PlayStation
PlayStation's historic theft from Nintendo was forged thanks to Sony's 'A-Team' and a few whiskeys on a Tokyo night
The exclusivity of Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation forever marked the catalog of Sony’s console.
Some deals never seem to happen, but for some reason, they manage to find their way to fruition. Fiction sometimes surpasses reality, and that is exactly what happened during PlayStation’s first steps in the video game industry. Sony bolstered its console’s catalog with a theft from Nintendo that many still can’t forgive. Final Fantasy VII was exclusive to the PSX thanks to the move of the company’s star team.
Final Fantasy VII’s PlayStation exclusivity was soundtracked by the clink of ice cubes in a whiskey glass
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Shawn Layden, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment of America, revealed what exactly happened to push Final Fantasy VII away from Nintendo. The format, cartridges versus Sony’s CD, obviously made the difference, but the company pinned its hopes on Sony Music during negotiations.
“When they decided they were getting into the game business, they knew they had the technology, the engineers. But they said ‘let’s be honest, we sell electronics’. Sony knew that without entertainment DNA, we would not be successful,” Layden begins. “So the initial stage was made a joint venture between Sony Electronics and Sony Music. Half the company was from the music side and, well, you could see it on the shop floor at 8 am. All the hardware engineers were at their desks wearing their Sony vests, working on their engineering thing. And then around 10 through 11 am, all the Sony Music guys would come in - hungover, sunglasses, cigarettes hanging out their mouths. They’d look at the Nikkei paper for 45 minutes, drink a cup of tea, and then go: ‘alright, lunch’. They’d all stand up. They’d all leave.”
What could have been a story worthy of any high-ranking official had a more glamorous undertone. They had that freedom because they were by far the most successful team, and they got it by dominating their market with negotiating tactics worthy of the best adaptation of Miami Vice. “We wouldn’t see them again for the rest of the day, because Sony Music populated sales, marketing, advertising, publisher relations. So those were the guys who would go out with the people at Square and ply them with whiskey until the wee hours of the morning to finally get Final Fantasy 7 off of Nintendo and onto PlayStation.”
For many years, people have been looking for a smart answer to the change of hands. What if the format, what if the bad relationship between Square and Nintendo? The reality is that it was enough for PlayStation to sit down and negotiate with them and deliver the big blow on the table within the industry. It was a moment of impact that Layden recalls as follows. “When that announcement was made, that was really the ‘oh my god’ moment. ‘Sony’s really serious about this now.’ And that’s down to the music guys, the doggedness of just trying to get a deal over the line. They were amazing,” he concludes.
And the rest is history. Final Fantasy has been associated with the PlayStation brand for many years. The relationship continues to this day. Despite the leap to almost total exclusivity, we still see releases appearing exclusively on PlayStation systems, such as Final Fantasy VII remakes or Final Fantasy XVI itself.
Follow MeriStation USA on X (formerly known as Twitter). Your video game and entertainment website for all the news, updates, and breaking news from the world of video games, movies, series, manga, and anime. Previews, reviews, interviews, trailers, gameplay, podcasts and more. Follow us now!