Polygon Man was an early marketing character for Sony’s original PlayStation in North America. Created in 1995 by advertising company Chiat/Day and then-Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) president Steve Race, the character was meant to be an “edgy” spokesperson for the console and target audiences that they feared would be put off by the ‘PlayStation’ name, however, the character was generally disliked.
The Origins of Polygon Man
In 1995, when preparing for the unveiling of the PlayStation console to North American audiences during that year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, or “E3”, regional branches of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) came into conflict with the Japanese branch over how the console was going to be marketed. Market research had shown their consumers had reacted negatively to the PlayStation name and wanted to use “PSX”, a contraction of the console’s codename.
Concerns were raised to SCE president Teruhisa Tokunaka, who dismissed them, noting a similar initial reaction to the Sony Walkman. However, at the American branch (SCEA), president Steve Race was still concerned, and felt the console would need an “edgy feel” to sell it to North American audiences. Chiat/Day, SCEA’s advertising agency had conducted consumer research and identified a target age for their market of 17, with younger consumers wanting to be that age while older consumers wanted to feel that age again.
The American branch sought to aim their advertising at a teen audience, and created the character of “Polygon Man” to this end. Influenced by Sega’s successful anarchic “Pirate TV” campaign in the United Kingdom, Polygon Man’s appearance was a floating, purple disembodied head with glowing yellow pupils in black eye sockets and spikes protruding from his scalp. In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Race stated the character “from a U.S. perspective was the kind of spokescharacter that was leading edge”.
PlayStation never expected Polygon Man to be a central brand character like Sonic The Hedgehog but rather to be a master gamer who was hip and edgy. Prior to E3, print advertisements were run featuring the character alongside full two-page previews for games that would launch with the PlayStation, with a speech bubble above Polygon Man’s head making a quip related to the game. Meanwhile, at the event itself, press kits, billboards and booth signage featured the character with a speech balloon stating “Addictive to the MAX” in Japanese.
However, Ken Kutaragi, global head of the PlayStation brand, reacted particularly harshly to seeing the character for the first time at E3. He was particularly critical of the PlayStation’s then-limited budget being squandered, but also the presentation of the character itself, which used flat shading instead of the ‘Gouraud’ shading which the PlayStation utilised. SCE had intended minimalist branding for the console, and according to Chris Deering, former head of PlayStation Europe, they interpreted the advertising campaign as “the American branch fighting against the PlayStation brand.”
Race stated on the matter “There was a large disagreement… The Japanese thought it got in the way of the Sony brand. The Sony brand stands on its own; It never uses a character or celebrity endorsement, so culturally I didn’t get that.” Due to the Japanese branch having the final vote on the matter, the character was shelved and temporarily replaced with Sofia from Battle Arena Toshinden in the next print advertisement. Additionally, previous advertisements were quickly re-run with the same text but Polygon Man removed. Race, in an interview with GameFan, stated afterward that he sought other characters to serve as “spokespeople” for the PlayStation, even reaching out to Marvel Comics before he ultimately left SCEA.
Polygon Man’s Story: Brand Ambassador Turned Super-Villain
In 2012, Polygon Man resurfaced as the main antagonist and final boss of fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. In an interview with IGN, game director Omar Kendall stated that while considering a final boss for the game, several concepts were suggested, however upon consideration they decided “we wanted the final challenge to be against the entire PlayStation brand itself”.
Describing Polygon Man as “the ultimate manifestation of PlayStation”, they felt that he represented the system due to his grandiose statements in advertisements that came across not representing him as a villain but “the power and potential and what PlayStation represents”, and further representing the game’s events as happening within the “world” of the console itself. Though the character has spoken dialogue, no voice actor is credited as Polygon Man in the game’s credits sequence.
In game, Polygon Man will transform into a stage hazard seen previously in the game’s stages and attack the arena, while the player must fight an AI-controlled opponent from the roster. Once the opponent is defeated, Polygon Man will revert to his original form and ram the stage at which point the player may damage him. Afterwards, the process repeats, with the player then fighting two opponents, then three. After Polygon Man is damaged a third time, he explodes and the player character absorbs the energy within him as the game ends.
Polgyon Man’s Legacy
Polygon Man was poorly received as a mascot, with PlayStation Magazine commenting that “a lot of consumers found him way too creepy.” They elaborated further in a later issue, with Randy Nelson calling the campaign one of PlayStation’s biggest blunders and adding “We’d bet there are still people at Sony Computer Entertainment that, to this day, still wonder the same thing we do: What the hell were they thinking?” Nelson further stated the character “looked scary, displayed no emotion, and shouted meaningless phrases in Japanese. That’s how you sell your totally unproven game system”.
Not all reception was negative, with Game Players magazine stating that the campaign had “dominated” E3, and the staff were saddened to see it stopped. The book The Golden Age of Video Games cited the ad campaign as a positive example of Sony’s willingness to “address the teenage crowd” in a direct and aggressive manner, and the staff of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine stated that while those who recalled Polygon Man “have few kind words to say about him”, in light of the showings from Sony’s competitors at E3 1995, they felt the company’s advertising “seemed remarkably strong”.
Sebastian Moss and Dan Oravasaari of PlayStation Lifestyle both bemoaned the reveal of Polygon Man as the antagonist of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, with Moss in particular noting that the choice was baffling due to not only the North American exclusivity of the campaign, but also concerns that the reference would go over the heads of much of the game’s target demographic. More importantly, Moss emphasised that even Sony themselves had rejected the character.
Conversely, Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin praised the character’s role as the villain and final boss of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and Edge called him “a wonderful symbol of the schisms that characterise both Sony’s corporate structure and the game that has been designed to celebrate its output” and demonstrated charming self-deprecating humour on the part of the developers.
In 2022, a digital statue of Polygon Man was included in a series of digital collectibles as part of Sony’s PlayStation Stars loyalty program. The collectible was obtainable by partaking in one of the program’s campaigns, and afterward could be displayed on the player’s profile in the related smartphone app. In 2024’s Astro Bot game, one of the characters, called ‘Forgotten Mascot’, is modelled after Polygon Man.
