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Speaker 1: Welcome to text Up, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to text Uff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And if things sound

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Speaker 1: a little differently to you, it's because we are currently

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Speaker 1: going through our own social distancing program over with the

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Speaker 1: studios in Atlanta, So whenever we can, we're recording from home.

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Speaker 1: So I'm actually recording from home today, which means I'm

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Speaker 1: on different equipment. Also means that there could be some

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Speaker 1: background noises. You might hear my dog Tim bolt at

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Speaker 1: some point, or maybe a train or something because I

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Speaker 1: live near train tracks. I will try, if I notice,

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Speaker 1: to stop speaking so that Tari super producer, can cut

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Speaker 1: out anything particularly loud it or distracting, and we can

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Speaker 1: just focus on the thing that has remained the most

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Speaker 1: consistent throughout the entirety of this show. My low bar

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Speaker 1: for content quality. I'm kidding, of course, content is always

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Speaker 1: most important for me, so let's get to it. So

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Speaker 1: in December two thousand nineteen, the Sony PlayStation console turned

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Speaker 1: twenty five years old, and this year that being, we

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Speaker 1: anticipate the release of the latest in the line of

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Speaker 1: PlayStation's the PlayStation five. In fact, as I was going

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Speaker 1: in to record this, the presentation about the PlayStation five

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Speaker 1: was just starting to wrap up at what would have

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Speaker 1: been the Game's Developer Conference or the Game Developers Conference.

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Speaker 1: I pluralized the wrong word there, but that obviously did

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Speaker 1: not actually happen in person because of fears of the

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Speaker 1: coronavirus and COVID nineteen, but they did it online. So

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Speaker 1: I will talk about PlayStation five a little bit later,

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Speaker 1: But first I wanted to talk about the history of

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Speaker 1: the place station and how the platform has changed over

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Speaker 1: the years, and how it's played a big role not

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Speaker 1: just in the video game industry, but in tech in general.

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Speaker 1: And we'll have a few opportunities to talk about some

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Speaker 1: specific types of tech along the way to explain how

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Speaker 1: it works. So my guess is this is going to

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Speaker 1: take a few episodes, and our story starts with the

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Speaker 1: man credited for making the PlayStation a thing, a guy

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Speaker 1: who is often referred to as the father of the PlayStation.

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Speaker 1: Ken Kutaragi now Kudaragi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty. His family owned a small printing business and

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Speaker 1: Kudaragi was an adept student and became interested in mechanical

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Speaker 1: systems early on. That was a curiosity that his family encouraged.

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Speaker 1: Kudaragi enjoyed building simple things like amplifiers, so you know,

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Speaker 1: typical kids stuff. After he progressed through regular schooling, he

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Speaker 1: enrolled in an electrical engineering program at Dinki Sushin University.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure I'm butchering these names, and I apologize

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Speaker 1: for that. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering

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Speaker 1: in nineteen and upon graduation, he joined the Sony Corporation

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Speaker 1: as an engineer. According to Kutaragi, he applied to Sony

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Speaker 1: specifically because the company had a reputation for giving engineers

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Speaker 1: the resources needed to try new things and to be creative,

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Speaker 1: which is something he really enjoyed. All Right, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: skip ahead to the nineteen eighties. So at this point,

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Speaker 1: Kutaragi has been working for the Sony Corporation for several years,

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Speaker 1: and now he had a daughter who was into video

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Speaker 1: games on the Nintendo Entertainment system. Kutaragi watched his daughter

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Speaker 1: playing games and figured that there just might be something

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Speaker 1: to this whole video game business. And he saw the

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Speaker 1: potential in what was then a niche industry. Now, at

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Speaker 1: the time, the Sony Corporation didn't really have any plans

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Speaker 1: for making video game consoles or video games in general.

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Speaker 1: They were a hardware company and they weren't looking to

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Speaker 1: get into that industry. Nintendo began working on the successor

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Speaker 1: to the Nintendo Entertainment System or in ne e S,

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Speaker 1: also known as the Famicom in other places. Kutaragi would

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Speaker 1: make a move that wasn't universally accepted. He made a

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Speaker 1: deal with Nintendo to develop the sound chip for the

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Speaker 1: Super in ne e S, also known as the SPC

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Speaker 1: seven hundred. Now a word about this chip. It's a coprocessor,

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Speaker 1: meaning it's similar to a CPU or GPU in some ways.

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Speaker 1: The SPC seven hundred is an eight bit chip, meaning

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Speaker 1: it can handle a maximum word size of eight bits.

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Speaker 1: Now that means that it can handle data that's of

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Speaker 1: eight bits or smaller in size. A bit is a

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Speaker 1: binary digit. That means it is a digit that can

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Speaker 1: have a value of either zero or one. So this

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Speaker 1: processor could handle a unit of data that was up

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Speaker 1: to eight of those digits in a row. So you

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Speaker 1: could have eight zeros, eight ones, or any combination of

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Speaker 1: eight of those those two digits. Modern processors can handle

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Speaker 1: units that are thirty two or sixty four bits in size,

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Speaker 1: and that might not sound like a big deal, but

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Speaker 1: you have to remember that you can use just eight

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Speaker 1: bits to represent the numbers zero to two hundred fifty five,

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Speaker 1: so two hundred fifty six different values. With thirty two bits,

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Speaker 1: you can represent more than four billion numbers. With sixty

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Speaker 1: four bits, you can represent more than eighteen quintillion numbers.

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Speaker 1: So you see very quickly how a larger processor, a

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Speaker 1: processor with a larger word size capability, can handle much

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Speaker 1: more uh information at once, which in turn means that

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Speaker 1: you can handle much more complicated processes. That's what it

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Speaker 1: really boils down to for us from a user perspective.

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Speaker 1: So an eight bit processor has a limit to the

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Speaker 1: amount of information it can, you know, process. Those limitations

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Speaker 1: manifest themselves in different ways. So with a video game console,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about the stuff like the quality of the

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Speaker 1: graphics and the sound creating dedicated chips to handle certain

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Speaker 1: processes can push back limitations a little bit because you're

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Speaker 1: offloading those those rolls off the CPU and onto a coprocessor.

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Speaker 1: But It can also add to some negative stuff, like

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Speaker 1: they can add to the amount of heat being generated

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Speaker 1: inside the device or how much cost it adds to

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Speaker 1: the final product. The goal is to get the most

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Speaker 1: bang for your buck from a manufacturing side as well

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Speaker 1: as from a consumer side. Now, the processor speed for

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Speaker 1: this sound chip was one mega hurts. That means it

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Speaker 1: could complete one million cycles per second. Hurts is a cycle,

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Speaker 1: so a cycle really is sort of a step and instructions.

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Speaker 1: All right, think about a task you might have to do,

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Speaker 1: and then break that task down into steps. Some tests

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Speaker 1: are so simple they only have one step, right, So

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Speaker 1: if the SPC seven hundred had instructions that all just

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Speaker 1: required one step, then that chip would be able to

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Speaker 1: carry out one million instructions per second. I'm oversimplifying a

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Speaker 1: little bit here, but it's just to illustrate a point.

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Speaker 1: But now we get to the tricky part. Some instructions

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Speaker 1: some tasks require more than one step. So you've got

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Speaker 1: a million cycles per second, a million steps per second,

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Speaker 1: but you might not be able to carry out one

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Speaker 1: million tasks per second because some of those tasks will

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Speaker 1: have additional steps. So, in the case of the SPC

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Speaker 1: seven hundred, most of the instructions that was carrying out

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Speaker 1: had an average of two steps, So really it was

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Speaker 1: carrying out about half a million instructions per second, not

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Speaker 1: a full million, because again each instruction on average required

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Speaker 1: two cycles. So what I just described can actually be

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Speaker 1: applied to all sorts of processors, not just the SPC

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Speaker 1: seven hundred. So if you've heard terms like the this

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Speaker 1: computer's process sessors is three point four gigs. That means

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Speaker 1: it's running at a clock speed of three point four

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Speaker 1: giga hurts. That means it can do three point four

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Speaker 1: billion cycles per second, So it can carry out three

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Speaker 1: point four billion steps of instructions every second, but some

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Speaker 1: of those instructions might be enormous in the number of

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Speaker 1: cycles it requires, so you know, your mileage varies. It

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Speaker 1: all depends upon the complexity of what you're running, as

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Speaker 1: well as the speed of the processor. If you've heard

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Speaker 1: the term overclocking, which more typically applies to computers than consoles,

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Speaker 1: that refers to the practice of removing some of the

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Speaker 1: safeguards on processors so that they can operate at a

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Speaker 1: higher clock speed than what they were originally rated for.

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Speaker 1: So maybe a computer manufacturer comes out with a processor

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Speaker 1: that they say is rated for three point two giga hurts,

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Speaker 1: but you overclock it so it runs at three point

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Speaker 1: four giga hurts. So what you've done is you've removed

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Speaker 1: some of those limitations. The processors gonna run faster, also hotter,

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Speaker 1: and hopefully we'll be stable enough so that you get

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Speaker 1: extra performance out of it. Now, on a related note,

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Speaker 1: some manufacturers actually build in specific limitations on their on

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Speaker 1: their chips, not for safety purposes, but so that they

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Speaker 1: can sell the exact same chip in different classes. Right,

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Speaker 1: So they might have a a limiter on a chip

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Speaker 1: that means it won't run faster than three giga hurts,

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Speaker 1: and that same chip, but packaged in a different way,

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Speaker 1: can run at three point two giga hurts, but the

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Speaker 1: limitter has been adjusted. Uh. There are companies that do

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Speaker 1: this because it saves cash. It saves money on production.

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Speaker 1: You just make the same chip a whole bunch of times,

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Speaker 1: you put different limitters on them, and then you can

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Speaker 1: sell them for different markets to maximize your profit. But

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Speaker 1: it also means that if someone figures out how to

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Speaker 1: remove those limitters, they can suddenly get a top of

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Speaker 1: the line processor, but for a much lower cost because

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Speaker 1: just bought one that had been had the brakes turned on, essentially,

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Speaker 1: But let's get back to the SPC seven hundred. That's

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Speaker 1: a that's a discussion for a different time. So this

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Speaker 1: music chip gave the Super Nintendo a lot more versatility

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Speaker 1: when it came to the sounds that it could produce.

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Speaker 1: It set the stage for a pretty fierce debate in

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Speaker 1: gaming circles that pit the Super Nintendo against the Sega

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Speaker 1: Genesis or the Sega Mega Drive. For the record, I

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Speaker 1: don't care about this fight. I don't back one side

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Speaker 1: versus the other. I actually think both systems have their

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Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses, so if you program music that caters

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Speaker 1: to the strengths of either one, you could make something

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Speaker 1: really cool. So the Genesis wasn't great at all the

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Speaker 1: things the Super Nintendo was great at, but then the

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Speaker 1: same was true the other way. It all depended on

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Speaker 1: how you took advantage of the strengths. But back at Sony,

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Speaker 1: Kutaragi's supervisors were none too pleased that they had an

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Speaker 1: engineer who had taken the initiative to make this deal

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Speaker 1: with Nintendo without their approval, and he was allegedly in

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Speaker 1: danger of actually getting fired from Sony, but the CEO

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Speaker 1: of the company, the CEO of Sony norio Oga, intervened

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Speaker 1: and saved Kudaragi's job. He actually said, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you finish this. This project and the

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Speaker 1: chip was part of what set the Supernintendo apart from

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Speaker 1: all the other consoles of that generation. Now, I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: go so far as to say the sound chip is

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Speaker 1: what sealed the deal as far as the Super Nintendo's

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Speaker 1: success story goes, but it definitely played apart and the

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Speaker 1: success meant that Kutaragi got a little bit more freedom

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Speaker 1: to work on things he thought were interesting and potentially profitable.

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Speaker 1: Nintendo was really happy too, and with the SPC seven

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Speaker 1: hundred setting the foundation, Sony and Nintendo began to explore

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Speaker 1: a collaborative project related to the Supernintendo. Sony was pitching

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Speaker 1: a CD peripheral for the Nintendo system and Nintendo was

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Speaker 1: not super keen on this idea. See over at Nintendo,

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Speaker 1: their business model for video game consoles revolved around cartridges,

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Speaker 1: not disks. Video game cartridges are pretty interesting. A cartridge

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Speaker 1: based video game has the game hard coded on the

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Speaker 1: cartridge itself. That is the circuitry of the cartridge is

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Speaker 1: the game. When you insert a cartridge into a video

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Speaker 1: game console, it connects the cartridges circuit board with a

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Speaker 1: sort of motherboard like component in the video game console,

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Speaker 1: and that connection allows you to actually have the code

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Speaker 1: hard coded on the cartridge run on the computing equipment

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Speaker 1: inside the console. This approach has a couple of distinctions

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Speaker 1: from stuff like CD ROM based games, and first is

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Speaker 1: that a cartridge based game will load really quickly with

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Speaker 1: a CD drive. A CD drive has a laser. The

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Speaker 1: laser reads the data that's printed on the c D,

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Speaker 1: but the laser actually first has to scan to the

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Speaker 1: right location on a CD in order to read the

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Speaker 1: relevant data. That slows things down to it because the

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Speaker 1: laser actually has to move to the right location on

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Speaker 1: the disc. So typically with a c D game, the

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Speaker 1: computer system or video game console will read the game

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Speaker 1: information and store some of it into the system's memory.

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Speaker 1: Then the player plays the game and is encountering stuff

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Speaker 1: that's stored in the memory of the game system or

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Speaker 1: the computer, and there's no delay because it's all right

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Speaker 1: there in the random access memory or RAM of the

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Speaker 1: console or computer. But when you get far enough that

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Speaker 1: you're reaching the boundary of the stuff that was stored

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Speaker 1: in RAM. Then the system has to go back to

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Speaker 1: the c D and look for new information. It's like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: I've I've exhausted all the information in this chapter of

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Speaker 1: the book. I need to go to the next chapter.

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Speaker 1: So at that point you typically would encounter a loading screen.

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Speaker 1: So if you've ever played a game where you're opening

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Speaker 1: a door and then you get a loading screen, it's

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Speaker 1: because you've gone as far as you can within the

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Speaker 1: amount of memory of that system, and then you're about

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Speaker 1: to move in to a new area and that needs

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Speaker 1: to get loaded into the system's memory so that you

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Speaker 1: can do that. Cartridge games, though, they send all that

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Speaker 1: relevant information to a system much faster, so there's not

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Speaker 1: really anly loading screens. The game feels much more responsive

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Speaker 1: as a result. From a business standpoint, cartridges have one

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Speaker 1: big advantage over compact discs and that it's really hard

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Speaker 1: to pirate a cartridge. If you have a computer with

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Speaker 1: a couple of c D drives, you know you've got

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Speaker 1: a CD burning drive, then you can potentially bootleg games.

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Speaker 1: You could just take a legitimate c D read it

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Speaker 1: and then copy it to as many blank CDs as

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Speaker 1: you want using the burner. Companies typically include features that

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Speaker 1: make this harder to do. They have like piracy protection features,

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Speaker 1: but typically it's only a matter of time before pirates

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Speaker 1: figure out a way around copy protection systems. But with cartridges,

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Speaker 1: you can't really do that because you have to manufacture

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Speaker 1: the cartridge. You have to hard print the game onto

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Speaker 1: the circuitry of the cartridge. You could attempt to make

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Speaker 1: a rom like a code copy of the cartridge, but

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Speaker 1: then you also have to have an emulator that ends

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Speaker 1: up copying the process of whatever system it was going

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Speaker 1: to run on. It's it's a complicated thing, and most

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Speaker 1: pirates can't really do it, so that's one big advantage.

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Speaker 1: But CDs have their own distinct advantages, and a big

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Speaker 1: one is that a CD can hold way more information

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Speaker 1: than a cartridge can. So cartridge had around the time

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Speaker 1: of the Supernintendo had a maximum capacity of around two

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Speaker 1: megabytes of memory. C d s can hold more than

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Speaker 1: six hundred megabytes of information, so it might load a

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Speaker 1: bit more slowly than a cartridge based game, but if

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Speaker 1: you had a system with really good memory, then you've

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Speaker 1: got the capacity to hold enough data for far more

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Speaker 1: sophisticated games. That sophistication might come out as more rich graphics, sound,

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Speaker 1: more features, the ability to support some video that kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff, stuff that cartridges really aren't do very well.

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Speaker 1: And c d s are actually way cheaper to manufacture

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Speaker 1: than cartridges. So you just start you know, you got

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Speaker 1: the code, you just start printing them to c d s.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to manufacture the circuit boards over and

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Speaker 1: over again, so the process is simpler and you're less

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Speaker 1: likely to encounter manufacturing delays. So Sony, a company that

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Speaker 1: had been one of the co inventors of the compact

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Speaker 1: disc system, the other one being Phillips, pitched this peripheral

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Speaker 1: to Nintendo, and at first Nintendo was sort of on board,

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Speaker 1: you know, tentatively. Nintendo was feeling a pinch from its

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Speaker 1: competitors for the first time since it had debuted the

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Speaker 1: original Nintendo And a quick backstory on that. When Nintendo

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Speaker 1: was prepping its original Famicom Slash and Into No Entertainment

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Speaker 1: System for launch, the home video game industry as a

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Speaker 1: whole was in a downward spiral. It was around the

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Speaker 1: time of the Great video game Crash of nine three.

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Speaker 1: That's when you had a flood of crappy game systems,

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Speaker 1: crappy games, some bone headed licensing deals that some other

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Speaker 1: factors that all combined in a perfect storm to create

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Speaker 1: an unsustainable market for games. And the rise of personal

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Speaker 1: computers at the same time complicated matters. So the industry

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Speaker 1: came crashing down here in the United States and in

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Speaker 1: other parts of the world, to a lesser extent in Japan.

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Speaker 1: And when Nintendo was getting ready to debut the Nintendo

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Speaker 1: Entertainment System in these markets, powerhouses that had once dominated

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Speaker 1: the scene, companies like Atari and Coliko, were in a shambles.

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Speaker 1: So for essentially a full generation of the video game

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Speaker 1: console systems, Nintendo reigned supreme and almost unopposed. But that

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Speaker 1: was the eight bit era. The Super Nintendo was a

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Speaker 1: sixteen bit system, and it wasn't alone. A company called

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Speaker 1: NYC had come out with the Turbo Graphics sixteen and

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Speaker 1: had even created a CD drive peripheral for that console.

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Speaker 1: Is another cartridge based console, but ANBC had already come

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Speaker 1: out with a CD based peripheral to add onto the

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Speaker 1: base system. This would be the first video game console

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Speaker 1: to have a c D rome add on drive, and

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Speaker 1: it debuted all the way back in nineteen eight in Japan.

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Speaker 1: It also cost six hundred dollars, which was a princely

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Speaker 1: sum for a video game peripheral. Even today, that's a lot.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you're talking about a VR system, it

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Speaker 1: might be around that much, but usually you see peripherals

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Speaker 1: that cost less than the base console system, not more.

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Speaker 1: And on the horizon was another CD drive peripheral for

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Speaker 1: a different system, the Sega Genesis or the Mega Drive.

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Speaker 1: They were coming out with a Sega c D peripheral

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Speaker 1: and Nintendo was in danger being left behind, so they

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Speaker 1: agreed to Sony's proposal. Kudaragi got to work on a

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Speaker 1: CD drive that he called the play station to words,

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Speaker 1: but in at least one other source, I saw references

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Speaker 1: to another name, and that name was Super Disc. Now

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Speaker 1: that might have been something that Nintendo was using internally,

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Speaker 1: but everywhere else you just see it called the play station.

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Speaker 1: And I think you could see where the story is going,

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Speaker 1: but there's a lot more crazy stuff to cover. So

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Speaker 1: the deal between Sony and Nintendo was never made fully public,

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Speaker 1: but there are some things we can glean from various

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Speaker 1: interviews and articles, and one of those things is that

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Speaker 1: Sony had a really favorable deal. Chances are this isn't

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Speaker 1: because of Sony's incredible negotiating power, but more because Nintendo

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Speaker 1: executives were highly skeptical that a CD based system would

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Speaker 1: actually sell. Nintendo wanted to make sure that the Super

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Speaker 1: Nintendo could make substantive claims that it supported technologies similar

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Speaker 1: to its competitors, but they were less concerned that those

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Speaker 1: technologies actually sold in the market. So Sony was able

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Speaker 1: to retain the rights to sell any software on the

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Speaker 1: CD based system for Nintendo. I mean, really, they had

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Speaker 1: an exclusive deal. They would be the exclusive provider of

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Speaker 1: software that would run on this device. So really, what

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Speaker 1: the spoils down to is that Sony would be making

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Speaker 1: a plug in piece of hardware for the Supernintendo, and

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Speaker 1: then Sony would be responsible for making the content that

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Speaker 1: would run on that plug in and the Supernintendo would

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Speaker 1: sort of act like an agnostic computer, not not that

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Speaker 1: different from the way PCs do, and the deal would

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Speaker 1: mean that Nintendo would take a portion of the revenue

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Speaker 1: from the hardware sales, but Sony would get to keep

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Speaker 1: all the software revenue because it was the only one

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Speaker 1: involved in that it was the company responsible for making it.

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Speaker 1: And Nintendo had nothing to do with it, And if

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Speaker 1: you're familiar with Nintendo, you might think, hey, that sounds

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Speaker 1: kind of not like them, and you're right. But at

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Speaker 1: the time, during the initial discussions, Sony reps were saying

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Speaker 1: that the plan was to only make non gaming applications

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Speaker 1: for the CD drive peripheral. So you wouldn't be buying

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Speaker 1: Sonic The Hedgehog on CD for the Supernintendo because Sony

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Speaker 1: would not be making games for the machine. Instead, you

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Speaker 1: would buy a CD that had an encyclopedia or something

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00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:00,840
Speaker 1: like that on it. The seed Drive would give the

360
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,359
Speaker 1: Supernintendo more capabilities, but gaming would not be among them.

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Speaker 1: At least that was what the various parties agreed to verbally.

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Speaker 1: On paper, however, it would be a different story. I'll

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Speaker 1: explain more in just a moment, but first let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break. Getting back to Nintendo and Sony, the

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00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,440
Speaker 1: contract that was drawn up between these two companies apparently

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Speaker 1: didn't expressly forbid Sony from making video games for the

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Speaker 1: CD drive. That was what everyone agreed to leading into

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Speaker 1: the contract, but the contract itself kind of left that

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Speaker 1: stuff out. So legally, Sony could potentially have a way

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Speaker 1: to make games, and that would have been a major

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Speaker 1: win for Sony. See, Sony would be responsible for that

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Speaker 1: hardware and would share revenue with Nintendo for that, but

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Speaker 1: on the software side, the video game side, Sony would

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Speaker 1: be the sole entity responsible for making those titles, wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have to share any money when Nintendo. Sony could potentially

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Speaker 1: make CD based games for the Supernintendo and keep all

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Speaker 1: the dough plus take advantage of all the advantages of

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Speaker 1: a c D system. This would be an amazing opportunity.

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Speaker 1: At the time, Sony had no presence in the video

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Speaker 1: game industry. They could piggyback off the dominant position Nintendo

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Speaker 1: was in, so they would benefit from Nintendo's reputation. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: Sony would be making the sweet sweet cash from these

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Speaker 1: video games. Now, this is all dependent upon if the

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Speaker 1: representatives from Sony decided that they wanted to obey the

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Speaker 1: letter of the contract but not the spirit of the

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Speaker 1: original agreement. And I'm not saying the folks that Sony

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Speaker 1: were planning on making an ethically questionable move like that.

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Speaker 1: There's no real indication that that was going on. There's

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Speaker 1: it's it's possible, maybe even probable, but I don't have

390
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,639
Speaker 1: any proof of that. However, it must have occurred to

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Speaker 1: someone at Nintendo that this was a possibility. So Sony

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00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:02,960
Speaker 1: was in the middle of a massive transformation of its

393
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:05,119
Speaker 1: own right around this time. Again, this would be like

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Speaker 1: the late nineteen eighties leading into the early nine nineties.

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Speaker 1: For decades, Sony had only been in the hardware business,

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Speaker 1: but starting in around n seven, they began to acquire

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Speaker 1: media companies, music labels, movie studios, that sort of stuff,

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Speaker 1: and it was emerging from this cocoon of being a

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00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:31,360
Speaker 1: hardware caterpillar into a media giant butterfly. And beyond movies

400
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 1: and music and stuff, Sony also created a new subsidiary

401
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:38,520
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine called Sony image Soft. An image

402
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 1: soft business was can you guess video games? So over

403
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,640
Speaker 1: in Nintendo. People are starting to get a little uneasy

404
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: about this agreement as they thought about the possibilities further

405
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: down the road. So if Sony held up their end

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00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 1: of the verbal contract, the worst thing that would happen

407
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 1: is probably no one would go out and buy the

408
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 1: peripheral because if you could only run stuff like encyclopedias,

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00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 1: then who's going to bother spending all that extra money?

410
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 1: Nintendo would still be able to say that they were

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00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: keeping up with their competitors, and no one would really

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00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:17,720
Speaker 1: risk anything apart from the sunken cost of building the hardware.

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00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: But if Sony decided it was going to start making

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Speaker 1: games for the Super Nintendo, that could cut into Nintendo's business.

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00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:27,520
Speaker 1: The company making the console might find out that had

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00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 1: to compete against another company making games for the same system,

417
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 1: and with the technical advantages of the CD system, that

418
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: could be a strike against Nintendo itself. They could have

419
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:42,639
Speaker 1: created their own giant killer and public things seemed to

420
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,160
Speaker 1: be progressing as planned. Heck, even after things would fall

421
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,439
Speaker 1: apart and spoiler alert, things are about to fall apart,

422
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: there were still some articles that were published that said

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00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 1: Sony and Nintendo were moving forward to develop this peripheral. Now.

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00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: To be fair, this was also an era of hard

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00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 1: copy blishing, so you don't have to go out and

426
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,520
Speaker 1: buy actual physical magazine or newspaper or whatever. See stories

427
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 1: typically had to be ready weeks in advance. But it

428
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: does show that things fell apart relatively quickly, so we're

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00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: up to nine now. In those days, the Consumer Electronics

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00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 1: Show or c e S would hold two events each year.

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00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,360
Speaker 1: There's one in the winter in Las Vegas and one

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00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: in the summer in Chicago. So this was in June

433
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: of nineteen in Chicago, Illinois. And there's a story about

434
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 1: how at a press conference at this c E S

435
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,639
Speaker 1: Nintendo representatives took the stage and announced the development of

436
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:41,240
Speaker 1: a CD ROM based peripheral. There was just one small

437
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: deviation from the one that everyone had heard about and

438
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: that Kutaragi had been working on for a couple of

439
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 1: years already. Nintendo was going to make this peripheral with Phillips,

440
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: which was one of Sony's biggest competitors. Remember they were

441
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: the co developer of c D WRONG technology back in

442
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: the early nineteen eighties with Sony. Now, this version of

443
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,119
Speaker 1: the story says that the Sony executives first learned about

444
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 1: this switcheroo at that press conference that they were sitting

445
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: in the audience and they hear this and they gasp

446
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: because they've suddenly been told that the thing they've been

447
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: working on is getting scrapped in favor of a product

448
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: from a competitor. But as it turns out, that's not

449
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,880
Speaker 1: actually how it all went down. It's almost as bad,

450
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 1: but not quite that bad. Sony had actually known about

451
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 1: this change for two whole days leading up to the

452
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,479
Speaker 1: press conference, and that's because there was a reporter for

453
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,360
Speaker 1: the Seattle Times who interviewed people from Nintendo, found out

454
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: about this plan and wrote it about it in an article.

455
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 1: Just you know, this is a piece of news that

456
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: Nintendo is partnering with Phillips. So the Sony folks had

457
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 1: known about it for two days. They had even had

458
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: their press event the day before, and at that press

459
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:58,919
Speaker 1: event they still announced the PlayStation, the Nintendo Sony co

460
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: produced Aroduct And again that's two words, play station, not PlayStation,

461
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 1: one word with the P ANDD s capitalized. And the

462
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:08,679
Speaker 1: idea was that Sony was going to go ahead and

463
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:11,399
Speaker 1: market a version of the Super Nintendo that had a

464
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 1: CD ROM drive attached to it. Meanwhile, Nintendo and Phillips

465
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 1: would release their version of a Supernintendo that would include

466
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: a CD ROM that in turn would have enhancements to

467
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: the Super Nintendo's capabilities, and it was all really confusing.

468
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 1: That version of the PlayStation never made it to market,

469
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: but Sony did build prototypes of it. In fact, one

470
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: collector was able to nab a working model at an

471
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: auction years ago. The auction actually came out of a

472
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 1: company that had been filing for bankruptcy. There was a

473
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,160
Speaker 1: former Sony CEO who worked at that company, and apparently

474
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: he had a play station prototype, a Sony Nintendo PlayStation

475
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: prototype in his office. I think it most recently sold

476
00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 1: at auction for three hundred sixty thousand dollars, so I

477
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,919
Speaker 1: thought that it was expensive back then. Okay, but the

478
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: story keeps going before we can get to the first

479
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: real PlayStation, and it even gets more crazy. So when

480
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,439
Speaker 1: last we left off, Nintendo announced it was working with

481
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 1: Phillips to develop a CD ROM peripheral, and the scope

482
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: of that project was actually larger than the Sony deal

483
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: would have been. The Phillips periph role was supposed to

484
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,440
Speaker 1: boost the Super Nintendo computing power, so it's like you

485
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,640
Speaker 1: would get a Super Nintendo one point five with additional

486
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: abilities and graphics and sound thanks to eight more megabytes

487
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 1: of RAM as a result. So that was a major

488
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: difference between the two because the Sony system was just

489
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: meant to play c D s. Meanwhile, folks at Sony

490
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 1: and Nintendo were working to repair their relationship after this fallout.

491
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 1: Nintendo must have been looking at the debut of the

492
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: upcoming Sega c D with anxiety, so quietly Nintendo and

493
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 1: Sony agreed to work together again. And now the Nintendo

494
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 1: c D per for roll, the one that was working

495
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: with Phillips, was also going to include Sony as another partner.

496
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: So now you've got Nintendo, Phillips, and Sony working together

497
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: on this thing. In addition, Nintendo would be able to

498
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: make money on Sony c D games sold on the

499
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: system through a licensing agreement, so that work around got

500
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: sewed up as well. The company has made the announcement

501
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: one day before the Sega c D was to come

502
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: out in the United States, which seemed like a pretty

503
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: clear attempt to take some steam out of the engine

504
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: of Sega and buy some time while the companies created

505
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 1: their own new product. Now, one person who was not

506
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: really behind this whole effort was Kin Kudaragi, the guy

507
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: who had been working on the original Sony Nintendo play station.

508
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 1: While Kutaragi had pushed for the collaboration back at the beginning,

509
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: Nintendo's decision to dump Sony for Phillips really rubbed him

510
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,960
Speaker 1: the wrong way. He didn't see it as just unjust.

511
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,479
Speaker 1: He thought of it as unforgivable. He was ready to

512
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: move on, and in fact he did, and he turned

513
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: away from Nintendo and he looked toward another possible collaborator,

514
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 1: and that would be Sega. Sega's Genesis or Mega Drive

515
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 1: already had its own CD peripheral, the Sega c D.

516
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: That's what Nintendo had been flipping out about. But Sega

517
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: was also looking forward to the next generation of consoles

518
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 1: and the goal was to develop a console that was

519
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 1: c D based from the get go. So this was

520
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: sort of in the early stages of them thinking about

521
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,959
Speaker 1: the Sega Saturn, and this was not supposed to be

522
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: a cartridge system with an additional CD drive. It was

523
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: supposed to be c D dedicated. Sega was interested in

524
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 1: collaborating with Sony in order to make this happen. Kim

525
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: Kutaragi would lead the Sony side of things in early discussions,

526
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 1: and on the Sega side you had the then head

527
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: of Sega's hardware development division that would be the Headeki Sato.

528
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: He was also working on the concept. And after the

529
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: fallout following the original Sony and Nintendo plan, the two

530
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: parties decided it would be best if they didn't publicize

531
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: the project. They want to keep it secret because if

532
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: it doesn't pay off, then nobody loses face. Kutaragi was

533
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 1: not terribly confident that it was going to work out,

534
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 1: and he actually expressed his doubts very early on, and

535
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: ultimately Sony made the decision to back out of the

536
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 1: agreement before it got too far along in the process. Meanwhile,

537
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: as many Sony board members were wanting to hedge their

538
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,240
Speaker 1: bets and stick with a relationship with Nintendo because Nintendo

539
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: was a proven success story in video games, Kutaragi was

540
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: growing more and more convinced that Sony can make its

541
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 1: own video game console and leave everyone else behind. He

542
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: felt that the smart move, both technologically and from a

543
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 1: business perspective, was to stop trying to hitch a wagon

544
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: to Nintendo's proverbial horses and for Sony to pioneer their

545
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: own path. And while he held very little decision making

546
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: power of his own, he was still on really good

547
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: terms with Sony's CEO, Norio Oga. Kutaragi had impressed Oga

548
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: back in the s PC seven hundred project that was

549
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 1: the sound system for the original Super Nintendo, and Oga

550
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,959
Speaker 1: must have felt that many of the company's board members

551
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 1: were being too hesitant to jump into the industry wholeheartedly. Moreover,

552
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: Kutaragi reportedly appealed to Oga's sense of pride. Kutaragi essentially said,

553
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 1: Nintendo betrayed our company. Are you just gonna sit back

554
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 1: and let that happen? And Oga's response was, according to reports,

555
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: pretty animated. He got head up about it, and he

556
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: was enraged by Nintendo's actions. So while the board for

557
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: Sony we're pushing for a collaboration, the CEO of Sony

558
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 1: secretly gave Kutaragi the authority to develop Sony's own video

559
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: game console. Meanwhile, Nintendo was making some design changes to

560
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 1: the planned hardware that they were going to debut, this

561
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: Super Nintendo with CD ROM drive. They kept changing things

562
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: and that was causing delays. And you can kind of

563
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: think of this as a type of feature creep. That's

564
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: when designers plan out a product, but then they say, hey,

565
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,479
Speaker 1: you know, it would be cool if this vacuum cleaner

566
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 1: could also I don't know, brush your teeth or whatever.

567
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 1: Then some poor team of engineers has to figure out

568
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 1: how to actually make that work. And then they have

569
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:15,720
Speaker 1: to figure out how to make it work more cheaply

570
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: so that the product can actually sell the price where

571
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: people are going to buy it. All of this takes time,

572
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,960
Speaker 1: and it makes you slip deadlines. With video game hardware,

573
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 1: it gets trickier because as delays happened, other companies are

574
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 1: still developing their technologies. They start to come out with

575
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: more advanced consoles. So you might be working on something

576
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 1: and then you think, oh, wouldn't it be cool if

577
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 1: it also did this other thing. That sets you back

578
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: as you try and make it do this other thing.

579
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 1: Suddenly someone else comes out with an even better console,

580
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 1: and you're even further behind than you were before, and

581
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: so by the time you actually debut your product, it's

582
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,640
Speaker 1: already obsolete. So then you have to go back to

583
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: your drawing board, soup up your hardware, pushback production time further.

584
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 1: And this happens in tech all the time, not just

585
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: in the video game where world, but it does happen

586
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 1: in the video game world a lot. In fact, that

587
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: it even happens on the software side. You might remember

588
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: the saga of the video game Duke Nukem Forever, which

589
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:12,760
Speaker 1: was in development and vaporware for more than a decade,

590
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: as the company behind it kept delaying the production of

591
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: the game. As game engines got better and better, they

592
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 1: kept saying, Oh, we can make it even better than

593
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: it was, but meant having to start all over multiple times. Anyway,

594
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:29,439
Speaker 1: back to the Nintendo and Sony saga, the delays were

595
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: the doom of the nes Sony Phillips c D system.

596
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 1: It never came out. Nintendo was already developing the next

597
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:39,360
Speaker 1: generation of its video game consoles that would be the

598
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: Nintendo sixty four. The sixty four would outperform the old

599
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,800
Speaker 1: Super Nintendo. It just seemed like it was a losing

600
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:49,760
Speaker 1: proposition to try and boost an old piece of hardware

601
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:54,400
Speaker 1: beyond its lifespan. Now, there was no official acknowledgement regarding

602
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 1: the cancelation of the project, but Nintendo effectively canceled it.

603
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: It kind of ghosted on the whole thing. I've never

604
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: seen any verified reports that the company has actually produced

605
00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:08,280
Speaker 1: any working prototypes of this proposed variation of the Superintendo.

606
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,399
Speaker 1: It turned out those uh Sony board members who were

607
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 1: determined to play it safe, we're actually backing the wrong

608
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:18,800
Speaker 1: horse all along. Now I say that with the benefit

609
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:21,399
Speaker 1: of hindsight, but back in the day, I probably would

610
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: have thought that they were making the responsible call because

611
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,880
Speaker 1: Nintendo had a reputation and Sony had an unproven ability

612
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 1: to make its own stand in the video game console market.

613
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: All of that means that Ken Kutaragi's somewhat clandestine project

614
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:38,640
Speaker 1: to develop a stand alone Sony PlayStation console would end

615
00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,799
Speaker 1: up being the winning strategy. I'll explain more in just

616
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: a moment, but first let's take another quick break. Kudaragi

617
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,919
Speaker 1: and his team went to work building out Sony's own

618
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 1: video game console. They already had a good amount of

619
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:00,959
Speaker 1: experience due to working on the Nintendo projects. They laid

620
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,399
Speaker 1: out what they wanted the console to be, and during

621
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 1: the development process, Nintendo executives learned about what was going

622
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 1: on at Sony, and they knew or suspected that at

623
00:36:10,719 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 1: least some of the components the company was using to

624
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: make its first game console were originally developed for the

625
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 1: scrapped Nintendo Sony Super Nintendo peripheral. So Nintendo tried to

626
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:26,560
Speaker 1: take legal action to stop Sony from developing the PlayStation

627
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: because they were arguing the original bones for that system

628
00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 1: were made as part of a partnership deal with Nintendo,

629
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 1: but ultimately the courts decided against Nintendo and found in

630
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 1: favor of Sony, so they got to go ahead. So

631
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:46,440
Speaker 1: despite the technical, legal, political, from an internal Sony perspective,

632
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: and market challenges, the PlayStation team was actually able to

633
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,920
Speaker 1: build the gaming device they had in mind after years

634
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,719
Speaker 1: of struggle, and this was the Sony PlayStation, or as

635
00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:00,359
Speaker 1: we refer to it today, the PS one. Of course,

636
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:02,840
Speaker 1: back then, we didn't call it the PS one because

637
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,320
Speaker 1: no one knew that there was ever going to be

638
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 1: a PS two. You don't call World War one world

639
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 1: War one when it's happening, because that means you suspect

640
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: there will be a World War two, and the optimist says,

641
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,880
Speaker 1: let's hope that doesn't happen. I mean, it happened, but

642
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,360
Speaker 1: we hoped it wouldn't happen. The first PlayStation had a

643
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: thirty two bit CPU. Now remember a thirty two bit

644
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 1: system isn't just twice as powerful as a sixteen bit system,

645
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 1: it's way more than that. So a sixteen bit number

646
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 1: has two to the power of sixteen different possible values, right,

647
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:38,879
Speaker 1: because a bit can have one of two values, it's

648
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 1: either zero or it's of one. And when you have

649
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:44,840
Speaker 1: sixteen of them together, that means you have two to

650
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 1: the power of sixteen different combinations of those values. That

651
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: actually means that a sixteen bit integer can store sixty

652
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: five thousand, three hundred fifty six distinct values. Remember eight

653
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,319
Speaker 1: bit was two hundred fifty five zero to two fifty

654
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 1: five two ft six total sixteen is six fifty six.

655
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 1: You go to thirty two bit has two to the

656
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,400
Speaker 1: power of thirty two different possible values, which means a

657
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 1: thirty two bit integer can store more than four billion

658
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 1: distinct values. So it's an enormous jump in power. The

659
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:23,319
Speaker 1: first PlayStation had sixteen megabits or if you prefer, you know,

660
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: two megabytes of RAM. Remember a bite is eight bits,

661
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: so sixteen megabits of RAM or random access memory. That's

662
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,200
Speaker 1: the type of memory that the computer uses to store

663
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,320
Speaker 1: data for quick retrieval. So typically speaking, if your computer

664
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: has more RAM, you can store more information in that

665
00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:42,960
Speaker 1: memory and you get faster access out of it, and

666
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 1: so to you, it seems like it translates into just

667
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,640
Speaker 1: faster response with your computer and it doesn't have to

668
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 1: pull from the hard disc as frequently. The system also

669
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 1: had eight megabits or one byte of v RAM that's

670
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,960
Speaker 1: video RAM. I'm guessing you guys can figure out what

671
00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:04,320
Speaker 1: v RAM is meant to do. It had its own

672
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:09,280
Speaker 1: g FX graphics processing unit. It supported twenty four channels

673
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 1: of sound with its own dedicated four megabits of sound

674
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: RAM with a sampling frequency of forty four point one.

675
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:19,920
Speaker 1: Killer hurts. I've talked about sampling frequencies on other episodes.

676
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: I'd rather not jump off topic to talk about it

677
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 1: right now, so I'm going to ignore this diversion, which

678
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 1: is very unlike me and Soldier on. It could also

679
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: support up to four thousand sprites, not the drink. Sprites

680
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: in computer graphics are two dimensional bit maps. Uh. They're

681
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 1: very important, especially in the old arcade scene, and they

682
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: integrate into larger scenes. You can kind of think of

683
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: them as objects in this context. The PlayStation could create

684
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:51,440
Speaker 1: three D rendered graphics. In fact, it was intended to

685
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,720
Speaker 1: do so. Now those three D rendered graphics are fairly

686
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: primitive by today's standards, but the PlayStation could also support

687
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 1: full ocean video. Guys, if you've never explored the world

688
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:07,839
Speaker 1: of full motion video or fm V games, you gotta

689
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 1: do some searches on YouTube. The industry was more than

690
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,960
Speaker 1: a little puzzled about how they might be able to

691
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 1: use live action video to enhance video games. The results

692
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 1: range from interesting, maybe a little limited, but you can

693
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:23,839
Speaker 1: see where they were going and you can appreciate their

694
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 1: creativity all the way down to the cringing lee hilarious.

695
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:33,799
Speaker 1: There's a Tim Curry Frankenstein game that is out of

696
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 1: this world as far as cringe goes. I love it

697
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,959
Speaker 1: so much. So there are many terrible performances in FMV games,

698
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,280
Speaker 1: and it is glorious anyway. These capabilities of the system

699
00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 1: set the PlayStation apart from stuff like Nintendo's sixty four system.

700
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 1: One thing the original PlayStation didn't have was an internal

701
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 1: storage drive. Now this was not unusual in early consoles.

702
00:40:57,480 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 1: I mean in the old days, there was no way

703
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: to say of your progress in a game at all.

704
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 1: You would play until you ran out of time or

705
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 1: energy or patients or whatever. Maybe your mom told you

706
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 1: to get off the video game system and turn off

707
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 1: the TV. And then if you did turn off the system,

708
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 1: everything would go away as far as the game is concerned.

709
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:19,480
Speaker 1: The next time you turn everything on, you would have

710
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 1: to start over from the very beginning. There was no

711
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 1: saving your progress. The PlayStation was no different. So if

712
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 1: you did want to save your progress, you have to

713
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: invest in some memory cards. The memory cards were these

714
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 1: plastic cards that you could slot into the game system.

715
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: They had these little slots that were just above the

716
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,600
Speaker 1: two game controller reports on the front of the console.

717
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 1: Each memory card could hold on eight whole kilobytes of data.

718
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:51,320
Speaker 1: That's um, that's not very much. Speaking of controllers, gamers

719
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,840
Speaker 1: are probably pretty familiar with the dual Shock controller, but

720
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:58,799
Speaker 1: that would actually come out later several years after the

721
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: PlayStation first day. You the duel Shock as stuff on it,

722
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:06,399
Speaker 1: like two thumbsticks, but the original PlayStation one controller did

723
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 1: not have thumbsticks. It had four direction buttons up, down, left,

724
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: and right, and then had the four round buttons designated

725
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,320
Speaker 1: with colorful shapes. There's the green triangle at the top,

726
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:20,799
Speaker 1: the red circle at the right, the blue x at

727
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: the bottom, and the peak square on the left. And

728
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,399
Speaker 1: since I'm more of an Xbox gamer, I do own

729
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:27,719
Speaker 1: a PS four, but I play more games on the

730
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 1: Xbox and the PS four. Going from an Xbox controller

731
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 1: to a PlayStation controller means that for the first half

732
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:36,760
Speaker 1: hour or so, I just keep hitting the wrong buttons.

733
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 1: So that's a me problem. That's not a problem with

734
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 1: the system. That's a problem with with me. Jonathan Kutaragi's

735
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:47,320
Speaker 1: team had the PlayStation ready to launch in Japan in December.

736
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: The company would wait almost a year before launching it

737
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:56,840
Speaker 1: in North America, and the company also aimed to launch

738
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,799
Speaker 1: the PlayStation one week after the project did launch date

739
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 1: of the Sega Saturn console to takes some again some

740
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 1: of the steam out of the engines of of Sega,

741
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,160
Speaker 1: and while the team was hard at work on the hardware,

742
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: there was a question about the games themselves. At this stage,

743
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 1: Sony did not have an internal video game development team

744
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:19,279
Speaker 1: for the PlayStation. They had a video game unit, but

745
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 1: that was focused more on computer games. At the time,

746
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 1: Nintendo and Sega had several other companies. All had first

747
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:29,440
Speaker 1: party developers working for them, which meant their consoles were

748
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,479
Speaker 1: guaranteed to have launch titles ready to go. Now, there's

749
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:34,760
Speaker 1: not a guarantee on the quality of those launch titles,

750
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:38,319
Speaker 1: but some companies like Nintendo generally do pretty well with that.

751
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 1: Sony was more dependent upon relationships with third party developers

752
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:47,839
Speaker 1: other companies that would make games to run on the system.

753
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: Some of that was actually pretty easy for Sony to do.

754
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,720
Speaker 1: Some of those relationships were easy to form, largely thanks

755
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,920
Speaker 1: to Nintendo. See, there were companies that were sort of

756
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 1: jerked around when Nintendo changed policies about whether or not

757
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 1: it was ever going to release a CD based system.

758
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 1: For example, the famous video game developers Square, which was

759
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:11,920
Speaker 1: responsible and is responsible for the insanely popular Final Fantasy series,

760
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:15,120
Speaker 1: that was one of the companies that got kind of

761
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:19,440
Speaker 1: burnt by Nintendo. They had dedicated resources to creating titles

762
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,600
Speaker 1: for a system that never saw the light of day,

763
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 1: so they were receptive to Sony's pitch to make games

764
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 1: for that system instead. Now, one monkey wrench in that

765
00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: particular approach came from inside Sony Computer Entertainment America or

766
00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:38,920
Speaker 1: s c e A. This was a North American branch

767
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: of the company that would oversee operations in sales in

768
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:44,560
Speaker 1: North America. So the thought was that markets in North

769
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:48,520
Speaker 1: America and the market in say, Japan, are very different,

770
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:52,040
Speaker 1: and thus you need different strategies to make products a

771
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:56,320
Speaker 1: success in their respective regions. The general philosophy being certain

772
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:59,239
Speaker 1: games might sell really well in one place, but they're

773
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: never gonna go over well in another. So games that

774
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:06,720
Speaker 1: could do incredibly well in Japan we're seen as being

775
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 1: completely unmarketable in the United States. Well, the head of

776
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: s c e A at that time as PlayStation was

777
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,280
Speaker 1: getting ready to launch was a guy named Bernie Stoller,

778
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,960
Speaker 1: and Stoller had his own requirement as far as game

779
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:25,239
Speaker 1: development went for the PlayStation, so the PlayStation could run

780
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: games with three D rendered graphics, which is obviously one

781
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 1: D better than two D graphics, right, I mean, it's

782
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 1: in the name. So Stiller put in place a policy

783
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: no North American games would feature two D graphics. All

784
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 1: new games needed to be three D. This makes me

785
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:45,960
Speaker 1: think of there was a time at Disney when Pixar

786
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 1: films were doing really well, where you had executives at

787
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 1: Disney suggests that perhaps all Disney films should move to

788
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:59,600
Speaker 1: computer animation, that hand drawn animation was no longer popular. Uh,

789
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 1: and at computer animation was just superior from a market standpoint.

790
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:09,440
Speaker 1: It's kind of not really taking reality into account. So

791
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:12,919
Speaker 1: just as that wasn't true that hand drawn animation can

792
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:16,160
Speaker 1: have a place, it's the story that's really important, so

793
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: is the same for video games. Three D is not

794
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 1: inherently better than two D. It's also in the execution

795
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:27,760
Speaker 1: and what the gameplay is and the connection to the gamer,

796
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,680
Speaker 1: so that meant some games like Final Fantasy seven would

797
00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 1: not have a place in the North American market initially,

798
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:37,719
Speaker 1: at least not as long as Stolen was in charge. Now,

799
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: he did leave Sony about a year after the launch

800
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 1: of the PlayStation in the United States, and then he

801
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 1: went to work for Drumroll Please Sega as president and

802
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:53,480
Speaker 1: chief operating officer. He restructured the company, which was rough

803
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 1: had about three people laid off as a result, and

804
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 1: he was trying to prepare the company for the launch

805
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,040
Speaker 1: of the Sega Dreamcast. Now you may have heard of

806
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:05,319
Speaker 1: the Dreamcast, but seeing as there's no Dreamcast five coming

807
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:07,880
Speaker 1: out this year, that pretty much tells you how everything

808
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:11,719
Speaker 1: went down. Let's get back to Sony. Even if a

809
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:15,279
Speaker 1: video game developer had not been burned by Nintendo, a

810
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:18,840
Speaker 1: lot of them were eager to try to create games

811
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,640
Speaker 1: for the Sony PlayStation. That console was clearly more powerful

812
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: and more capable than other systems that were currently on

813
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:28,560
Speaker 1: the market, and so Sony began to create partnerships with

814
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,760
Speaker 1: various developers, and they shared information about the PlayStation's design

815
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:36,319
Speaker 1: so the developers could optimize their code to run on

816
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:39,399
Speaker 1: a PlayStation. Once it was ready to go, Sony also

817
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:42,480
Speaker 1: would send out developer versions of the console. So these

818
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: were working models that weren't yet in the final consumer format,

819
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,800
Speaker 1: but they were designed so that game developers could test

820
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,480
Speaker 1: their games make sure that they actually ran on the hardware.

821
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:54,879
Speaker 1: The pre production work paid off, and the PlayStation would

822
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: launch with a decent library of titles right from the start. Now,

823
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 1: the launch titles for the PS one in North America

824
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,880
Speaker 1: included games like Battle Arena to Shinden, which was one

825
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:08,959
Speaker 1: of the first, if not the actual first fighting game

826
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:13,400
Speaker 1: to have both three D rendered characters wielding weapons and

827
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 1: capable of side stepping, meaning they could move deeper or

828
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:22,000
Speaker 1: more shallower in the field of view. So typically in

829
00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:24,279
Speaker 1: these sort of fighting games, you can move left or

830
00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 1: right across the screen, but you can't move closer to

831
00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:31,120
Speaker 1: our further from the view of the person playing. Then

832
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,759
Speaker 1: there was ESPN Extreme Games, because this was in the

833
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:38,480
Speaker 1: nineties and back then everything had to be extreme. There

834
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 1: was a first person shooter called Kiliak the DNA Imperative,

835
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:44,960
Speaker 1: which I had never even heard of until I did

836
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 1: the research for this episode. There was the incredibly popular

837
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:53,160
Speaker 1: NBA Jam Tournament edition There was a game called Ridge Racer,

838
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,319
Speaker 1: another popular game in that lineup. There was also a

839
00:48:56,360 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: street fighter game in that lineup, although it was Fighter

840
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:03,719
Speaker 1: the movie addition, so you know, take that with a

841
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:06,520
Speaker 1: grain of salt. It also had Raymond that was another

842
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 1: launch title, and there were several others as well. After

843
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:15,279
Speaker 1: Stoller left, the PlayStation's library in North America began to

844
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 1: include titles like Final Fantasy seven Thiss good thing too,

845
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 1: because that title would become the second most popular PlayStation

846
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:26,759
Speaker 1: one title of all times, selling ten million units. The

847
00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 1: other big one was Grand Tarismo, a racing game. The console,

848
00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 1: already enjoying some early success, was on the road to

849
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:38,359
Speaker 1: making it big. Now we'll continue our story of the

850
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:42,120
Speaker 1: PlayStation and the line of PlayStation consoles in our next episode.

851
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: This one focused a lot on the prehistory of the console,

852
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 1: but future episodes are going to look more closely at

853
00:49:48,239 --> 00:49:52,920
Speaker 1: the consoles themselves, the game franchises that exist thanks to

854
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:57,880
Speaker 1: the PlayStation line, and the broader impact on culture and society.

855
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,640
Speaker 1: If you guys have suggestions for a few sure episodes

856
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:04,279
Speaker 1: of tech stuff, whether it's a company uh specific technology,

857
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:08,280
Speaker 1: of personality in tech, maybe it's just a concept intact

858
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 1: that you want to learn more about, let me know,

859
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 1: send me a message. You can send it on Twitter

860
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 1: or Facebook that My handle at both of those is

861
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 1: text stuff HSW and I'll talk to you again really soon.

862
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.