Why was the Playstation so successful?

[Kid Ice]

I was having a conversation with a non-gamer the other day about the 3DO. He was surprised to learn there was a CD-based system before the Playstation. I asked if he had heard of the Saturn, and he said he thought the Saturn came out well after the Playstation.

I didn't think at the time the PSX came out it was so obviously a more capable machine. Why did the Playstation do so much better than the earlier CD-based systems? Of course I could easily tell you NOW why I prefer the Playstation, but at what point did it break away from the pack, and why?

[smokehouse]

There was just something about it…possibly the fact that it was made by what at the time was a “serious” electronics company?

Then again having an almost arcade perfect Ridge Racer as a launch (or close to launch) title was a HUGE thing. I clearly remember reading an article in EGM about it having the ability to play that title in near arcade perfection….being a fan of the arcade version, I was instantly impressed.

It also seemed “grown up” for some reason…again, like it or no, the PS1 took gaming to the mainstream public.

Finally, having titles like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII also helped. Square leaving Nintendo in favor of Sony was huge news at the time and many (including myself) that were FF fanatics saw it as writing on the wall for Nintendo.

Lastly, at the time when the PS1 was released, the Saturn was there but had little in terms of games and the N64 was still out a few years. Basically having many of the titles it did, it just stood out.

[theshizzle3000]

It could possibly be because the Playstation changed lives...

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I'm not really sure...there was a lot of hype surrounding the PSX when it was released, but to tell you the truth, I thought it sucked when I first played it. Compared to the Saturn, I thought the load times were ridiculous. I honestly never thought the thing would take off the way it did.

[smokehouse]

I'm not really sure...there was a lot of hype surrounding the PSX when it was released, but to tell you the truth, I thought it sucked when I first played it. Compared to the Saturn, I thought the load times were ridiculous. I honestly never thought the thing would take off the way it did.

You know, it’s strange how little I’ve played the Saturn. At the time, I was eagerly awaiting the release of the N64 so I overlooked the Sat and the PS1. I landed up renting a PS1 at my buddy’s nagging and I got Ridge Racer and Wipeout with it…I was blown away.

Looking back, I wish I would have spent more time with the Saturn when it was current...it's hard to get into a first gen 3D machine like than now...it just looks too outdated.

[williewonka2k1]

I think it's pretty simple actually. Both 3DO and Jaguar were capable of so much more, but people didn't know how to program that kind of stuff yet. All the worthwile games are made by the bigger names for both of those systems (generally speaking).

[otoko]

Looking back, I wish I would have spent more time with the Saturn when it was current...it's hard to get into a first gen 3D machine like than now...it just looks too outdated.

@*$&^#*#$, That's the type of mentality that brings down consoles.

Why should you care if it looks outdated?

"oh, it's old."
"oh, it has last gen graphics."
"oh, It's different from what I'm used to."

People need to grow up!

I think consoles should be based on the games.
not the amount
not OTHER morons
or on the media.

and, yes. I agree with those who thought the PSX was going to die. With my experience of it. I was only hype.

[Nesmaster]

Why should you care if it looks outdated?

Tell that to someone playing Goldeneye for the first time today, as opposed to back in 1997. The amount of fun had back then just wouldn't compare to if you had just fired it up for the first time in 2007. In fact, said person might think you're crazy for thinking the game was ever good.

Bottom line: All the first 3D systems have not aged well. It's hard to play them nowadays. (at least for me.)

[smokehouse]

@*$&^#*#$, That's the type of mentality that brings down consoles.

Why should you care if it looks outdated?

"oh, it's old."
"oh, it has last gen graphics."
"oh, It's different from what I'm used to."

People need to grow up!

I think consoles should be based on the games.
not the amount
not OTHER morons
or on the media.

and, yes. I agree with those who thought the PSX was going to die. With my experience of it. I was only hype.

Hold on a minute…

I have a collection of systems that are mostly classic and "old"…

Many of the titles found on first gen 3D systems are just plain shitty looking now…try limping through the original Resident Evil or Ridge Racer…they look terrible. So bad in fact that they are difficult to sit through.

I look at it this way, the 2D “era” mostly came to an end with the release of the PS1, Sat and N64. Sure, there are good 2D games out now but not like it was back then. Therefore, those three systems were the start of the 3D generation and they show it. Some of the games are just a crummy pile of polygons, blocks and colors now, hardly something many want to play. Look at the 3D parts (not everything, just the 3D stuff) of FFVII, they are horrible looking. Compare that to FFVI on the SNES which even to this day is a beautiful. One was the last of years of 2D programming and polish, the other is the beginning of something new.

[smokehouse]

Tell that to someone playing Goldeneye for the first time today, as opposed to back in 1997. The amount of fun had back then just wouldn't compare to if you had just fired it up for the first time in 2007. In fact, said person might think you're crazy for thinking the game was ever good.

Bottom line: All the first 3D systems have not aged well. It's hard to play them nowadays. (at least for me.)

You hit the nail on the head...many of the first gen 3D stuff was "You just had to be there" type of games...

[Kid Ice]

@*$&^#*#$, That's the type of mentality that brings down consoles.

Why should you care if it looks outdated?

"oh, it's old."
"oh, it has last gen graphics."
"oh, It's different from what I'm used to."

People need to grow up!

He's not putting down the Saturn. The thread isn't even about the Saturn. He's simply saying it's hard to go back and fairly evaluate a system you didn't play when it was current. And I agree.

[InsaneDavid]

Basically having many of the titles it did, it just stood out.

That's why I've always thought it was so successful, same with the NES - variety was the orer of the day. Pretty much anything you wanted to play could be found on the PlayStation, and multiple quality titles in each genre at that. (not to say there weren't a ton of crappy games, but that can be said for any system)

Also pricing, I bought my PlayStation when they dropped to $139.99 for a new system. I went in to buy a refurbished system for $129 but bought a new one instead since the price had just dropped. (Gran Turismo, by the way, was the reason I went PlayStation over the N64 or Saturn - didn't buy it for that one game, but it was the title that finally pushed me to PlayStation) Then the "Greatest Hits" line as well, for $15 - $25 you could pick up some great games and most of the time the most you'd shell out for a new game was $40 - $50 when N64 titles were in the $65+ range.

[diskoboy]

To awnser the OP's question:

The Sony brand name. People are just brand whores.

But Surprisingly the Saturn did quite well in Japan. Sega had pissed off most of the US customer base, by the end of the Genesis' lifespan. And being $100 more than the Playstation didn't help much either.

Sega was just plain stupid for pricing the Saturn at $399.

[udisi]

here's some reasons as to why the PS1 was more successful than the 3do, saturn, etc.

When the 3do launched, it was $700. very crazy price at the time, hell we're bitching about a $600 ps3 today. 2nd the 3do and early CD based systems were promoted as multimedia systems, not just gaming systems. These systems lacked some identity and developers didn't really know what to do with the new CD format. Many early games were very rough 3D polygon games or FMV(That's full motion video) games
. When the Saturn came out it polished up 3D a bit, and was way better than the 3do or Cd-i in my opinon, The Saturn was not terribly cheap though either...I think it was $399 or somewhere around that. Also at this point, most CD format machines had failed commercially. The sega CD was not very successful, the 3do, cdi, jaguar, had all been disapointments, and the SNES was still the peak of console gaming. Add to this that Sega had never really marketed well in the US, except for the launch of the genesis, and the Saturn sat kinda in obscurity.
Sega never promoted it's first person titles very well, and the mainstream gaming public really had no idea what most of the game titles on the shelves were. Then about a year later, here comes Sony, with a game called battle arena toshinden, and at the time, it was one of the best 3d polygon fighting games, I know lots of people who bought the system just for that game. I personally was not impressed yet as the playstation was $300, but I did notice a squaresoft title called Tobal no 1 which happened to have a demo for FF7 in it. I was a big fan of the square titles on the snes, and I played that demo, and that was it....I bought a PS1. The Playstation brought out a lot more of those types of RPGS, like Beyond the Beyond and the original Suikoden. Meanwhile, the saturn didn't really market any new titles, and the great games like Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragon Saga, Burning Rangers, etc, didn't even make it to market until the system was already dead in the water.

[sirhansirhan]

You hit the nail on the head...many of the first gen 3D stuff was "You just had to be there" type of games...

I just got my first Saturn ever a little over a year ago, and am nothing but impressed with it. It makes me feel stupid for not owning one when they were new.

On a semi-related subject, I am not at all impressed with the X-Box 360 or PS3 (yet, at least).

And on topic, I think Final Fantasy VII was what really made the Playstation what it wound up being. That's why I bought one, and that's why most of my friends bought one, too.

[Dangerboy]

copy and pasted, since it's now late to the table since i was fixing my wireless card >_>

The reason the PlayStation did so well out of the gate was due to several important reasons:

1. It was the first mainstream CD based system to not give a rats ass about CD+G, Video CD, etc. It was games and music CDs, period. Shook off the 'we're multi-media' systems like 3DO and CDi easily.

2. It was $100 cheaper than the competition of Saturn, and as pointed out here in this thread, Battle Arena Toshinden whomped all kinds of ass over Virtua Fighter, simply because of looks.

3. Sony did not market it as a 'game system' - they marketed it as a way of life. It worked.

4. Three words: Namco and Capcom. Namco was on board with exclusive PSX arcade translations, Capcom was on board with near perfect arcade conversions and new IPs.

5. The original Sony (We miss you Olaf!) bent over backwards to get as many developers on board with as many ways as possible. They snagged SNK games, Artdink games, and provided middleware tools that helped companies crank out games. Yes, it did make a lot of games look similar, but hey, when you see more games available on that system, you don't really want the other.

6. Sony didn't even own their own best weapon; Sega. Sega's mishandling of Sega CD / 32x, Saturn's early and under supported launch, and proof that they couldn't even do their own games on the home version (compare VF2 arcade to home, then Sony's Tekken 2 arcade to home), pretty much sealed the deal.

Soured Sega fans jumped ship, and those turned off by the horrifically chosen rainbow motiff of N64 packaging were lead to the PSX. It was the first system to be truly considered a 'grown-ups' game system.

7. A Killer, killer launch line-up.

Ridge Racer, Toshinden, NBA Jam TE, and Raiden Project made it an arcade lover's dream.

Rayman showed it could do 2D just as well as the Saturn (before Ram Cart tech).

Turbo Eclipse showed major 3DO titles were moving to the system.

ESPN Xtreme Games proved Sony wanted even the oddest of sports fans on deck with their system.

It's not that hard to see why. Once the Saturn was out of the way, the N64's cart prices and badly and unfairly tagged "kid's system" meant Sony could steam roll through anythign that came their way.

It's funny how karma came back to kick 'em in the nuts.

[gepeto]

One of the reasons it was successful is that the saturn released in may and was overpriced 399 and didn't set the world on fire.

The playstation was 299 and had tekken. Which at the time was a dam good port of the arcade. Also everyone was always waiting to see wat the next wow factor was going to be and there was a ton of games good and bad.

[theoakwoody]

I didn't really pay much attention to the Saturn when it launched but I bought both a psx and n64 at or soon after their launches. I can say that even though I tended to play more N64 I was very annoyed with how there were absolutely no games coming out for the system for the first 6 months. Other than Mario 64 there wasn't much to play until Shadows of the Empire came out in December and Turok soon after that. Plus, the games were so expensive, like $ 60 to $ 70 which was $ 20 higher than psx games. I think its funny when people complain about the prices of 360 and ps3 games now, they would have been irate in the 90s.

[Carey85]

I got my Playstation in September of 1998 when the Saturn was already a non-player. What made me decide on the playstation over the N64 was the fact that the Playstation had Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, and the Capcom Mega Man series. It was also a lot easier for me to afford the CD based Playstation games over the cartridge based games of the N64, and yes, it did seem like more of an adult system. In retrospect I still think I made the right decision, although the N64 had its own share of stellar titles...

[Ro-J]

I remember people making fun of the "Playstation" name before it was ever released. People said it sounded like a Fisher Price toy, way too kiddie to be taken seriously.....

....then they played the games.