Did Nintendo save gaming with the NES?

[Wyrdness]

Yeah, it's the first modern style console and SMB changed how game design was approached, NES increased the market size making it viable to be what it would later become today as it allowing Nintendo the success they got is what drove SEGA to be bought by Japanese business and continue on in the market and Nintendo would later indirectly bring Sony into the equation after their own efforts initially fell flat for the market to become mainstream which prompted MS to then enter later on. The increased viability caused far more investment into the market.

I know about the what if arguments as the home computer market was still functioning after the crash but then piracy was a rampant problem for developers which would impact returns an issue that had no real viable solution until Steam took off plus the platforms were inconsistent causing their decline which is why they conceded the market to consoles and the 90s proved to be a rollercoaster time for the market as PCs came into being which would have become the main gaming medium if consoles weren't about and PC gaming prior Steam was a messy affair to the point things wouldn't have been mainstream which highlights the question would the market have attracted the type of investment consoles did and survive.

For example in the early 00s PC gaming was in serious trouble due to issues like piracy, compatibility issues and not being user friendly etc... For anyone who wasn't around or not into PC gaming in that period prior to Steam if games needed to be patched you had to search the web for developer or user generated patches for each game individually if the developer had gone under or any sites hosting patches were no longer live that's it you have no alternatives, you had to keep hold of CD keys to unlock your games when installed on a new PC, some games just refused to work with new types of hardware etc... It brought the market down to a point where EA who once tried to refuse to develop for consoles in favour of home computers declared the market dead now picture if consoles weren't around at this point as that was practically the anchor for gaming at the point as only a few were doing well with PC at the time. PCs required a one two punch of Steam which was mandatory with HL2 and later Crysis which pushed the new era of PC hardware to recover and eventually become a healthy market again.