Sub-claims found: 3 Overall: False — viral myth debunked Checked: Aug 10, 2026 (1 month ago)
Did you know this was how they made the PS2 start up sound? By dropping a piano off the top of a building.
Verified Disputed False Unverifiable
Evidence Ledger
"this was how they made the PS2 start up sound"
False
The PS2 startup sound was created by Sony sound designer Takafumi Fujisawa and a dedicated internal team using synthesized and sample-based audio techniques. Sony has never claimed a dropped piano was involved. Multiple fact-checkers and official sources confirm the sound was professionally engineered, not recorded from a physical stunt.
TIER 1 — PlayStation Blog (Official Sony) disagrees
TIER 2 — DigitEye India Fact Check disagrees
TIER 2 — allps2bios.com disagrees
Origin trace: The video used in these posts is a pre-existing 2007 clip from MIT's 'Baker Piano Drop,' uploaded to YouTube in 2011. Someone edited PS2 audio over it and reposted it as if it were documentary evidence of sound creation. It spread virally across TikTok and X/Twitter with no new evidence.
"By dropping a piano off the top of a building"
False
A reverse image/video search traced the footage back to the 'MIT Baker Piano Drop 2007,' a well-known campus tradition totally unrelated to PlayStation. The piano drop makes only a normal wood-breaking crash — nothing resembling the PS2 startup chime. The PS2 audio was edited onto the clip after the fact.
TIER 2 — DigitEye India Fact Check disagrees
TIER 3 — X/Twitter (Helix_W post comments) disagrees
Origin trace: The original unedited footage (uploaded April 23, 2011, by Clinton Blackburn) predates any PS2 sound claim by years. The piano-drop myth appears to have originated as a joke/meme that many users took literally.
"Did you know"
False
The framing as a surprising 'did you know' fact implies credibility, but no official Sony source, no credible gaming journalist, and no sound design record supports this claim. The actual creation process is documented through Fujisawa's own interviews on the PlayStation Blog.
TIER 1 — PlayStation Blog (Official Sony) disagrees
TIER 2 — SVG.com — Fujisawa profile disagrees
Confidence bands reflect sourcing found at the time this report was generated and may not reflect the current state of evidence. This is a permanent link, and the report isn't re-checked automatically.
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