The media and tech giant known as Sony has come a long way since its humble days as a small electronics manufacturer. Nowadays when people think of Sony they think of the small electronic marvels like the Sony Walkman, digital tape recorders, and the pioneering blu-ray disc. You might think of the console domination that Sony had with the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2 and the groundbreaking innovation that was the PS3 and now the PS4. With all that technology and advancement though there is always a darker side and there is always something that Sony would rather have buried or shrouded in mystery.

There’s a lot of responsibility and financial gain that comes with being one of the industry leaders in not just technology, but the growing gaming industry. Just like every other company though, the bigger and more successful Sony gets, the harder it is to keep their failures and their missteps under wraps from the masses. Eventually, their best-kept secrets come to bare, and eventually all there best-laid plans can’t contain the truth behind some of their greatest achievements. Sony has accelerated the gaming sphere, but they were almost out of the gaming biz altogether. Their technology has spawned a lot of inspiration, but it has also created a lot of rumors. Perhaps a smaller company could keep things under wraps, but as you will soon see for Sony that is all but impossible to keep going, thanks in large part to curious consumers.

15 Sony's PS3 Set More Than One Thing On Fire

via Tom's Guide

The PlayStation 3 revolutionized and paved the way for the gaming industry, but it also provided a cautionary tale for those who wished to push the envelope before things were exactly up to par. Sony was under a lot of pressure to deliver with the PS3 and, as a result, they pushed out a model that wasn’t exactly their finest work.

The first consoles were big and they tended to overheat and have a similar issue to the Xbox 360’s “red ring of death’ in their ‘yellow light of doom.’ While random bricked consoles were a problem for Sony, so were the random fires that would start in some PS3s near the HDMI port. This resulted in the damaging of some HDTVs in the process. Sony denied that these incidences were happening on a wide scale, but it did happen and the cause was never fully determined.

14 One Little PS 2 Demo Disc Caused A Lot Of Heartache

via retrogameon.com/TheStrong.com

If you’re like me, I’m sure you remember the promo’s for the PlayStation demo disc from Pizza Hut and were as excited as I was when you got to play an up and coming game for free before it even hit store shelves. While this was all well and good and things worked out fine most of the time, there was one demo disc in particular that I was glad I didn’t pick up.

The game in question was Holiday 2004, and while it was full of fun games, the fun soon ended when users began to find that their PlayStation 2 memory cards were completely wiped. Sadly, all of their hard work flushed down the drain. This wasn’t really Sony’s doing, but it was their responsibility to test the disc for errors and glitches such as this one and is likely something that they never failed to do with a demo disc afterwards.

13 Final Fantasy VII Was Scripted As A Detective Game

via unsee64.com

Final Fantasy VII is an iconic game for the Sony PlayStation that almost wasn’t what we know it to be today. No, it’s not because Nintendo almost had a chance to produce it themselves if that’s what you’re thinking. The story as we know it today was originally billed to be about a near future New York detective named Hot Blooded Detective Joe.

That’s a far cry from the sword-wielding hero that we think of today. Thinking back on it there are a few of hints at it being a detective game, but boy am I glad that they scrapped that story and went with the one we all know and love today. Given the company that produced it though I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if they made it work with the old script either.

12 Sony Pictures Paid Women Less Than Men In Most Cases

Via: The Associated Press, commons.wikimedia.org(Dan Zen)

When Sony Pictures was hacked a few years ago, a lot of dirt was discovered about the company that many people did not know and it helped to change the overall image of the company forever. While there was a lot of information released thanks to the hack one piece of information seemed to stick out more than others. The revelation came when documents were released detailing that many of the actresses in Sony Pictures movies were paid far less then their male co-stars were.

It not only sparked a discussion about the gender pay gap once again, but also moved many stars to speak out about the pay gap that they faced working for many Hollywood film companies. It not only forced Sony to change how it does business, but also influenced the industry across the board.

11 Racist PSP White Ad

Via: Flickr.com(Trent Bigelow)

Advertising is a hard business. It takes many hours, and a lot of know-how, to create something that is both memorable and effective. It has to appeal to the masses and at the same time tell enough about the product to get people to want to learn more and to buy it. So, with that in mind, it’s a real head-scratcher to see something like the ad that Sony put out a few years ago in Holland for the PSP white version.

The ad is placed onto a black background with the words “PlayStation Portable White is coming” along with a black person having their face held tightly by a white woman dressed in all white. As you imagine, this caused quite a stir, and it’s hardly easy to explain away the ad as a misunderstanding when at first glance it’s pretty clear that it’s going to offend a lot of people and also fail in many ways to get people excited about the product.

10 Chinese Students Were Forced To Make PS4s In Order To Get College Credits

via kotaku.com/pinterest.com

The PS4 might be a powerhouse of a console and a force to be reckoned with on the market today, but some of the units bought were manufactured in a very questionable way. According to a newspaper in Shanghai, China called Dongfang Daily thousands of Xi’an Technology University students worked at a Foxconn plant in Yantai as part of their work-study program.

You would think this wouldn’t be a big deal until you learn that it was mandatory for the students to enroll and if they didn’t enroll they would lose six college credits and a chance at getting their diploma. If you think this one is a bit too far-fetched, Foxconn went on to confirm that such a program did exist which was in direct violation of Foxconn’s company policy.

9 Their Original Name Wasn't Sony At All

Companies change their names for all sorts of reasons and they usually have to do with lawsuits or bankruptcy, but the company choosing the name Sony was for an entirely different reason altogether. It all started when founder Akio Morita took a trip to the United States and realized that his companies name needed to change to be more recognizable and easier to pronounce outside of his home country of Japan.

The change was made and ‘Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo’ became Sony as we know it today. Akio got the name from a brand of tape the company had been manufacturing since 1950 called Soni-tape which was derived from the latin word of sonus for sound and combined it with the English phrase sonny boy.

8 Sony And Nintendo Intended To Make A System Together Called The Super NES CD-ROM

VIa: fakegamerguy.com

Before coming to SEGA for assistance in making a console Sony sought help from video game giant Nintendo. This wasn’t the first time they had partnered as Sony produced the S-SMP sound chip for the Super Nintendo a few years earlier. Nintendo seemed receptive as they had come to Kutaragi when they wanted to move into the realm of CD-ROMs.

Their partnership began in 1988 and Sony created a standalone console that had the ability to play Super Famicom cartridges along with Super Disc via a peripheral CD-ROM add-on. This was known as the Super NES CD-Rom and while it was set to be announced in June of 1991 Nintendo decided to pull out at the last minute and go with Phillips instead fearing that Sony would gain too much of a foothold.

7 The Sony Logo Went Through A Lot Of Changes

Via: openlab.citytech.cuny.edu

Ah, the iconic PS symbol of the PlayStation with its familiar boot up noise. It warmed our hearts as kids and got us excited to play all sorts of games, but the strange thing about that logo is that its first interactions were very different from the one we see today. Sony played around with many ideas starting with a simple S with orange, red and blue coloring to an interlocked P and S and even dotted pattern before finally coming up with the joined P and S.

While I’ve got no problem with the logo as it is today I often wonder if it would have been as popular had they gone with the interlocking letters or the simple S instead. I mean after all, when we think of Nike we all think of the iconic swish and recognize it anywhere don’t we?

6 Sony Once Tried To Join Forces With SEGA, But SEGA Declined

Via: Flickr.com(SEGA of America)

The console war was alive and well in the early 1990s and every company was trying their best to come out with the next greatest console to fuel the world’s deep-rooted love for video games. Sony was new to the console industry at the time and they were looking for another suitor after the failed Nintendo partnership and found one in their very close neighbor SEGA.

Two Sony of America executives talked with the then head of SEGA America Tom Kalinske and agreed on a plan to create a console together and share in the cost and profit. While Kalinske felt it was a brilliant move given that the two companies competed with Nintendo and wanted to topple the giant the SEGA board disagreed and turned down the proposal. Just another clear case of what could have been

5 Sony Pictures Hacking Scandal

via independent.ie

Sony Pictures has had many problems in the past few years, with some of its movies not performing as well as was once hoped, but nothing can really compares to what happened on November 24th of 2014. On that date, a group of hackers who referred to themselves as “Guardians of Peace” released a bunch of confidential data from Sony Pictures in the form of emails and also copies of unreleased films.

As one would imagine many revelations came to light thanks to this hack including racist jokes between executives about president Barrack Obama, and the fact that Sony Pictures actively paid its female stars less than their male counterparts. To make matters, worse the hackers released a variant of the Shamoon wiper malware into Sony’s systems and erased the infrastructure.

4 Sony Lost $300.00 For Every PS3 Sold

Via: YouTube.com(Артем Покрышкин)

When the Sony PS3 hit the market for the first time it set off a chain reaction of awe and disappointment all at the same time. Awe because of its sheer power and capability, and disappointment at the fact that it sported a $499.99 price tag at retail. While this may seem like a lot of money (even now), it might surprise you to learn that despite its big price tag Sony was still selling it at a $300 loss.

According to economics experts, the cost of the materials and manufacturing cost Sony $806.00 for each 20 GB model that was being sold minus the cost of cables, controllers and packing supplies. So why would Sony do such a thing? The thought at Sony at the time was that they could recoup their initial losses through digital content and add-ons.

3 Sony PS2 Chips Were Once Linked To Guided Missile Fears

Via: AFP 2017/ INA

Anytime you have a piece of technology that is cheap and powerful like the PS2 was at the time you run into stories that seem way too far-fetched to be true. In this case, we will never know if the fears were real or not, but it was reported at the time that Iraq had purchased 4,000 Sony PS2s with the plan of linking some of them together to make a supercomputer to guide missiles.

While the UK intelligence agency dismissed these claims by saying that it wasn’t practical. Sony never said whether it was or wasn’t and they sort of left the whole craze up in the air and still haven’t fully answered it yet. It was probable, given the power of the PS2 and I wouldn’t put it past a government monitoring such a thing just in case either.

2 Sony's Lack Of Licensing Helped To Kill The Betamax

Via: josephkaminski.org

Usually, when you are the first on the market —as Sony was with the Betamax— you have a competitive advantage and come out on top. For Sony and the Betamax, however, things were a bit different in large part due to the fact that Sony failed to license the Betamax to anyone. Sure the price tag compared to the JVC VHS and the one hour record time were killers too, but most people didn’t buy the JVC version of the VHS and instead opted to purchase one from their licensed partners like Phillips.

If Sony had licensed out the Betamax, they could have created more innovation and lowered the price per unit. Instead, the Betamax failed, and Sony ironically ended up having to agree to a licensing deal with JVC just like all the others.

1 Sony Security Cameras Allowed Hackers To Spy On You

Via: pexels.com, commons.wikimedia.org(Uwe Aranas)

In early 2016 it was reported that there was a potential for hackers to be able to access many high dollar Sony security cameras thanks to backdoor vulnerabilities. Thanks to these vulnerabilities hackers could either send commands to the camera through the security interface telling it which way to move or they could instead use another backdoor vulnerability to take full and complete control of the camera.

This was a huge problem not just for security reasons, but because it seemed to affect over eighty different versions of Sony security cameras on the market, some of which were currently being used as monitoring tools for government agencies. Once the information was passed onto Sony thanks to the hard work of researchers at SEC Consult they quickly patched the backdoor vulnerability.