The original concept art for Pokémon Red & Green featured an unusual logo, as the design for a Pokémon trading machine featured Sony's logo on it. Sony and Nintendo have been rivals in the video game market since the mid-nineties, and Pokémon is one of Nintendo's biggest brands. So, why did early concept art for the games feature Sony machines instead?
The enmity between Nintendo and Sony predates the creation of the first PlayStation. Sony and Nintendo were partners at one point, which led to the creation of a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo. This add-on wouldn't see the light of day until a prototype of the Nintendo PlayStation showed up in 2015. The reason for this is that Nintendo cut a deal with Philips, which was one of Sony's biggest competitors at the time. This turned out to be one of Nintendo's worst decisions, as it led to the creation of some awful games on the Philips CD-I, which starred first-party Nintendo characters like Mario and Link. The deal also inspired Sony to enter the video game market, leading to the creation of Nintendo's biggest competitor: the PlayStation.
Pokémon Red & Green spent years in development. They were originally known as Capsule Monsters, but the concept was refined over time. There were some elements of the games that were set in stone early on, and they include Pokémon trading. The inspiration for Pokémon trading came from Dragon Quest 2, as Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri wanted to trade rare items in the game with other players. The Game Boy's link cable functionality was one of the reasons why Pokémon Red & Green were developed for the system, as it allowed Tajiri's vision of trading to happen.
The Sony Trading Machine In Pokémon, Explained
The original Capsule Monsters pitch has been partially reprinted in Famitsu magazine, with some of the pages scanned and available on that is used for Pokémon trading, which resembles a row of arcade machines. The first picture shows lanes connecting machines, with those two trainers likely trading with each other. What makes this machine so surprising is that it clearly has Sony's logo below the screen with the Pokémon on it.
The fact that these documents were meant for internal use means that the artists likely weren't worrying too much about copyright infringement, especially as some of the example monsters used for explaining the battle system are clearly based on Godzilla and King Kong. The fact that Nintendo and Sony hadn't had their falling out yet also means that the people at Game Freak likely didn't see an issue with using the company's name in the original Pokémon pitch documents.
Source: The Cutting Room Floor
