When Sony entered the videogame market in 1995 they completely blindsided the competition. Up until that point videogames had been kid’s stuff – cartoon mascots, kidnapped princesses and jumping on creatures' heads. Sony and its marketing team left all that behind for nightclub installations, Daft Punk soundtracks, ads basically promoting drug use and cryptic weirdness. The original Playstation went on to shift over 100 million units worldwide.
While today’s console race is a fairly even three-way battle, Sony dominated the market throughout the late '90s and first half of the ‘00s. The company monstered both Sega and Nintendo and went on to claim almost 60% market share within a few sort years. Much of the credit for that goes back to the advertising.
While the ads attracted both criticism and bewildered “WTF?” responses from the public, they got people talking. (Based on my own five month stint in the – not very Mad Men-esque – world of advertising, this is a good thing. Only secondary to winning an award to put on your CV.)
It’s now been 15 years since the Playstation brand was first launched and someone has been nice enough to
collect the companies more interesting print ads online. Hit the gallery to see how Playstation took down a plumber and a hedgehog.