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curl-6 on 01 June 2020
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GarbCat said:

I never experienced the 4th gen console wars, but my parents did. I remember my parents both talking about how heated the SNES/Genesis discussion could get at school at times. Apparently at some point in the mid 90s my dad had both consoles but never really elaborated on it so I don't know if you'd be viewed as a "traitor" for owning both consoles, or whatever. This gen doesn't seem to really have much of a console war and I think it's because many more people own two or all consoles so there's less of a side to take. I do remember the 7th(?) gen console wars, between the Wii, PS3, and X360, and I was in the "ew every non-nintendo game is Brown And Grey Mush Hell" camp even though for the majority of that time I didn't even own a current gen console. I owned a Gamecube during the majority of the 7th gen and in like 2010 or 2011 my parents bought a Wii and they used it more than I did because of the virtual console

Ah, the 7th gen. I'll admit back in the early days of it when I was still in my late teens I engaged in a bit of the old console warring myself, the Nintendo fan in me being gleeful that they were finally on top again and rubbing it in the face of those were salty about Wii beating PS3/360.

That was probably the most involved I ever got in the whole business of console wars. Once I moved to Uni, got my own Wii/360, and had access to a PS3 through one of my dorm mates, I mellowed out a bit and played on all three.

I think what made that war so exciting was that it was such an upset, with the formerly invincible reigning brand coming crashing down to earth and the former laughing-stock losers rising from the ashes.

d21lewis said:

I was hoping for some more awesome/petty war stories but it seems like everyone was too old or too young or just didn't experience it.

In retrospect, it was relatively short. When the SNES entered the fray, it almost felt like the fight went out of Sega. They battled for a couple of years bringing great games like Sonic 2 and Streets of Rage 2 but it really seemed like they quickly abandoned the Genesis in favor of add-ons and the Saturn.

The seventh gen went on a lot longer. But for those of us who remember it, the 4th gen was probably the gold standard for console wars.

I dunno, I feel like those add-ons were part of their fight to keep the Megadrive competitive, rather than an abandonment. It was 4-5 years from the release of the SNES to the Saturn, I wouldn't call that moving on quickly or giving up easily. Even late in the gen you had aggressive ads and games designed specifically to counter Nintendo, like Vectorman being pitched as their answer to the pre-rendered Donkey Kong Country.