Sony was so desperate for video games and the PS1 to look "f***ing cool" that marketing execs say they'd take games to "places that were almost quite dangerous" to be "associated with alcohol, drug taking… anything"

Snake looks to an explosion in the distance.

Dim the lights. Shut the blinds – things are about to get risky. You're about to boot up Madden NFL 2001.

This is the scene Sony executives might have imagined while they, in the early PlayStation days, planned their marketing campaigns around what former PlayStation marketing head Geoff Glendenning thought was "fucking cool," as he says in a recent interview with The Game Business.