Key Takeaways
- Sony’s music team influenced PlayStation’s success through unconventional tactics, like persuading Square to release Final Fantasy 7 on PlayStation.
- Sony aimed to diversify its game portfolio by collaborating with various third-party developers, making PlayStation “The People’s Platform.”
- Final Fantasy 7, a groundbreaking RPG, was a key title that helped shape PlayStation’s success and spawned a trilogy of remakes.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of the PlayStation. Released in Japan in December 1994, nobody could have predicted the heights that Sony’s gray box would propel the company to. But things could have turned out so differently.
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In a new interview, former Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Shawn Layden shared the unconventional method the company used to pry one of its now-flagship titles away from Nintendo.
Sony Music Helped Shape The Course Of PlayStation’s Future
In a fascinating interview with Eurogamer, Layden shared how Sony drafted its music team to handle marketing, advertising, and publisher relations for its new gaming department. However, while full of experience, the Sony Music department was uncouth in its actions.
“Around 10 through 11am, all the Sony Music guys would come in – hungover, sunglasses, cigarettes hanging out their mouths. They’d look at the Nikkei paper for 45 minutes, drink a cup of tea, and then go: ‘alright, lunch’. They’d all stand up. They’d all leave,” Layden shared.
It turns out, though, that this was exactly the sort of attitude needed to help get Sony’s brand-new console off the ground, and without it, Final Fantasy 7 may have been a Nintendo title, changing the course of gaming history.
“Those were the guys who would go out with the people at Square and ply them with whiskey until the wee hours of the morning to finally get Final Fantasy 7 off of Nintendo and onto PlayStation. When that announcement was made, that was really the ‘oh my god’ moment. ‘Sony’s really serious about this now.’ And that’s down to the music guys, the doggedness of just trying to get a deal over the line.”
Those were the guys who would go out with the people at Square and ply them with whiskey until the wee hours of the morning to finally get Final Fantasy 7 off of Nintendo and onto PlayStation.
Getting Final Fantasy on PlayStation was part of a bigger play for the Sony team, who “never had more than maybe 22 percent of [first-party] software share.”
While competitors like Sega and Nintendo focused mainly on first-party titles, Layden and team wanted to make PlayStation “The People’s Platform”. They used this ethos to diversify PlayStation’s portfolio with “the real leaders in that marketplace,” like Activision, Take-Two, and EA, which in turn meant they could focus on “games like SingStar, Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus.”
Originally launching in 1997 for the PlayStation, Final Fantasy 7 is widely regarded as one of the most influential RPGs of all time. It follows Cloud, a mercenary and former SOLDIER, who joins a band of eco-terrorists – only to end up in a battle for the future of the planet. FF7 has spawned the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, which includes a long-requested trilogy of full remakes.