegos pero tambien queria seguir cumpliendo una de las reglas no escritas de Nintendo desde su creacion, control mayoritario sobre todo.
Fue asi como Nintendo se involucro en principio con Sony para la creacion de un periferico para su consola la SNES que integrase el CD muy similar a lo que su competidora SEGA haria con MEGA-CD que agregaba funcionalidades de hardware, mucha mas CPU y mejores graficas ademas de la capacidad de reproducir juegos en formato CD
El hombre detras de Sony iba a ser Ken Kutaragi que sobrevolo el proyecto desde el primer momento al ser uno de los ingenieros responsables del chip de audiod e la SNES, habia trabajado en el sector de videojuegos y habia podido participar con los mejores, asi que Hiroshi Yamauchi se intereso en el y fue el que medio las conversaciones en torno no a un periferico sino a una consola hibrida
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El proyecto fue bautizado con el nombre Nintendo Playstation
Muchos pueden discutir el alcance de esta colaboracion, se sabe que en el año 1988 ya habia algun tipo de acuerdo formalizado entre las dos compañias para colaborar y diseñar prototipos, de estos quedan algunos vagando por ahi y hasta hemos podido ver como planeaban hacer funcionar la consola inicialmente, sin embargo creo que esto solo se quedo en un prototipo hasta que surgieron los roces
Sony y Nintendo son dos compañias altamente competitivas, dispuestas a sacar todo el tesoro para si mismos si es posible, en Sony podian saborear el potencial del formato CD y buscaban no atarse exclusivamente a Nintendo sino trabajar con todos los desarrolladores posibles para masificar el uso de los cds y ganar mas royalties por estos
Por supuesto Nintendo en su ya acostumbrada moda deseaba tener el control de la distribucion del formato que iba a tener esta posible consola, asi como la exclusividad en cuanto a produccion, incluso hoy siento que es algo que Nintendo haria, no sentirse demasiado comodo con algo porque no tienen el control absoluto sobre cosas delicadas como la distribucion
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El acuerdo no duro mucho mas, pero la resolucion fue cruel con una parte en especifico, flash forward al Consumer Electronics Show de 1991, de las primeras conferencias que se daban en el area de videojuegos era la de Sony, que anunciaba la colaboracion con Nintendo en una consola hibrida, en ese entonces no habia demasiado publico como en los eventos de hoy pero si que habia sorpresa con lo que paso en la proxima conferencia
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Nintendo sin duda era el foco de atencion del sector de videojuegos, cualquier cosa que saliese aca tenia el potencial de impulsar otras compañias por lo que Sony esperaba confirmacion de esa participacion....
Cosa que no hubo
De hecho Nintendo habia estado negociando tras cortinas con Phillips, tambien poseedora de los derechos del formato CD pero en ese entonces un rival acerrimo de Sony, en la conferencia de Nintendo desmintieron la colaboracion con Sony y en vez de eso anunciaron que iban a trabajar con Phillips en un nuevo formato para sus consolas, el golpe fue brutal para la directiva de Sony
Habian hecho el ridiculo
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Hay una historia despues de la conferencia, en las oficinas de Sony entre Kutaragi y el presidente de Sony en ese entonces, por supuesto el segundo estaba molesto con la apuñalada por la espalda de Nintendo y querian dar todo por muerto, pero Kutaragi, quien habia estado aprendiendo de todo el funcionamiento de las consolas de Nintendo y como funcionaba su modelo de negocios les propuso algo insolito
Competir
En situaciones normales la directiva hubiese visto este plan como un suicidio, Nintendo era por ese entonces dominadora absoluta de la industria e incluso compañias con buenas propuestas como SEGA apenas y podian hacerse con un pequeño porcentaje del mercado
Pero en Sony tenian un as bajo la manga, el formato CD, y no dudaron en utilizarlo
Continuara...
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And thank you, for reading all this <3