Just think about what would the industry would be like without Sonic the Hedgehog

Here is what I think would have happened

Sega would have gone third party alot earlier

Resulting in Nintendo having a monopoly on the industry

So Nintendo would have never partnered with Sony as there would be no reason to make SNES CD addon to rival the Sega CD

Thus, Sony would have never entered the industry

Any of the competition's consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox would bomb since Nintendo having all the third party games+ Nintendo exclusives

...

Wow. That is just what I think, anyone else have different thoughts?

Yeah. Nintendo has historically felt that third party titles aren't as important, and that multiplatform games aren't necessary.

Two Words: President Tupac

Alex Kidd would have saved Sega's ass without breaking a sweat!

Apple, Panasonic and Atari did. They all failed.

As did NEC during the 16-bit gen.

Sony had a perfect storm, much like the arab conquests during the 7th century. It was unlikely to happen, but everything got timed right and the opposition made critical mistakes all at the most critical times.

Nintendo losting the top spot was not an inevitable outcome.

Sega would have just had a different mascot, dont think much, if anything, would change...

If Sonic had never existed, all the platformer games staring a "cool" animal would have never existed.

"Cool" wouldn't exist without Sonic. Nuff said.

The world would have been a better place :)

In reality, things wouldn't change that much.

I would say.........MS would still try :P.