Mark Cerny is best known as the soft-spoken engineer who serves as PlayStation's lead console architect, having designed the PS4, PS5, and yes, even the Vita. But his history with PlayStation goes back much further to his time as president of Universal Interactive Studios, where he helped produce Spyro the Dragon. Despite the executive title, Cerny was very serious about the game, to the point where he was single-handedly trying to kick off its speedrunning scene back in 1998.
In the December 1998 issue of Next Generation magazine, Cerny was asked if he was the best at Spyro, which had just launched a few months earlier. "I don't know," he replied. "I'm thinking of having a competition among the team to see who can finish the game fastest. I'll put up a large monetary prize, thus motivating me to practice a lot, become the best, and not have to pay out any money."
