“You Are Not Ready (But Please Still Buy It)”: The In-Your-Face Marketing of the Original PlayStation
Two score and five PlayStation ago, the video game landscape was very different than today. Sega and Nintendo were the top dogs through the early to mid-’90s, and most attempts to usurp or merely join them at the top failed spectacularly. Veterans like Atari failed to keep up, and new players in the scene like Philips and Panasonic went tits up almost as soon as they arrived.
In 2024, Sony’s status as a major name in video game hardware is obvious, but in 1995 they were merely the latest electronics company trying to carve out a space in the gaming world. They would do this by introducing the first PlayStation and releasing a bunch of ads that insinuated you wouldn’t like these games if you were a pussy.
30 years later, you don’t need me to tell you how successful the launch ended up. I do think it’s worth looking back at Sony’s approach, however, as it is batshit crazy yet also filled with infinitely more personality than we see from most major gaming companies today. Let’s take a look.
Before the system was released, cryptic ads appeared in magazines that said “(e) NOS lives,” among other weird messages. I was 10 years old when all this happened, but my memory is that it was an easily solvable riddle: say that shit backward and you got Son-E. The Walkman guys. Who lives? Sony lives. We thought they were dead, I guess? But they’re not. They live, and they make video games now. Neat!
Also, the letter “e” was red. More on that later. It's like, very important to all of this lore and mythology.
Anyway, researching this today tells me the rabbit hole goes slightly farther than fifth-grade Mark realized. These days legend has it that the “NOS” actually stood for “Ninth of September,” as the game had the distinctly cool launch date of 9/9/95.
So it was the ninth of September that lives, you see? Did you think the Ninth of September was dead? Well, think again, you fucking idiot.
I don’t know. I still think I like my interpretation better.
As the ad campaign continued, and the system was eventually released, “(e)NOS Lives” was joined by another esoteric slogan found on PlayStation advertising that said “U R NOT E.” The E was still red.
Now this one I got for sure. Red “E”. Do you get it? These motherfuckers were telling me I wasn’t ready. And truthfully? I’m not sure I was.
I mean, look at this shit. It was easy to feel unprepared for the way these games were going to leave you a new asshole. No really, listen:
The style is over the top of course, but I will remind you that this was how they sold everything back in 1995. It’s arguably restrained for the era. Surge commercials, for example, routinely featured teenagers ripping each other’s arms off just to get their hands on that sweet green soda.
Also, the kinetic style works to make these games feel special. And the part about your butt? Well, you should have been red E. I don’t know what to tell you. Small price to pay.
I kid around, but making your first video game system seem like anything less than the biggest badass on the block would’ve been a bad move. It was also just par for the course.
Just four years earlier, Nintendo teamed up with an already-immortal Paul Rudd to help showcase how much their new system was gonna blow us away.
My favorite part is that there since weren’t a ton of Super Nintendo games out at this time, classic city designer SimCity made the cut here. Love the idea of those kids on the other side of the chain link fence watching in awe as Paul Rudd decides where the airport in town is gonna go as he gestures wildly with his entire body.
All jokes aside, I absolutely would’ve been one of those kids hanging on the fence if I had a next-door neighbor with one of the first Super Nintendo’s and a 2,000 inch TV.
Recently, Sony made some waves online when a report was released indicated they unhappy with the sales of the PS5 and that they consider this current gaming generation to be in “the latter stage of its life cycle.”
We’re finally able to get our hands on the 5, and Sony is prepping the 6 already. Maybe it was different when Sony didn’t have to move on from one system to promote the next, but it just stinks, doesn’t it?
New systems used to feel fresh and exciting. One day we were all minding our business and they just took the Nintendo and made it Super. It was Earth shattering. Now gaming generations are declared mostly over in a meeting one day and systems are released not with jaw-dropping selections of games and mind-blowing (borderline insulting) marketing, but with fiscal strategies and questionable plans for long-term sustainability. It feels like the gamers got cut out of the whole cycle a little bit.
Someday sooner than we realize, the PlayStation 6 will come out. And even though he’d look the exact same as he did in that ad from 1993, I doubt we’ll see Paul Rudd playing it in an empty lot that you’d find in the beginning of a Terminator movie. No, we’ll just read an article about how the first six months of shipments are already sold out even though there’s a lack of exclusive launch games. The official announcement will be done in a bland post or YouTube video, and the advertisements won’t have messages to decode.
I don’t know about you guys, but I'm red E for a return to an era of gaming with more heart and personality, even if the TV was constantly yelling at me.
U R the BUTT