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Deals that shook the industry: 10/10

Nintendo drops PlayStation
Jul 25 2008

DATE: 1988 COST: Unknown

Rumour has it that Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the SNES-CD. However, on closer inspection former Nintendo Chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi decided the contract was unacceptable and secretly cancelled all plans.

Sony decided to use what they had developed so far and make a standalone console – called the Play Station – which still had a SNES port. Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract, on the grounds that it owned the Play Station name.

The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the prototype of the Sony Play Station was revealed.

In early 1993 Sony began reworking the Play Station concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
PlayStation and PlayStation 2 accrued a 40 million installed base, and that was just in the PAL region. Nintendo struggled to challenge either system with its N64 or GameCube – but it's currently too close to call an eventual victor in the battle between Wii and PlayStation 3…

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