Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and welcome to this week’s video focusing on
a corner of the nerd world and today we’re covering Sony.
What is this company and what are they known for?
Sony as a company was branded in 1958.
Previously, it was a smalltime Japanese technology company, focusing on tape recorders and radios
in the early 50s.
The two founders Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita faced some opposition when they started calling
their company Sony because at that time, not many Japanese companies used roman letters
and most companies clearly labeled the industry in their name, but the creators wanted Sony
to not be tied to a certain industry.
Time flew for Sony, as they grew and grew, becoming one of the primary creators of technology
like tape players and portable radios.
Sony was also one of the dominant forces in pushing for the development of the compact
disc, to overtake the popularity of the cassette tape.
They also created the Betamax format for video recording and fought hard against the VHS
format, which eventually became the standard.
However in the early 2000s, Sony was on the right side of choosing the Blu-ray format
over the HD DVD format.
They also owned the PC company Vaio for a long time, before selling it in 2014.
You win some, you lose some.
We skipped some things, so let's back up.
In 1989, Sony bought Columbia Pictures and entered the arena of filmmaking.
They’ve since also acquired TriStar Pictures and Screen Gems, as well as plenty of other
international production companies.
They also create movies under the straight up name of Sony Pictures.
Their total library is over 3,000 titles and 12 Best Picture Academy Award winners.
Sony also has a brand that focuses on entertainment, firstly called Sony Computer Entertainment
but more recently Sony Interactive Entertainment.
This branch was originally working with Nintendo to create an add-on to Nintendo consoles that
would play CDs but that partnership fell through, leaving Sony with this CD-playing device that
they eventually branded as the Playstation.
They’ve since released multiple versions of the Playstation, with the PS4 the current
model.
It was through the Playstations that Sony was able to help cement the status of Blu-Ray,
as they included Bluray as a function with the Playstation 3 back in 2006.
Most recently, they released PSVR, short for virtual reality, to complement the Playstation
4.
The Playstation line of products is in direct competition currently with Microsoft, who
develops the Xbox line of products.
There are many games that release to both consoles but there are opportunities for exclusives
created for Sony consoles only, by companies either owned by Sony or with exclusivity contracts
with Sony.
While they have many projects in film and gaming, they also have a branch called Sony
Music Entertainment and they own the entire catalogues of artists like Michael Jackson
and the Beatles.
Most of these things you might’ve known but Sony also has branches that focus on things
like semiconductors, medical equipment and technology, and mobile phones.
Sony has been in the news unfortunately frequently.
One of their first big scandals was in relation to their music distribution.
On CDs in the early 2000s, Sony hid a program, called a rootkit, onto the CD which would
install onto that person’s computer and 1.)
tell the person that they couldn’t illegally download or copy that disc and 2.)
inform Sony of what the user was doing with the music.
There were some unintended consequences, like this program opening the door for other viruses
and programs to sneak in undetected.
This was made worse by Sony’s initial response when it went public: “Most people don’t
even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”
Their other big mainstream scandal was when a hacker group self-identified as the Guardians
of Peace hacked and released tons of information from Sony Pictures, including salary information,
confidential emails, and even unreleased films in their entirety.
Some of this revolved around the film The Interview and U.S. intelligence has claimed
that North Korea might have endorsed or even been responsible for the hack, though they’ve
denied all responsibility.
Some of the most talked about leaks were emails about celebrities, including ones where a
top tier executive called Angelina Jolie a "minimally talented spoiled brat" and ones
where racist references were used in relation to US President Barack Obama.
"I ran this company, I had to worry about everybody who was really scared.
So, people were really scared.
But nagging in the back of my mind...
And I keep calling them.
They don't have our emails, right?
Tell me they don't have our emails.
No no no no no...
Well, then they did."
Sony decided to not release The Interview theatrically but instead released digitally
instead, though it was unclear for a time if it would be released at all.
A documentary is being developed about these hacks and the repercussions.
This hack also revealed conversations regarding Spider-Man.
See, Sony bought the rights to Spider-Man from Marvel back in the late 90s and created
five movies, of decreasing popularity and lessening critical response.
Now that Marvel was putting out commercially and critically positive films, a deal was
struck for Marvel to borrow Spider-Man for large movies like Captain America: Civil War,
in exchange for Marvel helping to guide and shape the Spider-Man movies that Sony will
still create on their own.
The hacks revealed conversations that would eventually lead to this big announcement.
So those are just a few interesting tidbits about Sony.
Movies, videogames, Betamax…
Technology for everything.
Hopefully this was interesting and we’ll see you next week for another "What Is."