PlayStation Commercial Logo Sound Creator Tohru Okada Has Died

If you’ve ever seen a PlayStation commercial, you’ve heard the iconic sound accompanying the logo. For almost the entirety of the platform’s existence, this note has been associated with it. Sadly, the man who composed it, Tohru Okada, died of heart failure on February 14 at age 73.

Tohru Okada, the man behind the PlayStation commercial sound, has died

Tohru Okada contributed one note to the PlayStation commercial, and that’s all it took to go down in history. As soon as you hear the metallic ping, you immediately know you’re about to see something PlayStation-related. That strong brand recognition is one of the reasons why Sony is still on top almost three decades after the launch of the PS1.

Interestingly, the PlayStation commercial sound has a bit of symmetry you might not notice at first. It was composed by taking the “tion” in the robotic “play-sta-tion” said at the end of the commercial and layering a note on top of it. So, each commercial technically begins and ends the same way.

Okada was prolific, and in addition to being the keyboardist in the band Moonriders, he composed, performed, and produced hundreds of works. He also did more work for PlayStation, including the music for the Japanese Crash Bandicoot commercials.