The Mascot WARS
The war for video game mascots during the 1990’s.
By the late ’80s, Nintendo’s Mario wasn’t just the face of video games - he was already a cultural icon. Sega, at the time, had the Sega Master System and arcade hits, but no mascot that could compete on Mario’s level.
Sega needed a character to represent their new Genesis (Mega Drive) console and compete directly with Mario and the Super Nintendo. They created Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) - faster, cooler, edgier, designed to appeal to kids who thought Mario was “too slow” or “too kiddy.”
In the mid-’90s, as Sony entered the console business with the PlayStation - they needed a mascot of their own to rival Mario and Sonic.
Crash Bandicoot (1996) was created by Naughty Dog as the “unofficial mascot” for PlayStation. Crash was designed to have attitude (like Sonic) but live in a 3D platforming world (like Mario in Mario 64).
Crash never stuck as PlayStation’s true mascot. Instead, Sony rotated ‘pseudo-mascots’ over the years — Toro Inoue (‘Sony Cat’ in Japan) Crash in the PS1 era, Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank on PS2, Kratos on PS3, and Nathan Drake or Sackboy on PS4. Each defined an era, but none became the face of PlayStation.
