The PlayStation was supposed to be a Nintendo accessory. Before Sony had a console of its own, it was building a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo, and the name attached to that project was "Play Station." Sony announced it on June 1, 1991 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. The next day, Nintendo announced it was working with Philips instead.
That split is one of the most consequential breakups in gaming history. Sony kept going, launched its own PlayStation in Japan on December 3, 1994, and turned a cancelled Nintendo peripheral into Nintendo's biggest rival.
How a sound chip turned into a rival console
The connection started with Ken Kutaragi, the Sony engineer who built the Super Nintendo's sound chip. According to Kotaku's history of the project, Kutaragi then pitched a Super Nintendo with a CD-ROM drive, and Nintendo agreed, apparently without much enthusiasm. Former Sony executive Shigeo Maruyama recalled Nintendo telling Kutaragi, in effect, that it did not think the idea would succeed but he could do his "CD-ROM thing."
The catch was in the contract. Kotaku reports that it gave Sony rights to CD-ROM software without paying Nintendo royalties or needing its approval, and VGC describes a deal that would also let Sony build its own standalone system later. Nintendo's official explanation for walking away was technical: Howard Lincoln of Nintendo of America said Nintendo's engineers concluded it was "better for Nintendo to work with Philips." Many accounts argue the real reason was that Nintendo did not want Sony controlling CD game licensing, but that motive is reported and inferred rather than confirmed by Nintendo, so it is fair to call it disputed.
The famous version of the CES story also needs a correction. It is often told as a public ambush, with Sony learning about Philips on stage. Kotaku notes that a Nintendo spokesperson told the press about the Philips deal on May 31, before Sony's announcement, and that Sony knew roughly 48 hours in advance. It was still a humiliating week for Sony. It just was not a total surprise.
What happened next, and the prototype that survived
The Philips add-on never shipped either. Philips did get the right to make games with Nintendo characters for its CD-i system, which is how the world ended up with three *Legend of Zelda* CD-i games and *Hotel Mario*, a footnote Kotaku describes less than kindly. In 1994, Nintendo said its next system would stick with cartridges.
Sony, meanwhile, dropped the Super Nintendo add-on in summer 1992, according to VGC, and pushed ahead with its own hardware. The PlayStation reached the US on September 9, 1995 at US$299, and VGC reports that Sony had sold almost a million consoles there by Christmas.
The best related detail is physical. Around 200 prototype units of the Sony-Nintendo machine are said to have been made, and the others are assumed destroyed. One survived. It had belonged to Olaf Olafsson, the first CEO of Sony's games division, who took it with him when he left the company. In March 2020 it sold at auction for US$360,000, including the buyer's premium.
So the next time someone calls PlayStation and Nintendo natural rivals, there is a surviving prototype that disagrees. For a short while, they were going to be the same product.
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