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Mandalore76 on 21 April 2015
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Aeolus451 said:
Mandalore76 said:

To claim that a list of 3rd Party games that appeared on the PlayStation would never have existed if it weren't for the existence of the PlayStation itself is beyond stretching reality.  First off, Nintendo was actively looking to eventually switch from cartridges to disk going back to the SNES (that's the whole reason the PlayStation itself exists).  Second, Sega already had disk based consoles on the market (Sega CD followed by Sega Saturn).  Do you really think that if there wasn't a PlayStation, Squaresoft would never have made Final Fantasy VII?  You are giving Sony WAY too much of the credit for the franchises created by other companies that would have just appeared on a different platform under other circumstances. 

By the way, for perspective:

Shin Megami Tensei (Persona) - Super Famicom (1992)  <--- prior to PlayStation's existence
Shin Megami Tensei (Persona) - Sega CD 1994 <--- prior to PlayStation's existence
Tomb Raider - Sega Saturn 1996 <--- simultaneous release with Play Station version
Suikoden - Sega Saturn 1998
Shin Megami Tensei:  Devil Summoner (Persona) - Sega Saturn 1995
Residen Evil (Biohazard) - Sega Saturn 1997
Dino Crisis - Dreamcast 2000 (one year after PlayStation release)

There is zero reason why a number of the other games you mentioned wouldn't have simply been released on other systems by their respective companies if the PlayStation had not existed.  You are looking at the past with a very thick set of blinders on.  Capcom, Namco, Silicon Knights, From Software, Working Designs, etc. would all have simply released their games on whatever platform was available to them.  Sony did not develop the games personally, so I can't fathom giving them the credit for their existence.


So you don't think that those games' success on the playstation console had something to do with more sequels being released? What's pretty wild is that some people seem to think if playstation never came into being then all of the IP's that were released first on a playstation console would of magically still be released on any console and the gaming market would be the same today regardless if sony entered the market or not.

I haven't taken any jabs at any console or tried to downplay what any console did. I'm gonna just give some quick examples and not list everything that I could find on what would of changed without xbox or Nintendo. It's safe to say if MS didn't enter the console market with the xbox, FPS would not be what they are today and no where near the quality of games of in that genre. How many FPS games were created because the genre's popularity exploded? It's safe to say that Final Fantasy wouldn't of existed without nintendo. 

It's feasible for at least some of those game series to not existed or became what they are now without a playstation console to find success on. That's all I'm really trying to say. 

It's not magic.  It's business.  If you're a software publisher, you publish on whatever console is available at the time (exclusivity agreements not withstanding).  Between 1996-1998, 3 different Tomb Raider games released on PC and sold over a million copies each.  Did their counterparts on PS sell more?  Certainly.  Would the Tomb Raider franchise have been still-born if there wasn't a PlayStation to release on?  I doubt it.  I love Suikoden, but not one of those titles passed a million in a sales (even on PS2's uber-userbase), so I don't see a reason why Konami wouldn't just release on whatever system was available/capable at the time.  The highest selling Shin Megami Tensei titles released outside of this millenium were on the Saturn and SNES, so I don't see how PlayStation saved/is responsible for this franchise's existence.  The fact that there were 6 previous Final Fantasy's, and that one of the most beloved in the franchise (even if not the highest selling) was on the SNES tells me that Square Soft would have done just fine continuing their flagship franchise elsewhere. 

In fact, since the 3rd party support that Sony was able to snag away from the Nintendo 64 was part of what made the original PlayStation so successful.  Imagine a Sega Saturn with the system sellers like Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid.  Segas fortunes could very well have turned out very differently, especially since their wouldn't have been a need to rush their launch.

Nintendo's market share decreased over time, not because the video game market itself was shrinking, but because of competition they themselves created (PlayStation).  I think it's presumptuous to assume that the entire industry would have collapsed if Sony hadn't entered the market.  That's all I'm saying.