PS1-era Sony nearly fell out with one of its most legendary studios because the "traitors" put Wipeout on Nintendo 64: "What the f*** was Psygnosis doing on the N64?"

Wipeout 64 cover art — (Image credit: Psygnosis/MobyGames)

PlayStation eventually killed Wipeout developer Psygnosis despite it helping define the PS1 era, but the companies nearly fell out years earlier over Wipeout 64: "What the f*** was Psygnosis doing on the N64?"

You can't tell the story of PlayStation without acknowledging Psygnosis. Sony acquired the British studio in the early '90s ahead of the launch of the PS1, and games like Wipeout, Colony Wars, and its Formula 1 series would help define the console's identity, especially in Europe. You might be confused, then, about why Psygnosis went and made a Nintendo 64 version of Wipeout at the height of the console war. As it turns out, so was Sony.

That "traitors" line is certainly a joke – he points right at former Psygnosis PR lead Glen O'Connel as he says it – but there was certainly some genuine animosity before Wipeout 64 happened, when gaming magazines reported that Sony was looking to sell off Psygnosis. Rumors suggested that it was because Psygnosis was making games for Sega Saturn as well as PS1 and PC, but apparently, the studio was too valuable to get rid of – and these days, that part of the story is disputed.

"Certainly, at one of the E3s when it appeared on Nintendo… it just arrived on the booth," O'Connell says. "And there were some faces that were going… what's going on here? That was down to Psygnosis managing to retain an autonomy to make the games they wanted. But… that maverick spirit perhaps created some challenges later on within the wider Sony group."

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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