PlayStation Earns An Emmy

Appropriate considering the PS1's 10 year anniversary, the PlayStation has been awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Technology and Advanced New Media. Eurogamer reports: 'When the concept for PlayStation was in its infancy in the early 1990s, we had a dream to elevate the quality of computer graphics from a 2D-based environment to a rich, realistic 3D experience,' said uberbigwig Ken Kutaragi. 'At the same time, we intended to bring in a new form of entertainment through the living room in a manner that would allow people all over the world to enjoy the pleasures of interactive entertainment ... Even with this lofty goal in mind, the achievement and market acceptance for PlayStation have exceeded my wildest expectations. We are honoured to be awarded a prestigious Emmy to commemorate the significant role PlayStation played in creating a new computer entertainment world."

Comments

Re:I thought

[Anonymous Coward]

I completely disagree - the PS1 phenomenally outperforms the PS2 in every category except physical power. PS1 launched with phenomenal, exciting games from studios like Singletrac, Squaresoft, Core, Psygnosis and Sony themselves that were brand new for everyone. NFL Gameday is the only significant advancement in sports gaming since Bill Walsh College Football. Tomb Raider was the second pillar to N64's Mario 64. Metal Gear Solid and Vagrant Story still have the best low detail art assets in the history of gaming. Not to mention the launch of franchises like GTA, Resident Evil, Wipeout, Tenchu, Metal Gear Solid (not Metal Gear) and Tomb Raider.

The PS1 made a pretty big gamble switching to CD-based media, and it was richly rewarded. I'm a Nintendo fanboi for life, but the PS1 kicked some serious ass, and still does, with long-lasting achievements like Final Fantasy Tactics and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and the recently rereleased Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes.

PS2 is, for the most part, a money-making machine that Sony paid you to buy. It hasn't seen anywhere near the variety and intrigue of the PS1's lifecycle. The PS1 absolutely deserves this award, however little prestige or coolness it may actually offer :P

I'd Like To Thank....

[HappyCycling]

Sega: For releasing the Saturn early, without a proper launch, at a huge price and with few games.

Nintendo: For endlessly delaying the underpowered N64 while we gained the majority of the market.

...oh...and Satan.

BS

[Anonymous Coward]

we had a dream to elevate the quality of computer graphics from a 2D-based environment to a rich, realistic 3D experience

Yeah, Ken, too bad everyone else was ahead of you on that one.

There were actually three gaming awards...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/advanced_media_winn ers_release_2005.html

For "Development and Impact in 8-Bit Consoles," Atari won for the Atari 2600.

For "Development and Impact in Polygon Consoles," Sony won for the PS1.

For "Development of Multiplayer Console Technology," Microsoft won for XBOX Live.

Re:There were actually three gaming awards...

[AuMatar]

An award given out by a television show proves anything about the video game industry? I don't think so.

Re:Sharing?

[FinestLittleSpace]

"cock"

Meanwhile, 10 years earlier...

[derrickh]

Atari, the makers of I Robot and Hard Drivin, say hello.

D

It's only sensible to reward TV ads.

[Hitto]

PSX sold thanks to its marketing. It began the long downfall of videogames thanks to TV ads, MTV ads, and supposedly "cool" games, while they tried to appeal to a "mature" audience. And by "mature", I mean 12-year-olds who thought they'd look badass because they didn't play mario games anymore.

Video games have now turned into something weird. You have people who base their manliness on what console they own. On a *toy*. And they keep swallowing that shit up!

So, yeah, emmy awards for ads. Maybe.

Re:It's only sensible to reward TV ads.

[RogueyWon]

This post proves my point entirely.

Let me give a little background. I've been playing games since the mid 1980s. Along the way, I've owned (or had access to when owned by parents) umpteen home computers (C64, Amiga, several PCs) and at least one console from every generation (NES, SNES - later a Genesis as well, although after the generation had ended, Playstation, all 3 of the current gen consoles). Gaming has been my "main" hobby since about 1990. When I was at school, most of my pocket money went on games. Now I'm working, a significant part of my disposable income goes on them.

And I loathe Nintendo - and their fanboys - and what they have become over the last 10 years from the depths of my soul.

Over the last decade, I've seen games get better looking, deeper, more varied and more emotionally involving. I've seen companies such as Squaresoft/Square-Enix, Lucasarts, Bioware, ID, Valve, Epic, Capcom and... yes... even EA and Microsoft produce titles with the sort of quality and longevity that puts almost anything from the 10 years before that to shame. In virtually every genre, there have been advances in technology, gameplay contents and production values, be it RPGs, first-person games, beat-em-ups or just plain old fashioned shooters. But of all the companies who have driven the state of gaming forwards, there's one name noticably lacking: Nintendo.

The reason that people stopped playing Nintendo isn't that it became all "cool" and "hard" to abandon them. It's that they stopped making games that were worth the purchase price a long time ago. You mention Mario Kart. Sure, great game. 10 years ago (longer now, in fact). When the company is still pumping out the same game with slightly updated graphics every console cycle (with Double Dash being a really offensive example), people are going to get bored. Playing Double Dash rather than Burnout Revenge or Gran Turismo 4 (yes, both franchises - but franchises which have developed) does not make you a better person or a better gamer. It makes you a guillible twat.

Nintendo's rhetoric about wanting to return to "real" gameplay is a smokescreen - marketing FUD of the highest order. All Nintendo want to do on a business level is drive gaming back into its old niche corner. Too bad, that's not going to happen. Sony let that genie out of the bottle a decade ago and it won't go back in now. It's my experience that most so-called "real" gamers don't actually play many games, not least because their chosen Messiah-company puts out so few. Rather, they're like the Final Fantasy fans who bang on in every thread about how VI was the last decent game and anybody who likes anything since is stupid; sad, washed up old fanboys trying to impress the "vulgar mobs" by basing a spurious claim to authority on a skewed version of gaming taste that refuses to play anything less than 10 years old on principle.

Re:It's only sensible to reward TV ads.

[KDR_11k]

Okay, now we've got two statements: Nintendo does everything right and everybody else sucks and Nintendo does everything wrong and everyone else is better. Hm, how likely is it that either of these is correct?

Isn't it more likely that Nintendo, just like everyone else, has a number of good and bad games? Double Dash happens to be one of the more mediocre ones, Metroid Prime and Wind Waker are much better games. Neither is flawless but neither is Halo and that was heralded as the second coming. Or how about SSBM? Or is that just a rehash of SSB to you while Burnout Revenge is such a huge step up on Burnout?

Re:I thought

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually that isn't true, the PS1 could not display anywhere near the texture resolution of the N64. However, the N64 supported linear texture filtering, which blended adjacent pixels on a face. While not so noticeable in first party titles like Starfox and Mario 64, it was very apparent in many other titles.

Re:I thought

[geminidomino]

Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes

I thought that was a GCN release...

Re:MODS ARE SONY FANBOXEN

[ElleyKitten]

Nintendo so created the analog controller. Who had it before them? No one. There were joysticks, but not analog sticks like all controllers have now. Also, I think creating the first free-movement 3D platformer is a major achievement, much more so than creating a game on rails.

Re:MODS ARE SONY FANBOXEN

[kingsmedley]

Nintendo so created the analog controller. Who had it before them? No one.

Nope, sorry. Here's a quick list of game consoles that used analog sticks before the Nintendo 64. In no particular order:

Vectrex
Atari 5200
Arcadia

And that is just counting those released in the USA, there are a number of European and Australian systems as well, PLUS a number of computer platforms that used them. And before anybody brings it up, Nintendo wasn't the first to put four controller ports on a console either.

Nintendo is a very innovative company, and they deserve a lot of credit for leading Sony to where they are today. But they didn't invent EVERYTHING and I get tired of people not realising it.

Re:I thought

[Lucractius]

They made the ps1 purely to try and stab back at Nintendo who actualy did half if not a little more of the initial design and work on the PS1. it was originaly a partnership, with nintendo getting sony in for the CD drive technology, then when nintendo pulled back from the project sony took everything and went... "why the hell not" and made a console of their own...

Im not sure who this makes me more annoyed with... Sony, for never giving any credit for getting helped into the industry and now happily spamming the industry with : "" games that realy only sell cause of bargain bins, hype marketing, and people with no intent to play the game more than a few times who dont care about the games they by at all as long as they have "tons of great games" to go with their "awesome ps"....

Or nintendo for creating their own worst enemy... hrm :/