Sony was making a space shooter for its unreleased Nintendo PlayStation console, according to Shuhei Yoshida

(Image credit: Heritage Auctions)

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said the Nintendo PlayStation's first game would have been a space shooter
Yoshida was able to play a prototype of the console and try out the "almost finished" game
The game was inspired by the Sega CD version of Silpheed

According to former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, the unreleased Nintendo PlayStation's first game would have been a space shooter.

Following his departure from Sony last month, Yoshida sat down with MinnMax to reminisce on his 31 years at the company, as well as his very first day on the job where he got to play the unreleased Nintendo PlayStation's first game.

For some context, there was initially a partnership between Sony and Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) called the SNES-CD. However, the collaboration ultimately failed, and the project later resulted in the creation of the original PlayStation.

Yoshida explained that he joined Sony in 1993 after the collaboration was over and became part of Ken Kutaragi's team to work on the PS1, and that is where he was first shown a prototype of the hardware.

"The first thing they showed us was that Nintendo-Sony PlayStation, a prototype already working, and also they had almost finished a game on it, and I got to play it on the system the day I joined," Yoshida revealed.

"It was like a shooter. Do you remember on the Sega CD system, there’s an amazing game from Game Arts, a space shooter, and all the assets are streamed from the CD… so lots of assets coming in..."

The game Yoshida is referencing is the Sega CD version of Silpheed, which was a space shooter that placed polygon ships over FMV backgrounds, and because these videos were pre-rendered, he explained that the unreleased game had "richer graphics than the standard of that time."

Yoshida said he doesn't remember who created it, but it could have been developed in the US or Japan, adding he "wouldn't be surprised" if Sony had the game in its archive.

Elsewhere, Yoshida recently spoke on the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement, which he thought "could have been a larger reveal", and hopes that "something that people wouldn't anticipate" will be shared later on.