WEBVTT - Make Way for the PS2 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to text Time, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.480 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.920 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:22.080 and I love all things tech and today we are 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.000 going to pick up where we left off with the 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.960 episode about the birth of the PlayStation. And here is 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:33.000 the story so far. I covered in that recent episode 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.520 how Ken Kutaragi, the so called father of the PlayStation, 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:41.720 had to develop Sony's first video game console essentially out 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.479 of view of the company's board members, who are more 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.480 keen on pursuing a collaboration with Nintendo at the time. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.320 But the Nintendo partnership never produced a consumer product, and 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.000 I'm not even sure if there were ever any working 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.639 prototypes that came out of this project, because Nintendo kind 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.959 of kill hold it all off without ever making an 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:06.839 official announcement about the program being canceled. Kutaragi was confident 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.360 that Sony could build a CD ROM based video game 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.440 system as opposed to Nintendo's cartridge based system that would 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.280 not just compete, but would outperform the competition. Now, it 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:22.440 almost wasn't called the PlayStation, by the way, Kutaragi wanted 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.480 to call it that. In fact, that was the name 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.920 of the proposed Nintendo and Sony peripheral for the Supernintendo, 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.240 though at that time that version of the PlayStation was 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:36.240 two words play station, and Kutaragi wanted to create a 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.240 game console called PlayStation one word big P big S. 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.880 When Sony CEO Norrio Oga gave the thumbs up, it 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.840 was going to be called PlayStation. Sony had already even 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.440 registered the name. Everything was ready to go, but as 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.720 a courtesy, they brought the idea to the founder of Sony, 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:59.520 Akio Morita. This is sort of a very traditional approach 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.560 in jeb and Theese business. It was a sign of 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.280 respect to the founder. Now, Marita loved the idea of 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.200 the video game console. He liked the idea of getting 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.440 into that industry, and everything was great, except he hated 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.560 the name, and he said that they should change it. 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.720 So reluctantly they began to search for a new name, 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.760 and then a couple of months later, Marita sadly suffered 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.240 a severe stroke and it was bad enough to keep 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.560 him from returning to work. The team hadn't found a 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.239 new name at that point, and everything was already ready 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.080 to go under the PlayStation name so Oga. The CEO 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.280 quietly kind of gave the go ahead for them to 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.280 stick with that name after all. One thing I didn't 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.000 really cover in the previous episode was how Kutaragi came 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:54.480 across to his superiors and his subordinates. Stubborn would probably 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.680 be a good adjective to use, traditional another good adjective, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:03.320 aggressive is another one. Shigeyo Maruyama said in interviews that 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.639 while he was a manager at the time and Kutaragi 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:10.160 was an engineer at the time, Kutaragi would sometimes treat 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:14.560 Shigeyo like he was the subordinate. At one point, angry 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.440 that Shigeo wasn't doing whatever it was that Kutaragi wanted done, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.639 Kutaragi said that Shigeo should quit, and according to Shigeyo, 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.080 who seemed pretty good natured about the whole thing, Kutaragi 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.200 was like a temperamental artist who didn't believe in apologizing 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.400 even if he knew he was the one in the wrong. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.960 So he's definitely a visionary, but he also sounds like 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.839 the kind of guy I wouldn't really want to work with. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.680 Kutaragi also encountered issues when he tried to work with 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:46.160 his counterparts in the United States. He was in charge 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.200 of the Sony PlayStation project, a huge deal. However, that 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.160 wasn't reflected in his official title, which was more or 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.640 less like assistant manager. The business hierarchy in Japan is 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.760 really rigid. Companies have strict rules in place that limit 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.480 when someone could be even eligible to apply for a 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.560 position with a larger title. So while Kutaragi was leading 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.600 the PlayStation efforts and his decisions were the ones that 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.240 completely guided the development of that console, his title was 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.599 translated into assistant manager essentially, and that meant that his 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.920 US counterparts weren't really listening to him. I mean, why 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.560 would they. They were all executives, right, They had big, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.400 important titles. And now I should add that does not 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.480 necessarily reflect a person's capability, or their wisdom, or their 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.560 knowledge or anything like that. But titles are sometimes seen 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.120 as more important than those qualities because because humans are 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.520 silly creatures I guess anyway, Kutaragi would eventually resort to 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.800 using more grandiose titles in English on his business cards 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.640 because as US counterparts couldn't read his real title, which 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:56.920 was printed in Japanese, so his real title would say 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.120 assistant manager in Japanese, but he might have senior vice 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.160 president or something listed as his title in English. And 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.920 I include this story simply because it points out a 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.200 cultural divide between Japan and the United States, and it's 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.520 one that a lot of people have to figure out 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:18.160 how to work around and through whenever they're producing collaborative projects. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.160 And it's not you know, it's not an outlier. This 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.480 is something that lots of companies deal with, but I 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.479 thought it was an interesting story. In the United States, 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:31.200 the PlayStation would debut at the very first Electronic Entertainment 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:35.120 Expo or E three, way back in nine at E 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.440 three number one. Here in twenty the latest E three 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.960 has been canceled, and there's a big question mark over 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.640 the future of the the the event and whether or 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.279 not it will make a return in twenty one, we 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:53.799 don't know. But at three, the PlayStation made a huge impact, 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.000 and it didn't hurt that it was up against some 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:01.200 some kind of shaky competition. You had the extreme misfire 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:05.760 on Nintendo's part, for example, the much maligned Virtual Boy. 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.839 So the buzz about the PlayStation was really powerful leading 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:11.599 up to its launch in the United States, it already 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.000 launched in Japan at that point. Now these days, we'd 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.599 refer to that first PlayStation as being one of the 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:21.320 consoles in the fifth generation of home video game consoles, 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.039 and a word on that. It's a bit tricky to 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.120 apply terms like generation to video game consoles, largely because 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.000 each company has its own release dates and some technologies 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:37.599 overlapped between generations. But generally speaking, the generation designation tends 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.719 to apply to the capabilities of the consoles. The first 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.840 generation included dedicated game systems like the Odyssey, you know, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.599 stuff where you could play Pong, and it was hard 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.960 coded on the hardware itself. In other words, you couldn't 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.800 play other games. It was literally the game that was 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.280 coded onto the circuitry of the console. The second generation 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.880 of video game consoles included slightly more sophisticated game systems 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.599 like the at twenty. These are game systems that could 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.720 accept things like cartridges, so you weren't stuck with that 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.640 single title. You could actually switch that out by by 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.200 pulling the cartridge out and putting a different cartridge. In 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.600 the original Nintendo Entertainment System, or the Famicom as it 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.040 was known, in Japan would belong to the third generation 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.720 of video game consoles that's also known as the eight 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.920 bit era, and I talked about eight bit and sixteen 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.640 bit uh in the last episode, the Super Nintendo and 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.160 the consoles like the Turbographics sixteen and Sega Genesis. In 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.840 other words, the sixteen bit systems were in the fourth generation. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.600 And now that brings us up to the fifth generation 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.560 where the PlayStation would belong, and that was the thirty 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.000 two bit era. Other consoles that belonged to that same 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:55.080 generation included the Nintendo sixty four and the Sega Saturn. Now. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.280 I mentioned at the end of the previous PlayStation episode 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.040 that in North America and Particul Killer there was a 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.240 heavy emphasis on three D graphics. In general, the evolution 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.440 into the era of three D graphics was one of 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.600 the defining features for the fifth generation of video game 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:15.000 consoles as a whole. Some systems, like the PlayStation were 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.320 in better shape when it came to a three D 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.360 graphics option. The CD ROM drive allowed game developers to 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.440 make bigger, more complicated games than they could on Nintendo's 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.800 old cartridge based sixty four. Now, don't get me wrong, 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.360 that does not necessarily mean that games were automatically better 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.839 on one system versus the other. I owned both the 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.959 PS one and an in sixty four, and in general 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.240 I preferred the Nintendo console. But to be fair, I 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.760 didn't own a ton of games on either system, so 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.000 my experience was really limited. I did have some killer 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.079 games on the n sixty four, like Golden I and 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.680 some w c W and at the time old WWF 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:01.679 wrestling games. Also the extremely cheeky Conquer is Bad for day. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.359 Things like that and those won me over over the PlayStation. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.600 But again, I didn't have a lot of PlayStation titles, 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.720 and I was definitely in the minority on this one. Now, 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.160 let me be clear, the PlayStation has no shortage of 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.640 great games. Far from it. It has an enormous game library, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.360 and that's thanks in large part to Sony's general practice 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.480 of supporting a video game console even into the life 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.960 cycle of its successor. I'll talk more about that in 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.000 this episode. So it's not unusual to find new game 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.520 titles coming out for a console that is a generation 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:39.000 behind the most current console on the market. But I'm 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.800 getting ahead of myself. One interesting behind the scenes fact 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.439 about the PlayStation is how Sony CEO norio Oga, decided 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.439 to position it from a company standpoint, like what division 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:55.800 would it actually be produced under. He was worried that 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:00.280 if the Sony Corporation was the sole producer of this, 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.720 if it was under that label, then it wouldn't do 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.839 very well because Sony wasn't known for video games, so 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.240 he was worried that no one would pay attention. He 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.080 actually designated it as a joint venture between the Sony 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:17.600 Corporation that is the main brand, and Sony Music. I mean, 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:19.720 I guess the thing did have a CD ROM drive 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.360 so you could play music CD s on it, so 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:27.400 I suppose that's close enough. One huge advantage Sony had 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.680 over Nintendo was because of Nintendo's stubborn insistence on sticking 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:36.120 with that cartridge format. Well, cartridge based games loaded faster, 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.040 and they were harder to pirate. They were also harder 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.000 to produce, and they were a pain and that took 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.240 us to make. In other words, if you were a developer. 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.600 But developing a game for a CD ROM based system 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.600 simplified things a lot, and so Sony attracted way more 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:56.320 third party developers to its platform. Nintendo was producing amazing 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.160 first party and second party content, but found it more 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.760 challenging to get third party companies to sign on. This 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.200 also meant that the Sony PlayStation would serve as the 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.360 foundation for some exclusive agreements between Sony and various video 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:14.680 game developers, or at least specific franchises, and those franchises 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.760 would help define the console's place in video game history. 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.920 That place, by the way, is pretty high up there. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.560 Oh and Sony also acquired a game developer company of 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.000 its own. It was a game company called Psygnosis, which 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.680 was mostly famous for a series of games called Lemmings, 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.520 where you try and lead a group of limings across 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.920 a dangerous environment, and you assign different abilities to lemmings 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.480 in order to get as many of them across as possible. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.120 It's an adorable strategy game and I highly recommend you 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:47.840 check it out if you've never played a Limmings game, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.080 there's tons of them out there anyway. Psygnosis would become 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.720 Sony Interactive Entertainment, which would become the internal video game 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:59.040 developer division at Sony. Now the PlayStation would go on 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.240 to become the top selling console from the fifth generation 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.080 of consoles. It's sold more than three hundred thousand units 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.400 in the first thirty days, with a nine scent sell 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.280 through rate, meaning that Sony was selling nearly all of 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.560 its inventory in stock. In fact, for a while, it 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.800 held the title as the top selling video game console 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:20.920 of all time, and it was the first to hit 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.880 one hundred million units sold, which isn't bad for a 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.559 clandestine project that initially did not have the support of 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:33.880 the company's board of directors. Kutaragi's ambition was not limited 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.559 to creating a video game console, though. He told Shuji Utsumi, 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.320 one of the engineers who worked on the design of 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.400 the PlayStation, that his ultimate goal was to create not 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.280 just a video game system, but an entire operating system 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.200 upon which all sorts of stuff could be built. So 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.440 he saw the console as a type of specialized computer, 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.560 and that developing for the console should be similar to 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.200 developing for other personal computers. He said he wanted the 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.720 PlayStation to be more modeled after Microsoft's approach to business 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:10.040 rather than Nintendo's or Sega's, And keep in mind Microsoft 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.080 didn't have a console at this point, so he's really 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:18.040 talking about the productivity approach. One thing that Sony did 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.800 and that a lot of companies do, was that they 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:26.440 region locked video game consoles, So this means Sony would 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:30.319 include some firmware in region specific models of the PlayStation, 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:35.080 So a Japanese PlayStation console would have this coded into 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.480 the firmware, and a United States console would have a 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.600 different region code coded into its hardware, and that would 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.360 mean that you could only play the games that were 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.440 produced and marketed for the region you were in, or 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.720 for the region that the console was from, but not 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.400 for other regions. So if you were in the US 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.679 and you bought a US PlayStation, you couldn't just get 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.520 a copy of a Japanese title and slap it into 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.199 your con soul and have it work. The games were 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.920 region locked, so you'd be forced to either wait for 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:11.720 the company to eventually produce an American localized version of 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.840 whatever game you wanted to play, which might not ever happen, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.440 or give up. And this comes down to companies making 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:20.800 bets on which games are going to work well within 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.200 certain regions, and the prevailing philosophy is that due to 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.920 cultural differences, some titles just will not appeal to certain audiences, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.560 so it's not worth the trouble to go through the 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:35.560 development and localization to make a version for that region. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.360 Why do it if you're just gonna waste money. No 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.880 one's going to play it anyway. That's the that's the philosophy. 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.160 And there are a lot of Japanese RPG or role 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.640 playing games that fall into that category, and there is 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.880 a healthy fan base for Japanese RPGs that are outside 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.680 of Japan. A lot of people outside Japan love those 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.120 games and so they find it very frustrating when these 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.720 games are region locked. Now, my manufacturers of cartridge based 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.240 systems could use the physical connectors between a cartridge and 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.400 a console to do this, so they can make consoles 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.480 for one region, and the cartridges for that one region 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.480 a specific size that will not fit into the consoles 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:17.520 that are made for another region. So if you've got 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:22.040 a Japanese cartridge for a US console, you wouldn't even 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.280 be able to physically plug it in because they wouldn't 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.440 match up. So that was something that cartridge makers could do. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.240 But c d s are universal, right, they can fit 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:35.400 into any CD player. There's thankfully not a huge variation 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.880 in sizes and shapes of c d s. There's a 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:43.600 little variation, but not much, so typically you can take 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.920 any c D and put it into any CD player, 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.560 but it won't necessarily work because of that region locking 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.320 I was talking about. Sony solution was to create a 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.960 special pit. So if you if you were to take 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.640 a c D and take a microscope and look at 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.920 the surface of a c D, you would see the 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.120 that surface, the surface that the laser actually reads, has 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.840 a series of bumps and pits in it, and that's 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.840 actually where the data is, you know, that's the representation 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.600 of those zeros and ones, that digital information. And this 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.760 was a special pit that was at a depth that 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.160 was beyond what a typical laser burner could do. So 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.640 if you had a consumer grade c D burner, it 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:26.840 would not be able to make a pit of this 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:31.360 particular size on the c D. And that meant that 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.640 you could encode things on CDs that could be picked 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:40.760 up by specific region locked consoles, and it wouldn't allow 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.120 things to play. So if you put a Japanese c 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:48.480 D into an American console, the location of that pit 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.440 would give away that it wasn't the right kind of 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.040 c D for that console and it wouldn't play for you. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.480 So it's a way of preventing people from playing. It 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.640 was also kind of a copy protection approach. So they 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:05.280 did make a small tactical error with this particular strategy, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:09.160 and by that I mean a huge tactical error. I'll 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.000 explain more in a moment, but first let's take a 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:22.359 quick break. So what was that error that Sony made. 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:27.240 You know they had created this region locking copy protection system. 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.080 It was reliant upon the pit on a c D 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:35.119 and a special region locked key that's hard coded into 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.720 the consoles. Well, what Sony did was they included in 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.120 the original PlayStation a pair of parallel input output ports 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.680 and these reports that were meant to serve as a 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.600 way to connect peripherals to the PlayStation. The idea being 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:53.080 that further down the line, Sony might create something that 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.720 would augment the PlayStation's abilities in some way, but you 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.520 would have to connect it to the system somehow, and 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.520 the way you would do it is through one of 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.840 these ports. Now, not a lot of official Sony peripherals 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.080 were ever actually produced, but some were pitched like a 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.080 v c D player. V c D s are video 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.000 compression discs. You can think of them as sort of 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.919 a predecessor to DVD s. They're essentially video c D s, 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.040 but for you to store video on the c D 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.439 really have to compress it or it has to be 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.600 super short, because the CD has a limited amount of 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.880 data it can hold, and video takes up a lot 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:33.400 of data. So typically you end up with video that's 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.560 compressed so much that the quality is not exactly spectacular. Anyway, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.400 the only PlayStation ones that I know about that could 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.280 actually support v c D playback were sold in Japan. 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.800 I don't think there were any that were sold outside 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.640 of Japan that had that capability, but I could be wrong. Anyway, 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.000 third party companies looked at those parallel ports and they 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:57.040 saw an opportunity. Some of those third party companies produced 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.920 devices that players could plug into a PlayStation and those 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.680 devices would bypass region locking. So if you were in 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:06.760 the United States and you got one of these devices, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.240 you could plug it into your PlayStation and then you 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.160 could get a Japanese game, put it in your system, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.920 and you could play games from Japan. Uh those games 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.600 would probably be in Japanese, there might not be any 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.679 translation there. It might be a little bit of a 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.879 language barrier, but you would sidestep the region locking you 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.200 would get access to those games. There were some companies 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.240 that offered up versions of this hardware that were specifically 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.920 meant to let you play pirated games on a PlayStation. 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.800 So these were peripherals that got around copy protection and 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.879 region locking. Later, Sony would revise the design of the 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.800 PlayStation and remove the parallel ports, which forced gamers to 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.479 go an extra step. So what people started doing at 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.000 that point was they made these little micro chips that 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.800 are called mod chips. They essentially did the same thing 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.480 as those plug in devices would do, but you know 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.600 those plug in devices, you would just attach those to 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.560 a parallel port. For a mod chip to work, you 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.760 would have to open up your PlayStation, take out the 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:09.480 circuit board inside the PlayStation, and then solder the mod 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.920 ship to a specific location on that circuit board, thus 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.560 potentially damaging your your PlayStation as a result, and then 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.080 reinstall it and then it would work in a way 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.520 very similar to those plug ins. So if you knew 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:26.960 what you were doing, you could get around this region 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.680 locking and copy protection, but it wasn't for the faint 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.639 at heart. Now, I'm not crazy about the concept of 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.840 region locking in general, and I think, particularly in the 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.760 age of streaming, it shouldn't be as big a deal 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.760 as it is, although I also don't have to comb 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.360 through licensing contracts that are a hundred pages long, so 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.760 different regions of different agreements in place. It is very complicated. 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.040 In concept. It's simple technologically, it's simple to stream something 0:20:55.080 --> 0:21:00.679 to all different regions, but more on the procedure rural side, 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:05.440 the legal side, it's way more complicated anyway. I don't 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:09.840 care for copy protection that punishes legitimate customers either. So 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.520 if people and Sony has been really bad about this 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.520 in the past, if people or companies put in copy 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.479 protection that makes it harder to enjoy the stuff you 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:25.320 legally purchased, that's bad. It actually encourages piracy because people 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.560 will go an extra step to bypass the bad stuff 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.639 in order to get to what they want, and then 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.359 they essentially make it freely available for everyone else, or 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.560 very frequently that happens. So this is not a black 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.879 and white kind of topic. I'm not saying all copy 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:43.560 protection is good and all piracy is completely unjustified. I 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.160 don't think piracy in most cases is justified, but every 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.680 now and then you come across a case where it's 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.840 really hard to argue against it, especially if you're talking 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:55.640 about copy protection that could potentially be harmful. Sony had 0:21:55.680 --> 0:22:00.159 a CD based copy protection that ended up creating a 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.960 backdoor vulnerability in a computer. If you were to put 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:06.600 the CD into a PC, that for example, would be 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.800 a terrible, terrible thing to do. It was a terrible 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:12.280 thing to do, and it's the sort of thing where 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:16.199 I would say, yes, absolutely break that copy protection, because 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.480 it's breaking your computer otherwise. Anyway, this meant that the 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.680 original PlayStation would be the target of bootleggers of I 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.000 P pirates and folks trading or buying games outside the 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:32.240 approved regions. Kudaragi denied that this was a big issue, 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:35.520 even though it was undeniably happening, but that might have 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.359 been because he was already thinking about the PlayStation two, 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.080 which would take a slightly different approach to copy protection 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.600 and eliminate some of the strategies that folks were using 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.960 during the PlayStation one, So he was already looking ahead 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:48.920 and not so much concerned with what was happening at 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.480 that moment. So one interesting thing about the mod chip 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.320 culture is that it launched a sort of seesaw battle 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:00.280 between companies like Sony and the mod or hacker Commune City. 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.240 Sony would make a change to the PlayStation, cutting off 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.440 options for maters. The mats would then refine their approach 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:10.240 and try something new. So, for example, early mod chips, 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.280 when you soldered them into a circuit board, they were 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.160 always on, so if you powered the PlayStation, the mod 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:19.600 chip would also get power. But that gave Sony the 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:21.920 chance to create some code that would do sort of 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.000 a sweep and scan for the presence of mod chips, 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.440 and if the system detected that there was a mod 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:31.600 chip in place, then it would prevent the games from loading. 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:34.520 So then the maters had to go in and build 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:38.360 extra chips that would sort of put the mod chip 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.359 in stealth mode. It would deactivate it during the sweep 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.320 and then reactivate it when the sweep was done, which 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:47.440 sounds a lot to me like the system Volkswagen had 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:52.040 in place for their diesel engine cars where it would 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.960 turn off some of the the output of the engine 0:23:56.440 --> 0:23:59.560 whenever it was in an emissions testing mode, and it 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.880 would go back into full blast once the emissions testing 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:05.600 mode was over. It's very similar to that anyway. One 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.600 other things Sony tried to do to fight piracy had 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:10.680 to do with the discs themselves. So if you take 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:13.439 a PS one disc and you turn it over, so 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:15.200 you're looking at the label at the first part, and 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:17.000 you turn it over to look at the business side. 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:19.560 You know, the side where the data is actually encoded. 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.400 If it's an official PS one game disc, you'll see 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.280 that that side is black. And the thought was that 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:29.080 if you, as a gamer, were to see a PlayStation 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:32.160 one disc that wasn't black on the underside, you would 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.600 know immediately that you were actually looking at a pirated copy. 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:38.359 You weren't looking at an official game. You were looking 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:42.639 at something that someone had illegally produced, and that you 0:24:42.680 --> 0:24:45.680 would perhaps no better than to go down that dark, 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:49.119 dark road and thus consign yourself to a life of 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:53.840 video game crime. I guess. Secondly, there was a general 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:57.639 belief that this black coding would foil pirates, and the 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:00.960 assumption was that the average c D DREW drive would 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:03.840 not be able to rip data off the black side 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:07.800 of a disk, which might have been true for really 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:10.840 early CD drives like the really old ones, but by 0:25:10.880 --> 0:25:13.359 the time the PlayStation came out, most drives were precise 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:16.080 enough that that black coating did not present any kind 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:19.560 of challenge. You could totally rip data off of a 0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:25.159 Sony PlayStation disc. Big games on the original PlayStation included Spiro, 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:30.560 The Dragon, Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, Silent Hill, Metal 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:35.360 Gear Solid, That's a huge one, tomb Raider, Dead or Alive, Resideval, 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:38.159 and Taken. Those were all big, big games with the 0:25:38.160 --> 0:25:43.480 original PlayStation. In April n nearly three years after the 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:46.959 PlayStation had debuted in Japan and two after it arrived 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:50.400 in the United States, Sony would release the dual analog 0:25:50.560 --> 0:25:54.720 controller in North America and other Western markets, and this 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:58.639 was the first PlayStation controller to feature two thumbsticks. You 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:01.200 still had the four directional buttons on one side of 0:26:01.200 --> 0:26:03.960 the controller, and you had the four action buttons on 0:26:04.000 --> 0:26:06.800 the opposite side of the controller, but in between those 0:26:06.800 --> 0:26:11.120 two and set a little below them, were two thumbsticks. 0:26:11.600 --> 0:26:13.919 So it was this controller that would actually turn me 0:26:14.080 --> 0:26:17.399 off of PlayStation for a really long time because I 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:20.720 always felt that this particular controller was really awkward to hold. 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:25.359 It was just a little too cramped, too small, um 0:26:25.400 --> 0:26:27.879 so I felt that if I played any game for 0:26:27.920 --> 0:26:30.640 more than twenty minutes, my hands would just seize up. 0:26:31.080 --> 0:26:33.560 But the thumbsticks did add a lot of versatility to 0:26:33.600 --> 0:26:36.399 the PlayStation, and it opened up opportunities for developers to 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:38.800 make new types of games to take advantage of those 0:26:38.800 --> 0:26:42.200 two thumbsticks. So, for example, you could have one thumbstick 0:26:42.240 --> 0:26:45.240 controller character while the second one controlled the camera angle. 0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:48.520 Or you could use one to control movement and the 0:26:48.560 --> 0:26:51.280 other to control the direction of a firing weapon like 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:55.480 Smash TV. Games like MEC Warrior launched with support for 0:26:55.520 --> 0:27:00.119 the dual analog controller and helped promote that peripheral. The 0:27:00.240 --> 0:27:03.760 version that appeared in Japan a few months later included 0:27:03.960 --> 0:27:07.040 an additional feature not found in the North American version, 0:27:07.520 --> 0:27:11.480 which was vibration. That introduced the world to the first 0:27:11.640 --> 0:27:15.520 dual shock controller, and that gave the controller the ability 0:27:15.560 --> 0:27:20.239 to provide haptic feedback, that is, touch based feedback, and 0:27:20.280 --> 0:27:22.760 that's a feature game developers would use in lots of 0:27:22.800 --> 0:27:25.919 inventive ways. You want to indicate that a character in 0:27:25.920 --> 0:27:28.640 a game is anticipating danger when you send a vibration 0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:30.719 to the controller and now the player knows something's up. 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:33.800 Or you want to send feedback when a player's character 0:27:33.920 --> 0:27:35.960 is hit by something in the game, you just buzz 0:27:36.040 --> 0:27:38.879 that controller. Now, the duel Shock was not the first 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:43.240 controller to feature vibration because Nintendo actually released the rumble 0:27:43.280 --> 0:27:46.520 pack for the IN sixty four controller in April of 0:27:46.600 --> 0:27:49.800 that year. That was the same month that the non 0:27:50.000 --> 0:27:53.800 vibrating version of the Sony controller launched in the United States. 0:27:54.400 --> 0:27:56.720 Now the U s would get the upgraded controller in 0:27:56.880 --> 0:28:01.840 n So why was there l A Well, it beats me. 0:28:01.920 --> 0:28:04.000 I have no idea. I've seen a lot of guesses 0:28:04.119 --> 0:28:06.560 as to why, but not a definitive answer. So the 0:28:06.560 --> 0:28:11.480 guesses ranged between two general approaches. There are a few others, 0:28:11.480 --> 0:28:14.000 but these are the two big ones. One is, well, 0:28:14.119 --> 0:28:17.240 Sony needed to get a new controller out because third 0:28:17.280 --> 0:28:21.159 party manufacturers were coming up with their own controllers, and 0:28:21.240 --> 0:28:23.880 Sony wanted to make sure that they were the dominant 0:28:23.880 --> 0:28:27.280 player in that space, but they didn't have the vibration 0:28:27.960 --> 0:28:31.720 version ready when they were needing to get into the 0:28:31.800 --> 0:28:35.439 market and compete against the third parties. A similar but 0:28:35.600 --> 0:28:38.880 slightly different approach, the second of the two arguments goes 0:28:39.440 --> 0:28:43.880 that the vibrating controllers were ready that Sony could have 0:28:43.880 --> 0:28:46.080 gone with that model, but it would have meant that 0:28:46.120 --> 0:28:49.560 the controllers would have been more expensive, and thus the 0:28:49.760 --> 0:28:54.640 third party versions that were on the market would undercut Sony, 0:28:54.720 --> 0:28:58.080 and so Sony would just waste money producing controllers no 0:28:58.120 --> 0:29:01.959 one was buying either way. The United States didn't get 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:05.760 the duel Shock vibrating controller until but once it did, 0:29:06.200 --> 0:29:09.200 that controller would make an enormous difference, and Sony would 0:29:09.440 --> 0:29:15.120 quietly discontinue the non vibrating dual analog version. And while 0:29:15.160 --> 0:29:17.760 the duel Shock would set a standard for PS controllers, 0:29:18.280 --> 0:29:20.960 it didn't necessarily mean every system would debut with a 0:29:21.080 --> 0:29:25.680 vibrating controller at launch. More on that in future episodes. 0:29:26.080 --> 0:29:31.320 So Sony announced the new console, the PlayStation two, in 0:29:31.480 --> 0:29:35.760 nineteen nine, and they launched it in two thousand, but 0:29:36.320 --> 0:29:39.960 the company continued to produce the original PlayStation, or technically 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:43.480 a redesign of it, called the PS one. It was 0:29:43.520 --> 0:29:46.160 a little smaller than the original console, but otherwise had 0:29:46.160 --> 0:29:50.560 the same features and capabilities as your standard PlayStation. In fact, 0:29:50.760 --> 0:29:55.120 Sony kept making the PS one consoles and publishing games 0:29:55.160 --> 0:29:58.560 for the PlayStation one all the way up until two 0:29:58.560 --> 0:30:03.000 thousand six. Now that means that the original PlayStation had 0:30:03.040 --> 0:30:06.640 a lifespan of more than eleven years from the time 0:30:06.640 --> 0:30:10.720 it launched in Japan to the time that Sony discontinued production, 0:30:10.920 --> 0:30:13.920 which is pretty incredible. And it also set a precedent 0:30:14.000 --> 0:30:17.520 for Sony that the company tried to replicate later, and 0:30:17.560 --> 0:30:20.720 in two thousand eighteen, in a nod to the nostalgic 0:30:20.880 --> 0:30:25.040 gamers out there, Sony released the PS Classic, which is 0:30:25.080 --> 0:30:30.320 a console with twenty pre installed PlayStation one games on it. 0:30:30.320 --> 0:30:32.880 It does not have an optical drive, so unlike the 0:30:32.920 --> 0:30:37.440 original PlayStation consoles, this one can't accept disks. You're limited 0:30:37.480 --> 0:30:40.360 to the games that have been hard coded and preloaded 0:30:40.480 --> 0:30:44.000 into the system. While Sony would focus a lot of 0:30:44.040 --> 0:30:47.200 attention on the PS two, the company continued to support 0:30:47.240 --> 0:30:51.120 the original console and it's enormous installed base of gamers 0:30:51.160 --> 0:30:53.360 for many years. But now it's time for us to 0:30:53.400 --> 0:30:57.560 shift our story to the PlayStation two. Specifically, the PlayStation 0:30:57.600 --> 0:31:01.480 two console would be one of the big players, in fact, 0:31:01.560 --> 0:31:06.440 the biggest player in the sixth generation of video game consoles. 0:31:07.440 --> 0:31:11.400 This was what some would call the eight bit era 0:31:11.560 --> 0:31:14.360 of video game consoles. It's also the last time anyone 0:31:14.400 --> 0:31:18.640 would bother describing consoles in as you know, having a 0:31:18.680 --> 0:31:21.000 word size of a certain number of bits, because that 0:31:21.080 --> 0:31:26.360 became less important. But this particular generation of consoles included 0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:29.600 not just the PlayStation two, but also the Sega Dreamcast, 0:31:30.040 --> 0:31:33.080 which launched a couple of years before the PlayStation two, 0:31:33.120 --> 0:31:35.120 and to this day it's still one of my favorite 0:31:35.120 --> 0:31:38.640 consoles of all time, but it pretty much fizzled in 0:31:38.680 --> 0:31:43.880 the marketplace. It also includes the Nintendo GameCube in that generation, 0:31:43.960 --> 0:31:47.560 which is one of my least favorite consoles I've ever owned, 0:31:48.280 --> 0:31:51.960 and Microsoft's first foray into the world of video game consoles. 0:31:52.040 --> 0:31:56.160 The original Xbox was also in the sixth generation. The 0:31:56.240 --> 0:31:59.240 Dreamcast was the first one to hit shelves, and it 0:31:59.320 --> 0:32:03.160 did so in Japan in just one year after Sony 0:32:03.200 --> 0:32:06.880 introduced the dual shot controller and two full years before 0:32:06.960 --> 0:32:10.240 the PlayStation two would arrive. So you would think, Sega, 0:32:10.520 --> 0:32:14.200 you've got two full years to establish a gamer base, 0:32:14.320 --> 0:32:17.800 a loyal customer base of gamers. You've got the headstart 0:32:17.840 --> 0:32:22.400 on Sony. Surely you couldn't fail. You'd be wrong. Kudaragi 0:32:22.560 --> 0:32:25.960 again headed up the design process for the sequel to 0:32:26.000 --> 0:32:29.080 the hottest selling video game console up to that point, 0:32:29.560 --> 0:32:31.840 and he was thinking about the PlayStation two pretty early on. 0:32:32.000 --> 0:32:35.520 Essentially during the launch of PlayStation one. He had ideas 0:32:35.520 --> 0:32:38.360 on how to prevent people from circumventing region locking and 0:32:38.400 --> 0:32:41.320 copy of protection. He had ideas about how the system 0:32:41.360 --> 0:32:44.920 should support more advanced features, and he had greater ambitions 0:32:44.960 --> 0:32:47.320 as well. It was his hope to establish a type 0:32:47.320 --> 0:32:51.200 of technology that would be transferable to other Sony products. So, 0:32:51.240 --> 0:32:54.239 in other words, he wasn't content in just making the 0:32:54.280 --> 0:32:57.800 best selling game system in the world. He wanted to 0:32:57.920 --> 0:33:02.960 establish a framework upon which many different Sony products could stand. 0:33:03.560 --> 0:33:05.680 He wanted to make a sort of universal set of 0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:08.880 blueprints for basic functionality. I like to think of it 0:33:08.920 --> 0:33:11.880 as kind of the Apple approach with iOS, you know, 0:33:11.920 --> 0:33:16.640 iOS powers, not just the iPhone, but also the iPad 0:33:16.800 --> 0:33:20.400 and as well as some other Apple products. I think 0:33:20.440 --> 0:33:22.760 that Kutaragi wanted to do the same thing and have 0:33:22.920 --> 0:33:28.560 the PlayStation console line sort of serve as the flagship 0:33:28.720 --> 0:33:33.280 for that. The PS two wouldn't quite reach that level 0:33:33.280 --> 0:33:36.360 of ambition, but it would become the top selling home 0:33:36.440 --> 0:33:40.000 console of all time, so I think that's a worthy 0:33:40.040 --> 0:33:44.080 accolade all by itself. One thing the PS two had 0:33:44.120 --> 0:33:47.800 that gamers really liked was backwards compatibility. So if you 0:33:47.880 --> 0:33:51.000 had a PS two, you could play most PS one 0:33:51.080 --> 0:33:53.920 games on it in addition to all the PS two titles. 0:33:54.320 --> 0:33:57.000 And this was another big reason why Sony would continue 0:33:57.040 --> 0:34:00.320 to support PS one development even after the law launch 0:34:00.400 --> 0:34:03.760 of the PlayStation two, because new PS one games could 0:34:03.800 --> 0:34:05.920 find a home either with gamers who had not yet 0:34:06.120 --> 0:34:09.279 upgraded to the new console or two gamers who had 0:34:09.320 --> 0:34:11.440 a PS two but they still like playing some of 0:34:11.440 --> 0:34:13.640 this stuff that was coming out for the older console. 0:34:14.040 --> 0:34:17.080 They didn't have to switch between consoles in the meantime, 0:34:17.160 --> 0:34:19.400 right even if you had to play PlayStation one and 0:34:19.440 --> 0:34:22.120 a PlayStation two, but you just hook up the PlayStation 0:34:22.160 --> 0:34:25.480 two to your television because it can play nearly all 0:34:25.560 --> 0:34:28.200 the games of the PS one. Because there were a 0:34:28.239 --> 0:34:30.960 handful of PS one titles that did not work on 0:34:31.000 --> 0:34:34.920 the PS two, you know, like Mortal Kombat Trilogy or 0:34:35.239 --> 0:34:38.320 this was a really big one. Metal gear Solid didn't 0:34:38.360 --> 0:34:41.000 work on some models of the PS two. That was 0:34:41.040 --> 0:34:44.719 a big blow. In addition, during the production span of 0:34:44.760 --> 0:34:48.560 the PS two, Sony actually made lots of different versions 0:34:48.719 --> 0:34:53.560 of the PlayStation two. A lot of them were indistinguishable externally, 0:34:53.719 --> 0:34:55.640 like you could put the two side by side and 0:34:55.640 --> 0:34:59.440 they would look identical, but inside they'd be slightly different. 0:35:00.080 --> 0:35:02.279 And some of the times those slight differences would mean 0:35:02.320 --> 0:35:05.360 that certain games would no longer run on that PS 0:35:05.400 --> 0:35:09.960 two certain PS one games. So the question about whether 0:35:10.040 --> 0:35:12.520 or not you could play any particular PS one game 0:35:12.520 --> 0:35:15.800 on a PS two depended on two things. Was it 0:35:15.880 --> 0:35:18.320 one of the titles that just wasn't supported by PS 0:35:18.360 --> 0:35:21.520 two in general? And what model of PS two did 0:35:21.520 --> 0:35:24.759 you have, because it might end up being incompatible with 0:35:24.800 --> 0:35:27.680 a specific PS one title. So it was a little complicated, 0:35:27.719 --> 0:35:31.799 but generally speaking, backwards compatibility was really popular and it 0:35:31.920 --> 0:35:34.520 was a lauded feature, and it's one of those things 0:35:34.600 --> 0:35:39.520 that when consoles don't support it, gamers complain because Sony 0:35:39.600 --> 0:35:44.719 kind of set this precedent, and gamers loved that. The 0:35:44.760 --> 0:35:48.439 PS two had a new CPU with an unusual name. 0:35:48.840 --> 0:35:54.520 Sony called it the Emotion Engine, and the CPU included 0:35:54.520 --> 0:35:58.880 a single core processor, two vp us those are vector 0:35:59.080 --> 0:36:03.239 processing units for graphics, had a memory controller and an 0:36:03.280 --> 0:36:07.040 imaging processing unit or an image processing unit I should say, 0:36:07.200 --> 0:36:09.759 or an IPU in other words, and it also had 0:36:09.880 --> 0:36:14.200 a direct memory access component or d m a H. 0:36:14.320 --> 0:36:18.400 The architecture design meant that a properly optimized game for 0:36:18.440 --> 0:36:20.960 the PS two would have state of the art graphics. 0:36:21.080 --> 0:36:23.120 Not keep in mind we're talking about state of the 0:36:23.239 --> 0:36:27.080 art circuit two thousand here, and that was pretty impressive. 0:36:27.440 --> 0:36:30.239 The chip ran at nearly three hundred mega hurts, which 0:36:30.280 --> 0:36:32.879 is ultra slow by today's standards, but at the time 0:36:32.920 --> 0:36:35.960 it was pretty speedy. It had thirty two megabytes of 0:36:36.080 --> 0:36:40.480 RAM plus four megabytes of video memory, and unlike the 0:36:40.480 --> 0:36:45.280 original PlayStation, which was white plastic, this one was black 0:36:45.680 --> 0:36:49.240 and it featured a dual shock to controller, which refined 0:36:49.280 --> 0:36:52.440 the design of the previous generation's controller, and it became 0:36:52.760 --> 0:36:56.440 the real standard from that point forward. I have more 0:36:56.480 --> 0:36:59.160 to say about the PlayStation two in just a moment, 0:36:59.200 --> 0:37:09.600 but first let's take another quick break. The PS two 0:37:09.640 --> 0:37:12.920 had a memory card expansion slot, It could support forty 0:37:12.960 --> 0:37:16.560 eight channels of audio, had to USB ports, It had 0:37:16.560 --> 0:37:19.520 a FireWire port. Do you guys remember a FireWire? You 0:37:19.520 --> 0:37:22.920 could use that to hook up an an additional drive, 0:37:23.440 --> 0:37:25.480 which was required for certain games. There was a Final 0:37:25.520 --> 0:37:29.120 Fantasy game that required an additional component or else you 0:37:29.160 --> 0:37:32.000 just couldn't run it on a standard PS two. The 0:37:32.040 --> 0:37:36.080 PS two also included support for DVD playback, and DVDs 0:37:36.160 --> 0:37:39.080 had been developed between the time the PS one had 0:37:39.080 --> 0:37:43.040 come out and the launch of the PS two, so 0:37:43.280 --> 0:37:45.680 that gave the PS two the capability to serve as 0:37:45.719 --> 0:37:48.560 more than just a game console. It could act as 0:37:48.600 --> 0:37:52.080 more of an entertainment center, which would be greatly expanded 0:37:52.160 --> 0:37:55.160 upon by future generations of the consoles. In fact, have 0:37:55.239 --> 0:37:57.880 become a real point of focus for the Xbox line 0:37:58.000 --> 0:38:02.600 later that would your tap some gamers who I remember 0:38:02.880 --> 0:38:05.880 a certain E three presentation where people were leaving an 0:38:06.080 --> 0:38:12.000 Xbox UH stage event saying why didn't they talk about games? 0:38:12.040 --> 0:38:14.560 It's a game system. But this was sort of the 0:38:14.600 --> 0:38:18.520 beginning of that move to becoming more than a video 0:38:18.520 --> 0:38:21.799 game console. Now, while the PS two had the new 0:38:21.800 --> 0:38:26.480 Emotion Engine CPU, it wasn't an enormous departure from the 0:38:26.480 --> 0:38:31.160 PS one's operation. Both processors are risk processors r I 0:38:31.600 --> 0:38:36.239 s C. That stands for reduced instruction set computer, and 0:38:36.840 --> 0:38:39.320 this is where being a console can really pay off 0:38:39.400 --> 0:38:42.600 from sort of an engineering perspective. So if you think 0:38:42.600 --> 0:38:46.040 about it a general purpose computer with a regular CPU, 0:38:46.280 --> 0:38:49.120 it has to be able to do everything pretty well, 0:38:49.560 --> 0:38:52.799 and that includes running all sorts of different software, and 0:38:52.880 --> 0:38:57.000 different software required different processes, So that means the processor 0:38:57.040 --> 0:38:59.560 itself has to be able to run a wide spectrum 0:39:00.040 --> 0:39:04.680 of instructions, but consoles are limited in what they have 0:39:04.800 --> 0:39:07.239 to do. They don't have to do everything, they just 0:39:07.280 --> 0:39:10.279 have to do a subset of things really well. And 0:39:10.360 --> 0:39:12.759 games can come in all sorts of varieties, but the 0:39:12.800 --> 0:39:16.200 instructions all come from the same basic pool. So if 0:39:16.239 --> 0:39:18.920 you reduce the variety of instructions that you need to 0:39:19.000 --> 0:39:22.000 carry out, that means you narrow the scope of water 0:39:22.040 --> 0:39:25.040 processor has to do, and you simplify things. You rule 0:39:25.080 --> 0:39:27.680 out all the stuff that the processor is never going 0:39:27.719 --> 0:39:30.840 to have to handle, and then you optimize the processor 0:39:30.920 --> 0:39:34.400 to handle the stuff that matters a risk. Processor is 0:39:34.440 --> 0:39:39.200 capable of multitasking simple instructions. So the combination of running 0:39:39.200 --> 0:39:42.520 programs that consist of simpler tasks as well as the 0:39:42.560 --> 0:39:46.360 ability to multitask means that these processors are really efficient. 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:50.200 That translates to us into speed. There's some other technical 0:39:50.239 --> 0:39:52.640 stuff that we're going to get into, and this is 0:39:52.640 --> 0:39:55.359 where we get super nerdy. But don't worry, I'm going 0:39:55.400 --> 0:39:58.560 to explain some stuff that I think is is really cool. 0:39:58.600 --> 0:40:02.920 It's also relevant p on the PlayStation. But um, this 0:40:02.960 --> 0:40:05.359 is why it gives me my opportunity to totally geek out. 0:40:05.440 --> 0:40:10.200 So the PS two has a floating point unit or FPU. 0:40:10.640 --> 0:40:13.719 What is that, Well, it's a special processor that handles 0:40:13.960 --> 0:40:20.600 specific types of complicated mathematic equations. Those usually involve non 0:40:20.600 --> 0:40:24.799 integers numbers that are after a decimal point, and these 0:40:24.800 --> 0:40:28.120 are called floating point operations because the decimal point can 0:40:28.160 --> 0:40:32.080 move or or float depending on the outcome of the calculation. 0:40:32.840 --> 0:40:37.640 So the complexity of these numbers creates an enormous challenge 0:40:38.040 --> 0:40:40.279 for the main processor. If it has to handle all 0:40:40.360 --> 0:40:43.160 those calculations, it will get bogged down and other stuff 0:40:43.200 --> 0:40:46.319 will slow down as a result. So to kind of 0:40:46.840 --> 0:40:50.800 take the pain away for the main processor, you build 0:40:51.280 --> 0:40:54.600 a specific process or a floating point unit designed to 0:40:54.680 --> 0:41:00.400 handle those calculations. Now you've probably heard about flops in computing. 0:41:00.760 --> 0:41:04.120 Now I'm talking about a type of operation. I'm not 0:41:04.160 --> 0:41:07.719 talking about flops like Microsoft Bob, though that was a 0:41:07.719 --> 0:41:10.200 heck of a flop. No flops in this case refer 0:41:10.320 --> 0:41:14.280 to the speed with which the FPU can process these calculations. 0:41:14.320 --> 0:41:18.799 It actually stands for floating point operations per second. A 0:41:18.880 --> 0:41:22.360 giga flop would be one billion of those. The PS 0:41:22.440 --> 0:41:27.160 two's FPU is a six point two giga flop FPU, 0:41:27.280 --> 0:41:31.320 so it can perform six point two billion floating point 0:41:31.360 --> 0:41:35.840 operations in one second. The PS two has a component 0:41:35.920 --> 0:41:39.200 called the Graphics Synthesizer, which is in charge of stuff 0:41:39.239 --> 0:41:42.320 that includes and I love these terms, guys, strip yourselves 0:41:42.360 --> 0:41:49.040 in besier surfacing, alpha channel, UH, perspective correction, MIP mapping. 0:41:49.760 --> 0:41:51.359 I swear I didn't make any of these up here. 0:41:51.680 --> 0:41:54.160 I'll tell you what. I'll prove it. We'll go through these. 0:41:54.320 --> 0:41:57.319 So let's start with Besier surfacing. That's a three D 0:41:57.480 --> 0:42:00.880 modeling process, and the whole point of the process and 0:42:00.960 --> 0:42:04.560 it breaks down, how many polygons? How many simple shapes 0:42:04.600 --> 0:42:08.560 do you need to create a three dimensional object within 0:42:08.600 --> 0:42:11.520 a game? Right? Think of something like I don't know 0:42:11.560 --> 0:42:16.600 a car. Well, the more smooth you want that car, 0:42:16.760 --> 0:42:20.960 the more individual tiny little polygons you're going to need 0:42:21.040 --> 0:42:26.440 to represent that car. And Besier servicing bases the number 0:42:26.680 --> 0:42:29.280 on the level of detail necessary to make the object 0:42:29.280 --> 0:42:31.560 appear to be smooth to the viewer, and that number 0:42:31.680 --> 0:42:35.719 can change depending upon perspective. The PS two only performs 0:42:35.760 --> 0:42:38.919 these calculations on besier surfaced objects that are in the game, 0:42:39.000 --> 0:42:43.880 so not all objects are designated as besier surfaced objects, 0:42:43.920 --> 0:42:47.480 and perspective correction makes the texture map re size at 0:42:47.480 --> 0:42:50.640 the same rate as the object that has mapped that 0:42:50.760 --> 0:42:55.680 the texture map appears on. Texture maps are images like 0:42:56.120 --> 0:42:57.960 and it's pretty much what it sounds like. Just think 0:42:57.960 --> 0:43:00.560 of a texture and then think of a peating that 0:43:00.640 --> 0:43:04.239 texture over and over and over across all the surfaces 0:43:04.280 --> 0:43:06.000 of an object in order to make it look like 0:43:06.040 --> 0:43:09.080 it's made out of whatever that stuff is, like wood 0:43:09.239 --> 0:43:12.480 or stone or I don't know. Dog. For the PS 0:43:12.520 --> 0:43:15.600 two has that alpha channel I mentioned, what's that, Well, 0:43:15.600 --> 0:43:19.640 that's to add transparency effects to an object, and it's 0:43:19.640 --> 0:43:23.160 a special graphics mode that's used by digital video animation 0:43:23.200 --> 0:43:27.240 and video games. To make this happen, they use twenty 0:43:27.239 --> 0:43:32.120 four bits to define the amounts of red, green, and blue. 0:43:32.160 --> 0:43:34.759 Each of those get eight bits that are needed to 0:43:34.800 --> 0:43:38.279 create a specific color, and another eight bits are used 0:43:38.280 --> 0:43:41.719 to create a gray scale mask that acts as a 0:43:41.800 --> 0:43:47.160 separate layer for representing levels of object transparency. The degree 0:43:47.160 --> 0:43:50.000 of that transparency is completely determined by how dark the 0:43:50.120 --> 0:43:53.960 gray in that alpha channel is. If you make an 0:43:54.000 --> 0:43:57.160 area of that mask dark gray, you can make an 0:43:57.160 --> 0:43:59.680 object appear to be very transparent, so it can be 0:43:59.719 --> 0:44:03.080 like a ghost. If you do light gray, you can 0:44:03.120 --> 0:44:06.560 create other sorts of effects like water effects or fog effects. 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:09.000 What about mip mapping. This is the one that sounds 0:44:09.000 --> 0:44:10.960 the most fake, right, It kind of sounds like the 0:44:11.000 --> 0:44:15.880 noise that the those muppets make on Sesame Street. Mip mapping. 0:44:16.040 --> 0:44:19.600 Mip mapping that I lose you all guys, because it's 0:44:19.760 --> 0:44:22.719 it's great, it's great character anyway. It's a form of 0:44:22.800 --> 0:44:27.040 texture mapping in which different sizes of each texture map 0:44:27.160 --> 0:44:32.000 are made. Does that mean Okay? So imagine you've got 0:44:32.000 --> 0:44:35.200 an image that represents a texture, right, it's a it's 0:44:35.200 --> 0:44:37.520 a picture of a cinder block very close up. So 0:44:37.560 --> 0:44:41.759 you've got that texture of a cinder block as a picture. Well, 0:44:41.800 --> 0:44:47.080 with mip mapping, you have different sizes of that texture image. 0:44:47.440 --> 0:44:50.440 And it's so that when you get closer or further 0:44:50.600 --> 0:44:54.640 away from a virtual object in a game, the texture 0:44:54.840 --> 0:44:57.960 that you see will match the distance you're at, so 0:44:58.040 --> 0:45:00.680 it won't look weird like you won't have a close 0:45:00.760 --> 0:45:04.240 up view of that cinder block texture when the cinder 0:45:04.239 --> 0:45:08.600 block is really far away. But here's the problem. You 0:45:08.640 --> 0:45:12.319 can't make a texture map for every possible distance your 0:45:12.440 --> 0:45:14.879 character or your point of view will have from a 0:45:14.960 --> 0:45:18.839 virtual object. That's just way too much, right, So if 0:45:18.880 --> 0:45:21.399 we were thinking in terms of feet, which doesn't really 0:45:21.400 --> 0:45:23.520 apply in the virtual world, but just stick with me. 0:45:23.960 --> 0:45:27.520 Let's say that you have texture maps that are equivalent 0:45:27.560 --> 0:45:30.440 to being three feet away, six ft away, or twelve 0:45:30.440 --> 0:45:33.560 feet away from the same object, and if you're further 0:45:33.640 --> 0:45:35.640 than twelve feet away, you don't see the texture because 0:45:35.719 --> 0:45:38.000 you're not you're not close enough to get that detail. 0:45:39.160 --> 0:45:41.759 Your virtual character, let's say that they are nine feet 0:45:41.800 --> 0:45:44.400 away from this object, so they're in between two of 0:45:44.440 --> 0:45:47.080 those image sets, right, the six ft and the and 0:45:47.160 --> 0:45:50.400 the twelve feet. So what do you do well with 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:53.520 admit mapping. What it does is it takes the values 0:45:53.840 --> 0:45:57.040 for six ft and it takes the values of twelve feet, 0:45:57.480 --> 0:46:01.320 runs a mathematic application in order to determine what size 0:46:01.360 --> 0:46:04.520 that texture map should be for nine feet, and then 0:46:04.560 --> 0:46:08.040 displays it on the object. So that way, by having 0:46:08.080 --> 0:46:12.680 a few benchmarks, you can use those benchmarks to estimate 0:46:13.320 --> 0:46:17.320 the right size of that texture map for whatever virtual 0:46:17.400 --> 0:46:20.279 distance you are from that object. And it saves a 0:46:20.280 --> 0:46:23.239 lot of memory. You don't have to have, you know, 0:46:23.800 --> 0:46:27.120 an infinite number of different texture maps in order to 0:46:27.160 --> 0:46:32.680 represent objects. You know, realistically and it doesn't compromise too 0:46:32.840 --> 0:46:35.760 much on that realistic value, so that way things still 0:46:35.760 --> 0:46:38.200 look good in your game. It's a really clever way 0:46:38.239 --> 0:46:42.239 of fixing that problem. And the goal is always to 0:46:42.320 --> 0:46:45.840 use the smallest texture map possible given the distance that 0:46:45.880 --> 0:46:48.160 the object is from the viewer, because the smaller the 0:46:48.200 --> 0:46:52.040 texture map, the lower the processing load. So you have 0:46:52.120 --> 0:46:55.440 to have this balance between the size of the texture 0:46:55.480 --> 0:46:59.680 map versus the virtual distance of your character to the 0:46:59.680 --> 0:47:02.480 ob checked and also the effect you want to have 0:47:02.640 --> 0:47:06.320 because if you're on a close object, small texture maps 0:47:06.360 --> 0:47:08.680 create sort of a grainy surface that looks really bad, 0:47:08.719 --> 0:47:11.960 so you want to use larger texture maps when you're close. 0:47:12.560 --> 0:47:13.719 So there's a lot of things you have to take 0:47:13.760 --> 0:47:17.239 into consideration, and clearly that needs to happen all on 0:47:17.280 --> 0:47:21.200 an automated side in the background. Now, one day we're 0:47:21.200 --> 0:47:23.239 gon we're done with the super technical stuff, by the way, 0:47:23.320 --> 0:47:26.120 so wake up, we're gonna get back into the story here. 0:47:26.680 --> 0:47:30.600 One day after launching the PS two in Japan, Sony 0:47:30.680 --> 0:47:35.640 sold nearly one million units. Now remember the PlayStation one 0:47:35.680 --> 0:47:38.240 sold three hundred thousand units in the first thirty days. 0:47:39.440 --> 0:47:43.080 The PS two sold nine hundred eighty thousand units one 0:47:43.160 --> 0:47:47.680 day after launch in Japan. That's incredible. The new system 0:47:47.719 --> 0:47:51.080 costs the same as a DVD player around that time. 0:47:51.719 --> 0:47:55.680 It actually costs around two dars, which was the same 0:47:55.719 --> 0:48:00.400 price tag as the original PlayStation back in one launched 0:48:00.400 --> 0:48:04.920 at two. However, when we adjust for inflation, there is 0:48:04.960 --> 0:48:07.279 a difference. If we had just for inflation, it would 0:48:07.320 --> 0:48:11.560 mean that a brand new PS two bought with today's dollars, 0:48:12.000 --> 0:48:13.680 if it were the price the same as it was 0:48:13.719 --> 0:48:17.360 back in two thousand, would cost about four d fifty bucks. Today, 0:48:17.800 --> 0:48:20.880 a PS one would be more expensive because it came out, 0:48:21.280 --> 0:48:23.719 So if we had just for inflation, that's about five 0:48:23.800 --> 0:48:29.279 hundred dollars. Anyway, Since most DVD players cost around three 0:48:29.360 --> 0:48:32.600 hundred dollars or more in two thousand because they were 0:48:32.600 --> 0:48:36.759 relatively new technology, it meant that some consumers opted for 0:48:36.840 --> 0:48:40.719 a PS two over a standard DVD player because if 0:48:40.719 --> 0:48:43.080 they both cost the same amount, why would you not 0:48:43.239 --> 0:48:45.160 go and buy the one that also lets you play 0:48:45.239 --> 0:48:48.200 games on it, go and get a DVD player that 0:48:48.239 --> 0:48:51.920 can also play games. It makes sense. Sony had really 0:48:51.960 --> 0:48:55.720 positioned the PS two well, and it paid off big time. 0:48:56.520 --> 0:49:01.400 Sales quickly outpaced Sega's Dreamcast system, which again faded away 0:49:01.440 --> 0:49:04.800 in two thousand one, which meant that for about half 0:49:04.800 --> 0:49:08.480 a year, Sony was the only company that had a 0:49:08.560 --> 0:49:12.840 sixth generation console on the market. The Dreamcast was gone, 0:49:13.200 --> 0:49:16.239 and the GameCube and the original Xbox wouldn't come around 0:49:16.320 --> 0:49:19.680 until late two thousand one, So for half of two 0:49:19.680 --> 0:49:24.320 thousand one, the PlayStation two was the only game console 0:49:24.760 --> 0:49:28.600 in town. Nintendo and Microsoft would be left fighting over 0:49:28.719 --> 0:49:32.960 second place. Microsoft would squeak out a win over Nintendo, 0:49:33.360 --> 0:49:36.320 but even if you added the total number of sales 0:49:36.360 --> 0:49:39.160 of the Xbox to the total number of sales of 0:49:39.200 --> 0:49:42.480 the game Cube, you would just hit maybe a third 0:49:42.480 --> 0:49:45.800 of the total sales of the PS two. The PS 0:49:45.840 --> 0:49:50.640 two ultimately sold one hundred fifty five million units. It 0:49:50.800 --> 0:49:54.439 is the best selling home video game console so far. 0:49:55.080 --> 0:49:58.080 Sony was able to get really aggressive with its pricing 0:49:58.120 --> 0:50:01.160 as well, because in two thousand two they dropped the 0:50:01.200 --> 0:50:05.440 price tag from two dollars to one dollars in an 0:50:05.440 --> 0:50:09.000 effort to compete more with the GameCube and to undercut 0:50:09.239 --> 0:50:14.600 the Xbox. Now, like the PS one, Sony would continue 0:50:14.600 --> 0:50:17.040 to support the PlayStation two for a really long time. 0:50:17.520 --> 0:50:20.680 It launched in two thousand, and Sony would halt production 0:50:20.760 --> 0:50:24.200 in late two thousand twelve early two thousand thirteen, which 0:50:24.239 --> 0:50:27.239 is pretty phenomenal considering that the PS three came out 0:50:27.239 --> 0:50:31.000 in two thousand six. For like seven years, while the 0:50:31.040 --> 0:50:33.640 PS three was out, Sony was still making PS two's 0:50:33.680 --> 0:50:38.520 and still publishing PS two games. That's amazing. That would 0:50:38.560 --> 0:50:41.480 make the PS two the last of the major sixth 0:50:41.520 --> 0:50:45.440 generation consoles to go out of production. The Dreamcast was 0:50:45.520 --> 0:50:48.000 first made rest in peace because it died in two 0:50:48.040 --> 0:50:52.040 thousand one. The game Cube followed, but lasted until two 0:50:52.040 --> 0:50:55.879 thousand seven. The original Xbox stayed in production until two 0:50:55.880 --> 0:50:59.160 thousand nine, and everyone else had moved on when Sony 0:50:59.239 --> 0:51:04.000 was still supporting PS two. Of course, it was simultaneously producing, promoting, 0:51:04.040 --> 0:51:06.839 and selling the PS three. But that's a console we're 0:51:06.840 --> 0:51:09.279 going to talk about in our next episode, and that 0:51:09.360 --> 0:51:14.240 one's really interesting for both good and bad reasons. Something 0:51:14.280 --> 0:51:16.680 else will talk more about in our next episode will 0:51:16.719 --> 0:51:21.239 be online capabilities. So when Sony first launched the PS two, 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:24.839 that console didn't really have any way to connect online, 0:51:24.960 --> 0:51:28.160 which is interesting because Sega's Dreamcast did have ports that 0:51:28.280 --> 0:51:30.319 lets you connect to the Internet if you wanted to, 0:51:30.880 --> 0:51:33.680 but the PS two didn't have that. It wouldn't be 0:51:33.800 --> 0:51:38.280 until Microsoft unveiled the Xbox Live Online feature that Sony 0:51:38.320 --> 0:51:41.640 got really serious about online gaming, and that's when the 0:51:41.680 --> 0:51:45.000 company released an adapter that players could connect to a 0:51:45.040 --> 0:51:48.839 PS two in order to give it online capabilities. Kutaragi 0:51:49.000 --> 0:51:51.480 would take this into account when he was working on 0:51:51.520 --> 0:51:54.080 the design for the PS three, which technically he had 0:51:54.120 --> 0:51:56.200 been doing since the launch of the PS two or 0:51:56.200 --> 0:52:00.000 maybe even before that. Like the PS one, Sony would 0:52:00.000 --> 0:52:03.200 release redesigns of the PS two, some with smaller and 0:52:03.280 --> 0:52:07.600 sleeker form factors. The company also saw some problems meeting demands, 0:52:07.640 --> 0:52:09.720 and not all of those were the fault of Sony's 0:52:09.719 --> 0:52:14.400 manufacturing processes. For example, in the Suez Canal, there was 0:52:14.440 --> 0:52:17.919 a Russian oil tanker that got stuck and it ended 0:52:18.000 --> 0:52:22.040 up blocking the passage of a Chinese freight ship that 0:52:22.239 --> 0:52:24.960 was carrying a vital supply of PS two units that 0:52:25.000 --> 0:52:28.279 were bound for Britain. There are many British gamers who 0:52:28.320 --> 0:52:30.600 spent many a night wondering when the heck they'd be 0:52:30.600 --> 0:52:33.399 able to get their little mits on a PS two. Well, 0:52:33.440 --> 0:52:37.439 that wraps up this episode about the PlayStation two I'll 0:52:37.480 --> 0:52:39.200 have a little bit more to say about the PS 0:52:39.280 --> 0:52:41.520 two in our next episode, and then we'll move on 0:52:41.560 --> 0:52:45.759 to talk about the PlayStation three and it's innovative and 0:52:45.920 --> 0:52:52.319 somewhat difficult CPU system. Uh that had a lot of 0:52:52.360 --> 0:52:55.480 promise and also ended up causing a lot of headaches. 0:52:55.640 --> 0:52:57.920 But I'll explain more about that in our next episode. 0:52:58.280 --> 0:53:00.680 If you guys have suggestions for a few your episodes 0:53:00.760 --> 0:53:02.920 of tech Stuff, get in touch with me. You can 0:53:03.000 --> 0:53:05.880 let me know on Twitter or Facebook. We use the 0:53:05.920 --> 0:53:09.359 handle tex stuff h s W at both and I'll 0:53:09.360 --> 0:53:18.000 talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an 0:53:18.000 --> 0:53:21.720 I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, 0:53:22.040 --> 0:53:25.200 visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 0:53:25.280 --> 0:53:26.840 you listen to your favorite shows.