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Forums - Sony Discussion - Is PlayStation Just As Iconic As Nintendo?

Mummelmann on 22 August 2015
Soundwave said:
Mummelmann said:


Icons also change over time though, there are movies that came out when I was little that were perhaps nothing more than a success back then but that have turned iconic over the years.
Like I said in my opening post though; from an objective point of view, it depends on who you're asking and often how old they are.

Movie stars like Ingrid Bergman and James Dean aren't really iconic for me and most people my age, Jack Nicholson and Helen Mirren are, but they likely won't be for my children and/or grandchildren etc.

Odds are that smaller children will cite something like Angry Birds, Candy Crush or similar things if you ask them about games and gaming.

Those same kids still know Super Mario ... will kids 10-15 years from now know/care about Angry Birds? Doubt it. 

Ingrid Bergman ok ... but is Marilyn Monroe still iconic? Kim Kardashian can do hundred different sex tapes, she'll never be the icon Marilyn Monroe is. 

Some things are just iconic. Michael Jackson. Charlie Chaplin. Mickey Mouse. Coca-Cola. Marilyn Monroe. Elvis Presley. The Beatles. And yes, Super Mario. 

It's the reason why things like the passing of Mr. Iwata got coverage on things like CNN and Time Magazine ... even if Nintendo isn't doing so hot at this moment, Nintendo's brands are iconic, therefor the passing of its president is news worthy because everyone knows "Nintendo creator of the Super Mario series". 

Nintendo may fuck up a lot of things, but there's zero question the brand is iconic. If the president of SCEA passed away, I don't think it would get global media coverage. 


I'm not saying Nintendo isn't iconic, or that they are less iconic than Playstation, my point is that what is considered an icon can and will change over time. As of right now, Nintendo is probably the more iconic of the two gaming brands despite lower sales of home consoles and the intrusion of smart devices.



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Soundwave on 22 August 2015
Mummelmann said:
Soundwave said:

Those same kids still know Super Mario ... will kids 10-15 years from now know/care about Angry Birds? Doubt it. 

Ingrid Bergman ok ... but is Marilyn Monroe still iconic? Kim Kardashian can do hundred different sex tapes, she'll never be the icon Marilyn Monroe is. 

Some things are just iconic. Michael Jackson. Charlie Chaplin. Mickey Mouse. Coca-Cola. Marilyn Monroe. Elvis Presley. The Beatles. And yes, Super Mario. 

It's the reason why things like the passing of Mr. Iwata got coverage on things like CNN and Time Magazine ... even if Nintendo isn't doing so hot at this moment, Nintendo's brands are iconic, therefor the passing of its president is news worthy because everyone knows "Nintendo creator of the Super Mario series". 

Nintendo may fuck up a lot of things, but there's zero question the brand is iconic. If the president of SCEA passed away, I don't think it would get global media coverage. 


I'm not saying Nintendo isn't iconic, or that they are less iconic than Playstation, my point is that what is considered an icon can and will change over time. As of right now, Nintendo is probably the more iconic of the two gaming brands despite lower sales of home consoles and the intrusion of smart devices.

Nintendo's gone through similar dry spells before though. 

Besides Mario and company are coming to the iPhone/Android shop soon enough any how. 

I think you would be hard pressed even today to find a kid who doesn't know who Super Mario is either. You'd have to be living in a cave somewhere. 

If you're still recoginizable/popular 30 years after creation I tend to think you've crossed into that "you're going to be an icon for a long time" territory. 



Soundwave on 22 August 2015
Ka-pi96 said:
Soundwave said:

It's the reason why things like the passing of Mr. Iwata got coverage on things like CNN and Time Magazine ... even if Nintendo isn't doing so hot at this moment, Nintendo's brands are iconic, therefor the passing of its president is news worthy because everyone knows "Nintendo creator of the Super Mario series". 

Nintendo may fuck up a lot of things, but there's zero question the brand is iconic. If the president of SCEA passed away, I don't think it would get global media coverage. 

You're not serious right?

The death of any CEO of a large multinational company would get global coverage, and yes that does include Sony.


Really? I don't see it that often. If the president of Sony's Playstation division passed away (knock on wood) I don't think it would get global coverage. Or even something like if the president of ... Toshiba passed away, I mean I dunno if that would really be deemed news worthy. If the president of EA or Activision passed away, I don't think that would be coveraged on TV by CNN. Nintendo isn't even really that big of a company. They're not Microsoft or Apple or something like that. 



NoImBrian on 22 August 2015

In response to the original article - no, not even close. It's like comparing Mission Impossible to James Bond. Yeah the former has done same good stuff but to be classed as truly iconic you have to have pioneered in some way, PlayStation has simply never done that. I think there's a lot to admire about Sony's business model though.



fatslob-:O on 22 August 2015

What I've learned from EVERY console generation is that current trends pay no homage to the far past ...

It's not all about recognition of a mascot, it's also about brand power and consumer commitment and Nintendo today is struggling with these things ...

Sony has handily beaten Nintendo in the most important aspects so yes Playstation is just as iconic as Nintendo if not more so ... 



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KLXVER on 22 August 2015

In home consoles its probably more iconic at this point.



Kane1389 on 22 August 2015
Wright said:

No way. You see people all the time asking for Nintento to go third party, but rarely hear about wanting for Sony to go bankrupt and selling their games to other companies. Why? Because they know who's the real icon here.


It's because of Nintendo's irrelevancy in the industry  and Wii U failure that people are saying that



mountaindewslave on 22 August 2015

oh my god some of these comments. if you guys seriously think Playstation is even remotely close to Nintendo in terms of being a video game iconic than you've lost your minds

there is a reason that millions of people rabidly collect all things Nintendo from generations since the NES to as recently as the Wii

Playstation is nowhere near the level of iconic and relevant to the gaming industry. even in recent years, despite some better sales in home consoles than Nintendo, nothing Playstation has done has been particularly special in terms of affecting the gaming world- they haven't brought any big game changes and their consoles have been quite similar to some competition (Xbox)

with Nintendo we're talking about a company that created modern day video gaming practically on its own and brought a kajillion inventions to it- first analog mainstreamed gaming controller, save states in games (Zelda), practically the whole modern platforming genre, etc.

Playstation is iconic, no doubt, but unfortunately Sony has never brought a ton of innovation- they've just always had an easy to adopt platform that a lot of other developers supported

the Sony Playstation brand doesn't even have many iconic IP's. I mean go for it, name a 'Playstation' gaming set of characters or stories that are incredibly popular- clue- they don't exist because the Playstation has always been successful based on third party support not the in-house stuff



Goodnightmoon on 22 August 2015

People really don´t understand the word iconic, they are thinking on the word popular instead.



Ultrashroomz on 22 August 2015

I'd say it's just as, if not, more iconic than Nintendo in today's generation.



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."