PlayStation Logo Sound Creator Tohru Okada Has Died

Japanese musician and music producer Tohru Okada has died of heart failure at 73, according to multiple Japanese-language sources. In the world of gaming, Okada is best-known for his work on commercials, particularly those for PlayStation. In fact, you likely know his most notable work--a very concise one--as it appears in countless PlayStation commercials. Not only did he compose and produce the music that played during several highly odd and memorable Crash Bandicoot ads in the '90s, as shown in the below video, but he also created the iconic sound that accompanies the appearance of the PlayStation logo.

It's a sound that's stood the test of time, lasting more than 25 years as an indelible part of the brand. It's so closely associated with the PlayStation name that you might not even realize that it plays almost every time the logo appears.

The gaming connections don't end there, however. In his home country, Okada is arguably best-known as a founding member of the Japanese rock band Moonriders, which proved highly influential over time. Okada's bandmate Keiichi Suzuki composed songs for the Mother series, which includes the ultra-cult game EarthBound, as well as its ill-fated prequel Mother (known as Earthbound Beginnings in English), which didn't come out in the West until 2003.