Nintendo vs Sony - Stabbed in the Back | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2020

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Once a symbol of 80s teenage nerdom, video games are now as common as television sets in American households. Can you imagine a world where the Sony PlayStation didn’t come out? That’s what almost happened. Originally conceived as a joint venture between Nintendo and Sony, the SNES-CD was supposed to be the bridge between Japan’s two largest tech companies. Instead, it drove the companies to war, an intense competition for entertainment domination that still goes on today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:11.8	May 1991 Tokyo Train Station.
0:14.7	Sony engineer Ken Kutoragi hurries through the ticket gate.
0:20.6	The bullet train to Kyoto is already at the platform.
0:23.5	He doesn't want to be late.
0:27.0	In a few hours time, he'll be meeting with Nintendo to finalize the imminent announcement
0:32.2	of a new video game console called the PlayStation.
0:37.8	The PlayStation is a console with a difference.
0:42.0	Console games usually come on plug-in cartridges, but PlayStation games will be on compact discs.
0:49.2	With their huge storage capacity, CD-ROMs promise a future where games will look, sound, and
0:55.5	play a whole lot better.
0:57.6	A future where video games become an entertainment medium to rival television music and film.
1:05.8	It's a future Sony and Nintendo intend to own together with the PlayStation.
1:12.2	Since 1989, Sony and Nintendo have been working on the PlayStation in secret, but now the
1:18.6	time has come to reveal the PlayStation to the world.
1:23.5	In two days' time, the PlayStation is due to be announced at the Consumer Electronics
1:28.3	show in Chicago.
1:30.9	All that is left is one last meeting to go over the details of the big moment.
1:41.7	But before Kutoragi can climb onto the bullet train, he spots Sony's public relations director
1:47.4	bounding towards him on the platform.
1:49.6	He looks anxious.
	...

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