Way back before 1994, the one thing that crossed your mind when you think Sony are CDs and Walkman. That perception changed when Sony’s PlayStation debut in Japan in 1994, followed by a huge September 1995 release in the US.

So how and why did Sony became the de facto gaming entity that it is now? Here are but a few key reasons:

Unadulterated Revenge

Just looking at the controller is enough to know that the CDi was a portent of failure from the start.

That’s probably an exaggerated choice of words, but you can’t say that Sony intended to release the PlayStation because it felt like it. You see, back in June 1991, Sony and Nintendo kinda teamed up; Sony were the kings of CD-based media, while Nintendo wanted to make a videogame machine using the CD-ROM medium (because their first attempt in 1991 was anything but a success). The catch is that Sony was to be the “sole worldwide licenser” of the medium used (Super Discs) for that new console (called the Play Station). Long story short, Nintendo would more or less benefit less from the contracted deal.

So what did the company that made Mario do? They announced that they’ll be working with Philips on the SNES CD-ROM drive. A year of legal battles later, Nintendo came up on top despite them being in the wrong in the first place. This was more than enough to fuel Sony from that corporate burn to create their ultimate battle plan for their then-upcoming system: 3D graphics, custom hardware engineered by Ken Kutaragi (who then help create the SNES audio chip), a tandem work effort between its CPU and GPU that processes complex graphics easily. This was more than enough to set Nintendo to their eventual path of humility, as well as show the rest of the gaming industry how CD-based gaming is really done.

Huge Third Party (And In-House) Support

Pop quiz, hot shot: you’re the biggest electronics manufacturer of the 90s and you wish to enter the videogame industry without crashing and burning like Atari and 3DO. What do you do?

Simple: wave enough stacks of money in front of the major third-party developers in the games industry so that they join your cause. Developers will always fly to the prospects of tinkering with spanking new development kits like bees to honey; companies like Konami, Namco, and Williams tinkered with the new PS-X boards Sony made and even used it for their own brand of arcade games. Many a number of landmark titles were exclusive to Sony: Tekken, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Ridge Racer, and a boatload more. And I don’t really need to elaborate on Squaresoft’s involvement, right?

Of course, Sony needed in-house support, so they bought out then-unknowned group Psygnosis(logo above). They’ve proved their worth with Lemmings, and eventually developed killer apps for the PlayStation. I’m sure you’ve heard of WipeOut and Destruction Derby back in the 90s: that’s all Psygnosis’ doing.

“Two Ninety-Nine”

Would you believe? A T-Rex was a selling point for developers and stockholders alike for the PlayStation.

That’s all Sony’s then-CEO Steve Race had to say at E3 1995. The PS1’s slashed price in the US was probably stemmed from its affordable development station, made possible by the combined efforts of SN Systems (manned by two people) and Psygnosis. It also helped that the Sega Saturn was marked with a US$399 price tag, and we all know that a hundred dollar price difference is a huge deal when it comes to early adoptions of new hardware.

True, the Japanese launch in 1994 garnered huge sales at the time (300,000 units in its first 30 days of its release), but I personally felt that Sony finally cemented its dominance in the gaming industry field with that price tag battle cry. It was essentially a brand name that was in every person’s lexicon akin to Nike and Band-Aids. Heck, that was the same price tag they used for the PS2, and that damn thing still hanged tough for close to a decade.

Sony encountered their share of mis-steps (coughE32006coughPSPGoLaircough), but they learn quick. After all, securing fifteen years in being one of the biggest videogaming juggernauts in the industry is anything but a lucky break.