History (1/2)

Nintendo and Sony weren't always rivals. In 1991 they collaborated on a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo to be released as early as Christmas that year. Their motivation was the same that drove Sega and NEC to pursue their pricey CD attachments. The CD media offered a format that was cheaper and higher capacity than the cartridge. Rich soundtracks and video playback were now possible, something only available to PC games at the time. It seemed like the logical progression for home game systems. Nintendo certainly didn't want to be left behind when the predicted multimedia revolution began.

During the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the partnership between Nintendo and Sony rapidly disintegrated. For those with short memories, or born after 1985, the CES used to be the major annual event where new video games were announced (just think of E₃). As legend has it the contract between the two was highly favorable to Sony, something to the effect of Sony collecting all royalties from sales of CD game licenses.

Licensing games had been Nintendo's bread-and-butter business since hardware sales weren't particularly profitable at the time. When Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi read the contract he blew a fuse and nixed the arrangement. A new contract was hastily arranged with Philips to provide a similar attachment. Nintendo announced this new alliance at the CES the day after Sony publicized their deal with Nintendo.