The evolution of the console market over time

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Mandalore76 said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

I think your whole table is a mess.  Your terms are not clearly defined.  When I offered some constructive feedback, you got into an argument about it.  

Here is a more logical version of the same table.

Generation	Arcade Games	Arcade Evolution	Balance	PC Evolution	PC Games
1	Magnavox Odyssey Atari Pong
2	Atari 2600  Intellivision
3	Atari 5200  Colecovision				C64
4	Atari 7800                  Master System	NES/Famicom
5	Genesis/Mega Drive Neo Geo            TG16/PCE	SNES/Super Famicom  Gameboy
6		Saturn	N64	PS1
7		Dreamcast                        GBA	Gamecube	PS2                 Xbox
8		Wii	DS	PS3           XBox360       PSP
9			Wii U        3DS	PS4           XB1         PSVita
10			Switch	PS5              X|S

For reference, I'll use the following terms.
1. Arcade Games: Consoles to play arcade games at home.
2. Arcade Evolution: Consoles to play games that have evolved from arcade gameplay.
3. Balance: Consoles that try to strike a balance between 2 and 4.
4. PC Evolution: Consoles that prioritize playing games which evolved from PC gameplay.
5. PC Games: Consoles to play PC games.

Also I define "Arcade" and "PC" based on what they primarily meant in the 20th century.
Arcade: Short, intense, easy to die, mainly challenges the body (e.g. coordination), uses a variety of controls especially joystick (or d-pad by extension), local multiplayer
PC: Long, slower paced, content heavy, focus on cutting edge graphics (including 3D graphics), challenges the mind (i.e. strategy, puzzle solving, etc...), uses primarily keyboard and/or mouse controls (or touchscreen and analogue stick by extension), online multiplayer

Generation 5: Nintendo doubles down on combining arcade controls with content heavy games (e.g. Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, etc...).  In spite of this there are popular games that are both purely arcade games (e.g. Street Fighter 2) as well as PC Evolution games (e.g. Final Fantasy 6).  The Gameboy largely plays games like the NES and SNES.  The Neo Geo is quite obviously an arcade machine.  Sega is also still focused mostly on making arcade style games.  Some of these are pure arcade ports (e.g. Altered Beast, Golden Axe, etc...) while other games could have easily been put straight into the arcade (e.g. Sonic, Streets of Rage).

I'd have to disagree with your moving the Genesis/Mega Drive from "Arcade Evolution" in Rol's table into "Arcade" in yours.  Games like Phantasy Star I-IV, Dragon Slayer I & II, Shining Force I & II, Shining in the Darkness, Sword of Vermillion, Surging Aura don't fit the narrative of Sega being "mostly focused on making arcade style games".  

I put the Genesis in column 1 to highlight that it was much more of an arcade console than the SNES. (And really for every generation Sega is more on the arcade side than Nintendo is.)  There were lots of arcade ports on the Genesis including quite a few by Sega.  I struggle to think of one arcade port on the SNES that was developed by Nintendo.  

On the other hand, you have a point in that Genesis is not a Neo Geo either.  Sega was making other types of games too like RPGs.  What it didn't really do so much was make "arcade evolution" games.  Either they made an arcade game or they made an RPG.  Meanwhile Super Mario World was an action platformer with an overworld and save files.  Sega wasn't really making too many games like this, "arcade evolution", but that was the focus for Nintendo.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 08 April 2021