Why the Snes Playstation Pictures are Fake

UPDATE 2: Well, the person that admitted making it has since stated that it was a joke. Whether or not they are now lying is unclear, but it does mean that whether or not the piece is real is now back up for debate. Our theories as always presented below, if you have any opinions be sure to comment below, and keep checking back for updates.

UPDATE: Well we gave our theories, but the jig is up. The creator of the console has admitted in a Tweet that it was fake. Below is the post with them admitting it –

Those of you circling social media will be aware that today will be aware of the discovery of one of the 200 Sony-Playstation consoles created in 1991. This was done as part of a venture by Nintendo to create a disk operated console for the growing gaming market. Eventually the move was canned as Nintendo decided to partner with Philips instead, eventually leading to the creation of the N64. Seeing a gap in the market this lead Sony to create their own console, the Playstation X. Along with the Atari E-T meltdown this is considered one of the great lost gaming artefacts.

Now to explain why it is unlikely that this particular console is indeed the lost ‘Nintendo-Playstation’. That is not to say there aren’t probable editions of the console out there in either Nintendo or Sony’s offices, but this does not look like the article. The story has all the classic markings of a hoax, give a bit of a vague information that people can link together themselves, a bit of footage but nothing too in depth, and leave the world to ponder.

One reason, is that the story is just too perfect. Back in 2007, a group of gamers were discussing this particular product. A Sony employee seemed to state that around 200 were made, but the only person he named having one was ‘Olaf Olafsson’. Isn’t is just rosy that the one that has popped up now uses much of the information in this forum post, and has no other information beyond the vague basics?

Let’s ask ourselves a basic question. Why is the owner refusing to open it up so people can see the internals, and is it just too convenient that he doesn’t have a power supply, or any that are compatible? One might say that he doesn’t want to ruin it, or break it, however there is no shortage of experts that would willingly aid him in verifying that it is real. It has all the hallmarks of a hoax, currently.

Secondly, now that we know 200 or so prototypes were made, there are a number of differences between them. Firstly, the ‘official’ images have a space between the word play, and station on the controllers. In addition to this, if the controllers were made to go specifically for this Sony version, why are there only Nintendo details on the back? The code there reads ‘SHVC-005’ – a standard famicom controller code. Whilst it’s not impossible that as it was a prototype, the original was just a paint job, it doesn’t negate the fact that this could be a paint job too. The controller panels look different, as do the power buttons, headphone socket and volume control. Even though it’s a prototype, it’s hard to believe it would all be in English, yes the famicom had a lot of English text, but that was the final product. Keep in mind this is a long time before the concept of having a simultaneous global launch for all consoles.

Continuing on from that, while the project was nicknamed ‘PlayStation’ it is unlikely that Nintendo, should they have decided to have taken it in to production they would likely have called it something else. To them ‘PlayStation’ was only ever a working title, like Project Natal was with the Kinect, so they would not have gone to the effort of devoting valuable design team time to creating a brand for a prototype. It is likely they would have continued the naming scheme for the NES consoles, maybe calling it the DES abroad. Also the images show absolutely no branding for Nintendo, the company that was supposedly going to mass-produce the console on the body of the prototype.

Also finally, the story the user tells has absolutely no detail and makes what can only be called vague implications.

““My dad worked for a company, apparently one of the guys he used to work with, I think his name was Olaf, used to work at Nintendo and when my dads company went bankrupt, he found it in a box of ‘junk’ he was supposed to throw out.”

The poster goes on to state that his father was called Olaf, so it could be Ólafur Ólafsson who was the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment form 1991 to 1997, he never worked at Nintendo. Also, there is no reference to what ‘Dan’s’ father’s company was. It could range from Mossad to Nestlé. However, ‘Olaf’ is mentioned as being involved with the deal with Nintendo, this report from 2007 seems to suggest as much. However, it would take only a cursory amount of research to uncover that information. Not to mention that there also professional console modders who have called ‘Dan’s’ story out as well, however for any non-French speakers you might not understand the writer’s tone.

Many people compare this to the image from the 90’s that exists of a prototype, claiming that they are very similiar. There are a number of differences in design, but many of them could plausibly be denied by the fact that the design would hardly have been static, and many different models would have been created. It is likely though whoever made this fake, made it to look like those images.

As yet there has been no official word on the story from either Nintendo or Sony.

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