Alternate history: Sony don't join the console race

[IcaroRibeiro]

PS1 is the reason why console gaming is so big nowadays. It had an affordable offering and cracked markets when gaming was heavily centered around NA and Japan

Without PS1, Dreamcast and Original Xbox would have sold a bit more. Xbox could have reached some of PS1 popularity in Europe and ROW region during 360 days, but without the heavy support of Japanese developers I believe it would never get as big as Playstation is

Western development would have been pushed towards PC much earlier, with consoles being mostly restricted to exclusives from the console makers (Sega, MS and Nintendo)

I think eventually consoles would be consumed by people who want exclusives and japonese games (Sega and Nintendo), portables (Nintendo) or simply could not afford a PC whatsoever (Xbox)

Adoption of PCs would be more widespread and with the lack of standardized controllers and engines I believe PC and console gaming would move further and further away and turn into completely different markets