As Sony was releasing the PS1, Naughty Dog’s developers wanted to develop a family-friendly game that could compete with Mario and Sonic. They decided to make a character inspired by the living creature, the Eastern barred bandicoot. After designing the character out of the drawing board, they named him Crash Bandicoot. They also put in a villain named Doctor Neo Cortex.
The first Crash Bandicoot was released in 1996, and it succeeded in selling over 6 million copies on the PlayStation, making it Sony’s first official mascot. They even went to one of Nintendo’s buildings in Seattle, where Crash Bandicoot would dress up and roast Nintendo.
Crash would be involved in other games in the future and would be Sony’s mascot until Crash Bandicoot was released for the Xbox and the GameCube.
