| Johnw1104 said: And in response to ofrm1, the NES succeeded for reasons outside of just 3rd party dominance... They had a few "killer apps" in first party games as well. Any kid who saw Super Mario Bros in 1985 immediately wanted the system... You're certainly selling nintendo short. |
Not really. The NES had close to a year head start on the SMS and the 7800, had exclusivity contracts with massive 3rd party developers like Konami because of the infamous lockout chip, and their ruthless negotiating tactics with big-box retailers.
People always look at this issue through rose-colored glasses. Because of these factors I listed, Nintendo secured a huge market share. Because they secured a huge market share, they're enshrined in our minds as instant classics because those were the games that everyone played and loved. Very few kids owned multiple same-gen consoles, and the SMS was effectively nonexistent in the US, along with the 7800. Had the above factors not existed, it's entirely just as likely that we'd be hailing Ys, Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd, and Altered Beast as instant classics that helped define video gaming for decades, just like we do for Super Mario, Zelda, Contra, Mega Man, etc. By 1991, Nintendo was being outsold by the Mega Drive 3 to 1, and Sega competed squarely against the Super Nintendo, yet the Super Nintendo had just as many "killer apps" as the NES; including the best game ever made, Super Metroid. The reason Sega closed the gap has little to do with the quality of games as both systems had excellent libraries. It has virtually everything to do with the fact that the CEO of Sega of America, Tom Kalinske, was a marketing genius who had previously turned Mattell into the giant that it was in the 80's and knew how to market toys to Americans far better than Nintendo of America did.
Take PC in the 80's as an example of this. What people don't realize is that while the console wars were going on, there was an entire undercurrent of PC titles, particularly RPG's, which were far and away superior to just about all console RPGs that existed at the time. Ultima, King's Quest, Phantasie, Gold Box, etc. They aren't remembered by millions of people because of the economics of the market, not because the console alternatives were more compelling.
