Happy 30th Birthday to PlayStation - Feature | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

Today is an incredibly important milestone for PlayStation, as it represents the 30th anniversary of the console we love. It doesn’t take a genius to realise Push Square wouldn’t exist if Ken Kutaragi hadn’t convinced Sony president Norio Ohga to take a risk three decades ago.

Originally announced as a CD-based extension for the Super Nintendo, the biggest betrayal in gaming history led to one of the greatest consumer electronics brands of all time. While older executives initially rejected the PlayStation project, Ohga shifted Kutaragi and his team to Sony Music, where he worked on the system in secret.

Sony Music’s influence would play a big part in PlayStation’s early success, as the manufacturer treated the business like a record label, empowering talent and stealing developers away from the incumbent market leader, Nintendo. With its cutting-edge 3D graphics and CD quality sound, the PS1 was a revolution.

But there was more to PlayStation than its great games. It was a movement. Sony embraced counter-culture, becoming the yin to Nintendo’s yang. The PS1 could be spotted in nightclubs, and its marketing was surreal, perhaps best illustrated by the infamous Mental Wealth campaign which ran in the UK.

Its biggest titles also felt more “adult” than anything available on competing consoles, too. WipEout, a futuristic racing game inspired by Mario Kart, had a soundtrack featuring The Chemical Brothers, and its controversial magazine poster showed DJ Sara Cox with a nosebleed.

Through the likes of Tomb Raider, gaming characters like Lara Croft became larger than life, featuring on the covers of 90s lads mags like Loaded.

And the great games just kept coming: Tekken, Ridge Racer, and Metal Gear Solid – many of the greatest games of all time released on Sony’s system.

The true testament of PS1’s impact is that every fan has a unique memory attached to it. Whether it’s running down civilians in GTA, gobbling down Wumpa Fruit in Crash Bandicoot, or setting a fastest lap