http://www.sony.co.uk/article/id/1060176719725 (06/01/2012)
http://www.gameconsolesedu.info/PS2.php (19/01/2012)
History of Sony Playstation
Made in Japan: Launch of Sony Legacy
Sony general history
Sony was founded by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita in 1946, at this point called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company). Their main services included repairing radios and manufacturing a small number of voltmeters in a post-war Japan. The company’s first innovation was an automatic rice cooker. When the duo wanted to expand into the global market, due to TTK having already been used, they reinvented Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo under the banner of Sony. Sony was derived from the Latin word Sonus and the English word Sonny-boy –a term commonly used to address a bright youngster in 1950’s America.
The first Sony branded product went on sale in 1955 (TR-55 transistor radio) but the company itself was not officially Sony corporation until 1958. Shortly afterwards Sony released the first pocket sized transistor radio. It received plaudits due to its good battery life and sound. For several years Koriyama and other members of Sony worked hard to expand into international markets of America and Europe. In early negotiations with American firms, Akio Morita turned down an order of 100,000 radios from Bulova but due to their demands that the radio would bear the Bulova name he turned it down – stating: “Fifty years from now, I promise you that our name will be just as famous as your company name today”.
When trying to expand into Europe, one of Sony’s toughest struggles involved over 2 years in Germany. The market was hugely saturated with radios so it was seen as having to sell ice in the Antarctic. This was not helped due to issues with their radio’s components. However, after this issue was resolved, a large amount of persistence and salesmanship meant that soon Sony had achieved a positive and strong reputation in the European market.
In October 1967, Sony produced a high quality television named ‘Trinitron’ – which utilised a combination of three cathode-ray tubes.
Another struggle in their long history involved the infamous VHS/ Betamax format battle. Sony bought out the Betamax system in the early 80’s to counter JVC’s VHS format. Unfortunately for Sony, VHS won that ‘battle’ but the Betacam format they developed is still used today.
Playstation:
Given the firm monopoly that Sega and Nintendo had on the market in the early 1990’s, initially Sony were not interested in breaking into the games industry. However, Nintendo approached Sony with the prospect of working on a CD-ROM for their next console. As Sony worked on developing the CD drive for the SNES, Nintendo became increasingly nervous about the deal due to the high amount of revenue that Sony could generate from the production and distribution of the disks, to the point that Nintendo betrayed Sony, deciding instead to work with Phillips on the technology in 1991
It was this that persuaded previously anti-video games Norio Orio, in addition to the persistent Ken Kutaragi to move into the video game market with their own console. Eventually Sony Computer Entertainment Inc was formed in 1993. Leading to the launch of the PlayStation ‘X’, Sony approached many developers and publishers due to their lack of iconic brands (Sega: Sonic/ Nintendo: Mario). At first these developers did not want to work with the advanced 3D software advances that the PlayStation offered due to the time and money required– but after witnessing Virtua Fighter, very soon after around 250 companies had signed. They also spend 48 million dollars to purchase Psygnosis under the banner of Sony Interactive Entertainment. With a strong backing of third party developers and marketing, Sony sold 1 million units in 3 months in Japan. In the next year after spending 4 million on an E3 booth and after setting a marketing tone of 19; selling 800 thousand units – this was perhaps aided by the £299 selling price in comparison to the other consoles on the market (Sega Saturn: £399). In total the PlayStation has sold over 90 million units worldwide.
Playstation 2:
The PlayStation 2’s development was first announced to the public in April 1999.
At the core of the console was the ‘Emotion Engine’ (developed by Sony and Toshiba) – which allowed the system to be backwards compatible with the original PlayStation library (also featuring a hardware mode which could smoothen and improve the running and graphics of these games). The consoles engine also allowed for DVD format games and videos to be played.
The console was released in Japan on March 4, 2000 and North America on October 24, 2000. The PlayStation since its release has sold over 120 million units. In 2004 Sony released a Smaller, slimmer model (SCPH-70000) which sold so well that shortages were well documented – especially in Britain, where a Russian Oil Tanker became stuck in the Suez Canal which subsequently blocked a Chinese ship that had a large shipment of Playstation 2 models.
Sony did not entirely have smooth ride as far as Hardware issues when it came to the Playstation 2 console as it suffered many technical hiccups across its many models. One issue was constantly misaligned laser disk lens which while they could be solved by a simple internal fix – this voided the warranty. After a class action lawsuit was filed against Sony on July 16, 2002 after many consoles had broken down, Sony agreed to provide a reduced cost repair and a small compensation to affected gamers
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