What company will the gaming world be better without?

[stof]

I'm quite suprised at how civil and rational this thread has remained.

We wouldn't be better off without any of them, but if we had to choose the one that we could stomache to lose... Looking at it from a historical perspective, Microsoft has been the least influential. But then again, it's still early for them. Nintendo and Sony have been the two most influential Console companies to date.

Nintendo is the longest running player and continues to be one of the most influential. We are forever in debt to them for the NES, they've consistently made innovative and spectacular games, they've just changed everything again with the Wii, and the DS has proven that they're handheld success isn't just a given, it's earned.

While I don't think much of the PS3, you can't ignore that they've made 3 consoles and a handheld, two of which sold over 100 Mil, dominated the industry and brought about huge changes in games and the gamer demographic.

Microsoft is only on their second gaming console. And they've done some fairly big things with it. While others toyed around with Online, they're the ones that really made it a big part of gaming. And currently, the idea of bridging the online gap between a console and PC's is a great one. I think they'll have much more success in the future, but so far it's just too early in their gaming life.