March 2nd, Tokyo International Forum centre. 2:00pm. To a packed room of invitation-only delegates, Sony finally reveal the specifications of their PlayStation sequel. Drawing gasps of awe from the collected software pundits, SCEI president and CEO Teruhisa Tokunaka introduces a machine which is not only more powerful than current Pentium systems but which may well redefine the way people think about videogame consoles forever. If Sony were a film director, it would be James Cameron. As far as videogames are concerned, you see, Sony is the king of the world.
Keith Stuart

Incredible to think then, that five years ago, Sony weren't even so much as a minnow in the videogame ocean. The questions is, how exactly have they risen so quickly to a position of near dominance in such a highly competitive and specialist industry? What did Sony do right? The quick answer is everything.

PlayStation: all the right moves.

In many ways, the chips were stacked in PlayStation's favour even before people began to find out about the machine in 1993. For a start Sony are one of the biggest, most universally recognisable names in the consumer electronics business - this is the company that marketed the first ever home video-tape recorder in 1965 and invented the Walkman. When Sony officially revealed their console at a Tokyo press conference in May '94, everyone - not just the videogame press - listened.

1993-4 was also a very good time to be announcing any new interactive entertainment technology. The SNES and Mega Drive, consoles that had dominated the late '80s and early '90s, had seen better days, and everyone was desperately searching for the next big thing.

Fortunately for Sony, no-one seemed to know what consumers wanted. Sega, for example, completely stuffed up this whole period by announcing several follow-ups to the Mega Drive (including the MegaCD and the 32x) and alienating and confusing its massive user base in the process.