Long before PlayStation became a household name, Sony had to struggle just to find its footing. As the new kid on the block facing long-time arcade developers, Sony was seen as an electronics giant awkwardly forcing its way into a tightly knit industry. Breaking in meant it needed to earn trust — the hard way, as in burning money. This is revealed by Roppyaku Tsurumi, an ex-Sony Interactive Entertainment executive who localized Crash, Spyro, and the Ratchet and Clank series for the Japanese market.
Back when SIE was still called SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment), Tsurumi recalls his boss telling him to invite game developers out to eat regularly. The goal is simple: build relationships and see where they lead.
“My boss at the time told me, ‘As long as it’s under 20,000 yen, I’ll stamp the expense report without even looking at the details,'” recalled Tsurumi via an X post. Today, that amount works out to roughly $130, but in the early ’90s it could cover a full-course dinner — around $350 when adjusted for inflation!
“So I basically had free company-funded dinners almost every day. And a lot of people actually joined because I invited them to eat out,” wrote the guy who also worked on SEGA and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.
In Japan and most parts of East Asia, especially at the time, business relationships were usually built over casual shared meals rather than formal pitches. Even former Bandai Namco producer Katsuhiro Harada has publicly said he was often treated to meals by PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi.
However, simply recruiting developers over lavish dinners wasn’t always the end goal. Tsurumi clarified that these dinners were done to secure relations with third-party developers as well. “It was also about exploring the possibility of having them make games for SCE as outside developers,” he added.
The approach seems to reflect Sony’s internal culture at the time, which was dictated by its highly successful Sony Music division. After all, it was the dominant force of Japan’s entertainment industry in the 1990s and was set to handle CD manufacturing and distribution infrastructure for PlayStation. There was bound to be significant overlap at the executive level. “Old-school SCE was partially shaped by Sony Music’s culture, so ‘having meals with talents’ was simply how things were done back then,” explained Tsurumi.
This discussion was prompted by another ex-Sony staffer, Hiromichi Takahashi, who said joining SCE wasn’t exactly seen as impressive. Kutaragi has also mentioned in a recent interview that building up the division was an ‘uphill battle.’
“[…] The way long-established industry people looked at [SCE staff] was unbelievably cold by today’s standards. […] Among game industry veterans, the reaction was more like, ‘Huuh.’ No, seriously.” Takahashi later went on to direct Doko Demo Issho (lit. Anywhere Together), starring PlayStation Japan’s exclusive cat mascots Toro and Kuro.
Now, decades later, the contrast couldn’t be sharper. PlayStation is no longer fighting for legitimacy as it has become the default console brand for many gamers worldwide.
