Someone on another site told me that people and publishers "immediately flocked" to the PS1. Anyone who was old enough to be there, what was the hype for the PS1 like? How would you rate the launch lineup?
What was the launch of the PS1 like?
- Thread starter CastletonSnob
- Start date
It was an age before the internet. It was a thing that happened. I remember a mate of mine got one with Ridge Racer. It was cool, but not exactly anything world shattering. It did very well, but I just don't think the pre internet hype was anywhere near what it is liek now.
I suppose there might have been hype in the specialist gamig press, which was just magasines at that time, or if you and your mates were really into it, but otherwise I think the Playstation was the mainstream breakthrough, the one that brought gaming to the wider adult audience. It was the thing that meant there was hype for the next round.
I suppose there might have been hype in the specialist gamig press, which was just magasines at that time, or if you and your mates were really into it, but otherwise I think the Playstation was the mainstream breakthrough, the one that brought gaming to the wider adult audience. It was the thing that meant there was hype for the next round.
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I'm too young to remember the launch. Other than it happened, and kids were all excited talking about it. We did not get a Playstation until X-Mas, 1997.
I don't recall the event very well. I guess I wasn't really very invested in game journalism when I was 2.
I remember playing Tekken on it at a friend’s and being jealous I didn’t have one yet. It was basically like having the arcade game in your house.
It was my college days, and the hype wasn't... huge. My friends and I were big into gaming at the time, and only one of us got a PS1 right away. Most of us were much more impressed by PC games at the time, and the console folks were more impressed by the N64 early on. I would say the reaction where I was, wasn't so much "immediately flocked" as it was "took off as better games came out in late '96 into '97." Which was a year or 2 after launch. It did get huge then, and drove most of us into picking one up. The release of FF 7 was probably max "gotta get me one of those" era for PS1.
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Well Nintento was definitely top dog in my schoolyard, but I remember people being aware of the PS1 launch. I don't think it was this huge thing because it was both the first console by Sony, a company mainly known for TVs where I was from, and because without the established internet there just wasn't an omnipresence of information. The only way you heard about this stuff was to see it on TV or to read about it in a magazine, and then maybe already knowing about it you could find info somewhere on the internet, but for most of us it was just a thing that happened. Nintendo Power already existed way before the N64 so that's how you found out it was gonna be released, but Playstation Mag didn't release until sometime after the PS1 launched so you had really limited options to hear about it.
If I recall correctly, it's launch was relatively lukewarm, meaning I don't recall much about it. We were in the thick of the Great War between Nintendo and Sega at the time, and Sony's new platform was little more than the unknown upstart trying to upset the apple cart, like Xbox when it first dropped. Also similar to the Xbox, it obviously found it's footing and eventually became a standard.
It was a hype launch and there were demo kiosks at every store that sold video games. Many many publishers and developers flocked to the Playstation one (which ended up with a crazy good library of titles) mostly because the discs allowed for bigger games. But also remember that the playstation also released like 18 months BEFORE the N64 did. Playstation came out in 1994 and N64 didn't arrive until 1996. So by that time there was too much of a head start and developers didn't want to have to dial games back or make smaller games because the N64 couldn't handle them.
Nintendo made a huge mistake by trying to force 3D graphics onto cartridges which could not handle them back in the day. The tech for solid state storage was ass, and compared to a disc which could hold 700MB of data it was a no brainer for companies to move to the playstation. And it shows if you look at the two console's available titles.
N64 ended up with a total of 393 games across all regions.
PS1 had almost 8000.
But what was even worse for Nintendo in this regard, was that Sony treated the people who published on their system very well and as a result a lot of them stayed with Sony through the Ps2 era as well.
This is where Sony arrogance began. Though it actually showed up in the mid to late life cycle of the PS1, if you look close enough. But Sony had plenty of moments in the PS2 era where they act like jackasses to third party publishers. Even the Japanese ones that needed help programming on the console, but Sony would not give them any act like butthole s.
I remember the PS1 was not really a smash hit when it launched. Not around here at least. At first a lot of people where actually more interested in the Saturn, because of the Mega Drive's strong established presence in the PAL region and Sony being the new kid on the block, tho this phase lasted only a couple months. A sizeable number of people were also holding out for what Nintendo was going to offer. Sure, the PS1 was popular, but for like half a year the only game that was really talked about a lot was Tekken. Wasn't until about mid '96 that the real momentum started with the release of Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot later that year, which carried over in '97, when some of the really heavy hitters, euhm, hit.
As for why publishers flocked to the PS1, that not hard to figure out. Nintendo and Sega were both relatively controlling and rigid when it came to licensing games for their respective systems, and basically did nothing to attract publishers, probably assuming the publishers would come running since they were the top dogs anyway. They of course both also had their own in-house studios to develop games for them. Sony on the other hand, had no real experience with development, neither its own studios, nor any 3rd party support. They had to make themselves attractive. So they did. The PS1 was relatively easy and streamlined to develop for, and Sony offered publishing deals that were more inclusive than the others.
As for why publishers flocked to the PS1, that not hard to figure out. Nintendo and Sega were both relatively controlling and rigid when it came to licensing games for their respective systems, and basically did nothing to attract publishers, probably assuming the publishers would come running since they were the top dogs anyway. They of course both also had their own in-house studios to develop games for them. Sony on the other hand, had no real experience with development, neither its own studios, nor any 3rd party support. They had to make themselves attractive. So they did. The PS1 was relatively easy and streamlined to develop for, and Sony offered publishing deals that were more inclusive than the others.
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Of course Nintendo’s iron fisted control was (probably) a result of the previous crash caused by a relative lack of quality control. Swings and roundabouts.
