Ken Kutaragi Kept "Nintendo PlayStation Prototype" Stashed Away in Closet for Decades

[T0@st]

Ken Kutaragi—the former chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE)—met with retro PlayStation enthusiasts earlier this month. Almost three weeks later, news outlets have just familiarized themselves with Julian Domanski's happy (March 1) social media post. The Tokyo-based professional videographer/photographer spent some time with the "The Father of the PlayStation," as well as an extremely rare piece of console gaming history: "I never thought I'd see something so rare, but today I actually got to fondle a Nintendo PlayStation! The last one in existence was believed to have sold at auction for $300,000. Turns out the ex-CEO of Sony CEI has one in his closet. Ken Kutaragi, top bloke. Signed my PS1 too!" Back in the late 1980s, Sony and Nintendo started work on a CD-ROM version of the 16-bit Super Famicom (international SKU: SNES). Sony unveiled a prototype "Play Station" at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show; apparently Nintendo's internal reference name was simply "SNES-CD."

Famously—a day later—the House of Mario broke away from this partnership and ended up working with Philips; resulting in the extremely underwhelming CD-i home entertainment system. Kutaragi and colleagues formed Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) in late 1993, and proceeded with the development of their first-gen proprietary 32-bit RISC-based console design. Ultimately, the PlayStation would far surpass Nintendo's N64 (expensive cartridge format) gaming platform in terms of sales by the late nineties. Since then, hardcore collectors have spent countless hours tracking down Nintendo PlayStation prototypes. Rumors had spread about only two-hundred units being produced back in the day. Domanski's mentioning of a $300K+ winning bid harkens back to another former SCEI executive; Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. As reported by VGC, the other example: "was once owned by the first CEO of Sony's games division." This BBC article does a good job of describing a bizarre chain of events; ending with Ólafsson's prototype being sold for $360,000, including a $60,000 buyer's premium fee. Kutaragi's variant seems to be in much better condition, and sports slightly different external markings—most notably; a strong blue PlayStation logo.



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[Klemc]

Sony'n'Tendo

 

[blinnbanir]

The story of how the PS was created is a great example of Hubris.

 

[freeagent]

That is awesome. I love stories like this.

 

[N3utro]

This is a piece of gaming history. I wonder if it works

 

[Veseleil]

$300k+, check your closets everybody.
I wonder how many of those 200 units ended up in a trash bin.

 

[Dr. Dro]

$300k+, check your closets everybody.
I wonder how many of those 200 units ended up in a trash bin.

Heh, unless you were in Japan and involved with its development, that is, very high up in the hierarchies of Sony and Nintendo, no chance your closet has this one. Most of them were probably destroyed as part of confidentiality agreements and the sort.

This is a piece of gaming history. I wonder if it works

It probably does, at least the SFC part of it.

 

[Kyan]

Heh, unless you were in Japan and involved with its development, that is, very high up in the hierarchies of Sony and Nintendo, no chance your closet has this one. Most of them were probably destroyed as part of confidentiality agreements and the sort.

It'd be fun if bringus studio got their hands on it and mod it to run emulators

 

[Dr. Dro]

It'd be fun if bringus studio got their hands on it and mod it to run emulators

I believe at this stage, this was essentially just a regular Super Famicom with a CD interface, the PS1 HW wasn't quite there. No clue if any kind of emulator can run on that kind of hardware, too niched/specific. Unless of course you mean gutting it and just using the shell for that , but it'd be such a waste

 

[cal5582]

It'd be fun if bringus studio got their hands on it and mod it to run emulators

nah, theres a working one out there. benheck repaired it and they were able to test it.