The story of Sony is an epic, blanketing almost the entire technological market: if you’ve ever been to the company’s museum in Tokyo they you’ll have already seen their amazing legacy and reach. But you’re a gamer, or at least interested in the gaming phenomenon, so as you peruse the following historical document be aware that we’ve chosen to focus only on those events that impacted on the evolution of Sony as a gaming and entertainment giant. In particular, the history of its gaming technology and console production.
It’s a bumpy ride full of dates, inventions, stock exchange listings, mergers and all manner of nail-biting developments. Strap yourselves in as we trace the development of Sony’s gaming platforms, from the next-gen beast that is the PS3, all the way back to the company’s roots as a radio repair business…
(also be sure to check out our sister articles, The Complete History of Nintendo and The Complete History of Microsoft)
1945 – The birth of Sony as a company occurs shortly after World War II. A man by the name of Masaru Ibuka is on the prowl to create an electronics company. You see, Ibuka, who graduated from Waseda University in 1933, was dubbed as a bit of a genius inventor. Ibuka’s first business, opened in 1945, was a humble radio repair business. A year later, another gentleman joined him in this venture, a man by the name of Akio Morita. To reflect the change, they founded a company together.
May 1946 - Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation), also known as Totsuko, is established in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.
February 1947 – Totsuko head office and factory relocates to Shinagawa, Tokyo.
1949 – The first magnetic tape recorder prototype is developed.
March 1950 – Soni-Tape is launched, Japan’s first magnetite-coated, paper-based recording tape.
July 1950 – The G-Type tape recorder is released.
August 1950 – Ken Kutaragi (the ‘father of the PlayStation’) is born in Tokyo, Japan.
1954 – Totsuko takes a keen interest in transistor technology, which US company Bell Labs has invented. Throughout the early 1950s, Ibuka travels to the US and courts Bell Labs, forming a business relationship that would see Totsuko produce the first commercially successful transistor radios.
1955 – Totsuko releases the world’s first all-transistor radio.
