The story behind Nintendo’s betrayal of Sony — and how it created its fiercest rival

The following is an excerpt from Replay: The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan.

It should have been a coup. On May 28, 1991, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, Sony proudly revealed that it was working with Nintendo to create a version of the Super NES with an in-built CD drive. The two Japanese companies had been working together in secret on the project, tentatively titled the Nintendo PlayStation, since 1989 and with the hype about CD-ROM reaching fever pitch, Sony’s announcement should have been a highlight of the trade show.