PlayStation - Celebrating The Era In Which Weird Japanese Games Went Mainstream

PSM3 Staff:

Usually we're taught to think of monopolies as a bad thing. "They stifle competition and lead to creative torpor!" people shout, and everyone nods sagely in agreement, secretly thinking, "Hmm yes - what does torpor mean?" But this is not always the case.

Let's be honest here, between 1995 and 2002-ish, PlayStation had a stranglehold on the console business. It utterly dominated the industry, destroying Sega as a hardware manufacturer and knocking Nintendo right off its perch as the accepted gaming overlord. This was a period where there were no smartphones, no global indie community to speak of, and in which Japan dominated software production. All of these factors combined to create a stable, yet wonderfully experimental era in game design. I have given it a catchy, highly academic name: 'the era in which weird Japanese games went batshit mainstream'.

[Proeliator]

Not a single word on Katamari Damacy.

Disappointed.

[MrAnderson]

Aparantly you missed the word "mainstream".

[ShaunCameron]

It makes me wonder whatever happened to them. I don't know about them ever being mainstream, but some of the niche games that graced Sony's platforms did well.

[Adropacrich2]

I don't think going back to that time anyone could have predicted the massive change of acceptance towards japanese games and in fact the unstoppable might of Sony- gamers for the most just aren't interested in what a japanese game tends to represent these days and there's much less Sony wave riding that you'd expect from the previous giant following. Sony has lost a huge amount this gen

[black911]

I miss the 90s!!!

[Tetsujin]

Especially the music, games, tv, and movies. The only thing I don't miss is Dial up internet.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Still buying and playing ps1 games.