They marketed it at young adults with disposable income. Advertised in different places and made PlayStation a brand. Only Sony thought to advertise PlayStation in nightclubs, sponsoring events such as that. How long have they been sponsoring the Champions League now too?
They also introduced licensed soundtrack with much higher profile musicians which fitted in with the demographic they initially went after. Wipeout has a completely different atmosphere to F-Zero, and a big part of that was the soundtrack (it always seems to come up as the reason a lot of people have such fond memories of the original game).
I guess they just came in with a different view/perspective, and it just resonated well at the time.
RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.
