| FishyJoe said: A bunch of companies were involved with the MSX, not just Sony and MS. It seemed like their intention was more to make a home computer than a gaming platform, even though games were popular on it. Maybe I should rephrase my statement. Miyamoto's work vastly expanded the video game industry, attracting the interest of Sony to build the Playstation. |
True - it was an intent to "standardize" computing (what was MS thinking anyhow? They already were "standardizing" the PC industry with DOS and very soon after, Windows). They also pulled the same move with the Dreamcast (Windows CE).
This also reminds me of the FM Towns computer, although I believe that came almost a decade later (but was still relatively popular in Japan).
Your rephrased statement rings much better and I agree that Miyamoto vastly contributed to console gaming, but I also think the developers of those franchises born on the MSX deserve credit.
Just to throw a spanner in the works? What if we looked at it another way: Since chronologically speaking the MSX came before the NES, could it be that Sony inspired Nintendo to grow into the console industry, which bolstered by Nintendo's success, inspired Sony back into the console industry (to work with Nintendo)? It's undeniable that the MSX was a computer, but somehow I think the real usage the MSX saw in Japan was for gaming. If I recall correctly, the MSX even used ROM cartridges!
