Sony and Nintendo CD-ROM Feud Update | More Info | State of the Arc Podcast

[@dudemcguy1227]

Excellent choice of background music for a feud between two big corporations haha.

[@BubblegumCrash332]

The 80s and 90s games industry was crazy. We almost had the Atari Nintendo, N64 tech in a Sega Console and the Nintendo PlayStation lol

[@stephenoakley9724]

So many different timeline possibilities.

[@jaspal99]

@@stephenoakley9724and every one of them would have had moms and dads calling everything a ‘Nintendo’

[@SokiHime]

This slice of gaming history is fascinating. You can tell everyone was still figuring out how this whole medium was going to shake out, and on the business end, where the profit was to be made. Thanks for this one

[@derheadbanger9039]

I was wondering why Casen looked and sounded a bit odd - until I rad the description: the video is 6 years old, but was never published! 😅

[@coreyrachar9694]

Things I got out of this video in order of importance: - I'm a beast. - Casen has a cool shirt. - Something about Sony.

[@JavierMorales-qf8wp]

I'm going to leave this here, I know it talks about another topic (the Pallworld lawsuit), but the person is a lawyer who writes essays on the history of video game lawsuits and therefore Nintendo lawsuits, and it touches on the history of Nintendo vs. Sony. But to paraphrase one of his points about the Snes and PlayStation situation. As you mentioned, Nintendo may have be really worried, because maybe they realized they would be tied to Sony, which at the time was a bigger company, first a partnership, maybe buy a lot of shares, turn Nintendo into a subsidiary and put the guy Kutaragi on top of Nintendo. If this is to be true, makes me kind of glad of our timeline a bit. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpLTq6Wtq5xon5I

[@lionheart4424]

We now take for granted that the "play" in PlayStation is for playing videogames, but it was actually for playing songs for karaoke. And makes total sense considering you could play music discs on it. Interesting how enough ambition can revolutionize an industry. I hope Apple or someone makes a movie about this piece of business history similar to the one made for Tetris.

[@SatiZakito]

The Yakuza mentality in japanese businessmen.

[@bjornh1527]

If Nintendo already decided they didn’t want the CD-rom for games, the partnership with Philips becomes even more confusing. Very interesting insight! Still… if the agreement was that it was a karaoke add on, why would the prototype be called Playstation? Plays music sure but…

[@marionamewontwork2681]

heard some many variations on the story I dont even know the truth any more lol

[@bjornh1527]

Must be somewhere in between:)

[@hoanglu7464]

Thanks!

[@_sparrowhawk]

I realize these debates will never end, but I don't really think it was a mistake for Nintendo to break the deal. The deal would allow Sony to earn profits from Nintendo games - a complete ripoff for Nintendo. PS1 and was actually very friendly to game piracy (something Nintendo loathes, as they have so many classic IP). That may seem careless but Sony didn't really care as they had NO IP to speak of. By the time the PS2 came around, security was in place to make game copying harder and harder. I don't think anyone can look at the N64 (notably hardware sales) and say, "Good job Nintendo" but they had to protect their assets. It wasn't until the Gamecube that they finally had disc-based media that was hard for normal people to copy. Edit: As for Nintendo getting the "short end of the stick" (Casen's quote), while Sony is bigger than Nintendo in 2024, obviously Sony sells way more products than PS. Sony's market cap today is about $100B (PS is about 32% of that, so $32B), while Nintendo's is $61B. In that sense, Nintendo's business is worth double what Sony's is, while they roll into 2025 totally dominating the Japanese gaming business (while Sony dominates North America). Nintendo's doing fine.

[@Psy500]

But Philips had a competing console already on the market. Yes it bombed hard but all Philips had to do was make another console that was not stupidly expensive and could run CD-I titles and Nintendo would have just handed Philips Mario and Zelda as launch titles for a new console to bash the SNES. Meanwhile all Sony had was an add-on for the SNES, it had no rights to sales of carts for the SNES and it would be a legal minefield for Sony to made a standalone SNES compatible console. So it was a mistake in that Philips could have easily derailed Nintendo if its handling of the CD-I was the least bit competent.

[@pedrooliveira936]

loved the video, I like this 10 ~ 20 min video once per week. its easier to enjoy when I dont have much time

[@CottonModem]

Reading the title out of context, I assumed it would be about a present-day patent lawsuit I was not yet aware of.

[@AceBadguy]

Keep up the great work you guys.

[@schaineochette]

As someone who went to school and took a ludology course which covered this exact topic I find it weird that your info contradicts what I learned. Sony never funded the PS1, he had to spend his own money, time and resources building it at home, when it was finished he dropped it on the ceo's desk and basically said here, it works, then they gave him funding, I studied at the International Academy of Design and Technology Toronto Canada in 2006 which is one of the best schools here, so I find it hard to believe they had it wrong. I'd suggest looking into it, yes he was mad they cancelled the drive which was built for gaming as FF7 was originally designed for the 64 cdrom, i've seen the footage when i was in school as part of the course so as i said unless the University lied to me, my info is correct.

[@danielnam9026]

So when a person says they’re not interested in gaming.. they’re definitely interested in gaming!

[@goranisacson2502]

Vibe I'm getting with this new information is that Kutaragi was DETERMINED to get into the videogame business, and while I'm still not sure if the break-up was because Sony suck a royalty-deal into it all that would have them take home the profit of the games made, or if it was because the contract stated "Sony won't make games for the new machine" in vague enough terms that they totally could make games and Ninty saw that as betrayal, or if it was just Nintendo figuring that it wasn't worth essentially helping Sony become their inevitable rivals, they cut the deal and Kutaragi was ready to use that to push the idea of making their own console on his boss... makes me wonder if he planned for this outcome all along, or if he was just very good at rolling with the punches.

[@leif54]

What is going on?! So much RA goodness!

[@joshuahelmeke]

You should get back to that dark history vlog material, bruh. I thought it was essential in a sense.

[@erikmclennan3934]

Very interesting

[@pingpong5877]

If the Nintendo and Sony Clan joined their family's together, they would've been the biggest yakuza clan in gaming history.

[@AtotheZness]

The background music…so fitting. ;) Corporations gonna corporate.

[@mutopis]

ken kutaragi played Nintendo and Sony masterfully. He got what he always wanted.

[@rd-um4sp]

it is a fun story. but, as usual, the facts are more boring than fiction. An ambitious (or greedy) CEO and corporate backstabbing is par for the course. (I find them interesting though, so thanks for the update ;-)