I was 7 years old when the PlayStation released in 1994, nurturing a growing love for video games. I wouldn’t get my hands on my own console for another few years, so I made due by spending every spare minute at a neighbor’s house trading blows in Tekken and handing off the controller between levels of Crash Bandicoot. I cringe to think about the poor parents of the kid whose friend wouldn’t leave but I simply could not get enough.
Now, 30 years later, it’s easy to look at games from that era as rudimentary or simplistic. But back then it was a challenge for my child’s mind to comprehend the technological leap between the SNES and Sony’s first effort at a dedicated video game console. Moving a character around in three dimensions? Unfathomable. And yet the evidence was there on our CRT TV, entrancing me with polygons instead of sprites, eight directions instead of four.
Of course, all the fancy hardware in the world means nothing if there isn’t any software to back it up; the real nostalgia comes from great games. Luckily the PlayStation was replete with titles that proved 3D gaming was more than just a gimmick.
For me, it was Final Fantasy VII that did me in. I was 10 years old when this classic was released, just the right age to become entranced by its sci-fi world of airships and magic and giant swords. More than that, its eco-forward story triggered an awakening of environmental awareness that I carry with me to this day.
It also was the first game that really shows what a first generation of Playstation could do. Coming out three years after the launch (and three years before PS2), “Final Fantasy VII was a game of firsts,” director Yoshinori Kitase tells Inverse. “It was the first Final Fantasy game that launched on PlayStation. It was the first Final Fantasy to be made in 3D. It was the first to include CG movie cutscenes that enabled the team to reach a truly global audience and deliver a new type of gaming experience.”
“We had a desire to make the Final Fantasy series something that would stand up during the coming decades.” – Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII famously began development as a Super Nintendo title, but the technical limitations of the 16-bit platform spurred the development team to seek other venues. For Kitase, whose director credits include Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy X, it was important to utilize the proper technology for the first 3D entry in the lauded RPG franchise.
“During the development of Final Fantasy VII, the games industry was starting to shift from 2D to 3D,” Kitase explains. “We wanted to produce a title that would take advantage of this new dimension to bring the characters and story to life more vividly than ever before in the series. We had a desire to make the Final Fantasy series something that would stand up during the coming decades.”
In many ways, Final Fantasy VII and the first PlayStation are the reason I consider myself an RPG fan first and foremost. The console was home to dozens of quality entries in the genre, and I played as many as I could get my hands on. Suikoden, Legend of Legaia, Xenogears, Wild Arms, Parasite Eve, Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross, Shadow Madness, Breath of Fire III and IV; I consumed them all with ravenous eagerness.
“Either you were old enough to play Resident Evil or Silent Hill and terrified, or technically far too young to be playing and so even more terrified.” – Louise Blain, Blumhouse Games
Of course, that was just my journey. The PlayStation revolutionized more than just the RPG genre when it launched in 1994. With the advent of 3D technology and CD-based storage, nearly every style of game found new life. Sports became more fluid and natural, platforming became more complex, and horror became more immersive and terrifying. Titles like 1989’s Sweet Home for the NES and the 1992 PC hit Alone in the Dark may have created the survival horror style of gameplay, but the PlayStation established it as a destination genre for many players. Resident Evil and Silent Hill, two series that are still around today, have become synonymous with survival horror and have their origins on the original PlayStation.
“Either you were old enough to play Resident Evil or Silent Hill and terrified, or technically far too young to be playing and so even more terrified,” recalls Louise Blain, the creative lead at Blumhouse Games. “I think the earliest horror gaming memories of multiple generations are intrinsically tied to the original PlayStation.”
Jun Takeuchi, executive producer at Development Division 1 for Capcom, has fond memories of working on the original Resident Evil.
“The first [Resident Evil] game ... is excellently crafted from start to finish, exceptionally harnessing the power of the original PlayStation.” – Jun Takeuchi, Capcom
“Creating the first Resident Evil game was incredibly difficult as we were figuring everything out as we developed the game,” Takeuchi tells Inverse. “But actually, none of my memories from that time are unpleasant. The development team was able to engage with lots of different ideas. We took whatever we came up with and turned those ideas into something tangible, which I was very happy about.
“Since then we've expanded the Resident Evil series and continue to do so, but to this day I think the first game, with its horror theme, is excellently crafted from start to finish, exceptionally harnessing the power of the original PlayStation,” he continues. “It is such a solid and beautiful game that when we begin developing a new game, I always look to it as an example of what an ideal game is.”
“One of my earliest memories of PlayStation was watching my friend play Soul Edge.” – Matthew Allen, Sega of America
For Matthew Allen, vice president of product marketing at Sega of America, it was the fighting genre that hinted at what Sony’s new tech meant for the games industry. Many players, myself included, fondly recall the 1994’sl Tekken, but Allen points to a different title as the catalyst for his moment of epiphany.
“One of my earliest memories of PlayStation was watching my friend play Soul Edge,” Allen tells Inverse. “From that moment on, I knew 3D was the future of console gaming. I’ve been privileged to call some of the great folks at Sony friends and colleagues for over 20 years. They’re truly the trailblazers of cutting-edge technology. From the Walkman, Trinitron, and Bravia TV years to PlayStation 5 Pro today, Sony has always been and will continue to be synonymous with quality hardware.”
Soul Edge, of course, would become the first entry in the Soulcalibur series, which saw its sixth numbered release in 2018.
While the PlayStation served as a respectable foundation for Sony’s foray into the video game business, it was its successor that cemented the brand as a true juggernaut in the market. The PlayStation 2 launched in both Japan and North America in 2000 to staggering sales, and to this day remains the best-selling video game console of all time, ahead even of titans like Nintendo’s Wii and Switch consoles.
A number of new series and characters debuted on Sony’s second-generation video game console, many of whom are still mascots for the brand today — franchises like Ratchet and Clank, Jack and Daxter, and Sly Cooper. It was during this generation that I developed a love for platformers. The early 2000s are arguably the golden age of the genre, and the PlayStation 2 helped catapult it to popularity. Today, there are far fewer platformers on the market, but Sony’s Astro Bot seems to be carrying the mantle just fine.
It’s hard to believe the PlayStation is 30 years old. It feels like just last week I was renting a console from Blockbuster Video and whiling away the weekend with races of Jet Moto and levels of Klonoa. Now, three decades on, The PlayStation brand has influenced not just the tech industry, but the whole of popular culture. Players that grew up on Spyro the Dragon and Metal Gear Solid are the people making games now, or helping their own kids find their personal Final Fantasy VII, the spark that will ignite a love and appreciation for the video game medium.
There’s a lot to say about the uncertainty and volatility of today’s video games business, but the warmth of nostalgia will forever be a constant. Popping a disc into that gray rectangle and hearing it spin up, playing Chrono Cross until the sun came up, and grinding levels to beat the next boss are all core memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I’m grateful to the PlayStation for the last 30 years, and look forward to creating more memories in the future.
