Obituary: Tohru Okada, creator of PlayStation's logo sound, has died

Japanese music producer Tohru Okada, who created the sound for Sony's PlayStation logo, has died at age 73. 

Several Japanese news outlets such as Excite reported that Okada passed away on February 14 due to heart failure, and bandmates from his Japanese rock band the Moonriders later corroborated the news on social media.

"I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has worked with Toru Okada for a long time, and to all the fans who have loved Toru Okada's music," wrote the Moonriders in a translated Facebook post.

The PlayStation sound has been a part of the console for nearly its entire lifetime, and has typically been used in commercials for Sony's game system. For a certain generation, hearing that sound effect on TV was how they knew a PlayStation exclusive was about to be advertised. 

Along with that sound effect, Okada created music used in several ads during the 1990s for Crash Bandicoot, one of PlayStation's most popular mascots at the time. 

Okada was also a keyboard player and founding member of the Moonriders, along with Mother composer Keiichi Suzuki. The band wrote on Facebook that its concert intended for April 29 and April 30 has now been canceled, but they'll share their thoughts on the late Okada during the event.