If you have ever seen a playground commercial, you’ve heard the iconic sound that accompanies the logo. For almost the entire existence of the platform, this note has been associated with it. Sadly, the man who composed it, Tohru Okada, died of heart failure on February 14 at the age of 73.
Tohru Okada, the man behind PlayStation’s commercial sound, has died
Tohru Okada contributed a note to the PlayStation ad, and that’s all it took to make history. As soon as you hear the metallic ping, you immediately know you’re about to see something PlayStation-related. This strong brand recognition is one of the reasons Sony is still on top nearly three decades after the release of the PS1.
Interestingly, the PlayStation’s commercial sound has a bit of symmetry that you might not notice at first. It was composed by taking the “tion” on the robotic “play-station” shown at the end of the commercial and placing a note on it. So technically every ad starts and ends the same.
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— moonriders_net (@moonriders_net) February 22, 2023
Okada was prolific and in addition to being the keyboardist of the group Moonriders, he composed, performed and produced hundreds of works. He also did more work for the PlayStation, including the music for the Japanese Crash Bandicoot commercials.