Alternate history: Sony don't join the console race

[SvennoJ]

zorg1000 said:

SvennoJ said:

I lived through it (born in the mid 70s), gaming wasn't cool. I got bullied for it in high school and firmly put in the nerd category...

NES and SNES had the stigma they were for young kids. And even us playing on Amiga 500/PC was not cool. We though Wolfenstein and Doom were revolutionary, but the rest of the school, the popular kids had zero interest. Gaming had the same 'stigma' as AD&D and board games. 

Our exposure to PS1 came from Night clubs, going out to drink/dance and then finding PS1s playing Gran Turismo in the chill out area. So we got hooked on playing GT after the clubs closed.

Yes Sony created that market, and thanks to the exposure to PS1 which became accepted to be played by 16+, N64 faced a lot less resistance. But PS1 was the cool games machine we took to work to play in the break room, next to playing PC in Lan after work at work.

I’m sorry but your anecdotal evidence of getting bullied in high school for being a gamer then playing PS1 with your work buddies as an adult doesn’t convince me.

It’s just simple math, 80s kids grew up in the 90s and the market grew up with them. What Sony does deserve credit for was making a well-rounded piece of hardware that was developer friendly while Nintendo made the mistake of going with cartridges and Sega was doing everything in their power to self-destruct which led to PS1 becoming the primary console for this demographic.

That's now, not at the time Playstation launched. 80s kids didn't want much to do with video games in the 90s. It was something you were supposed to grow out of. That was the sentiment at the time where I grew up. My group of friends were all into PCs and coding at the time next to playing games and following the demo scene, but we were the outcasts in a way and video game discussions at high school just didn't happen. 

A key factor for Nintendo's older audience is nostalgia. Games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom evoke strong feelings of nostalgia for many players, helping to retain their loyalty

You don't have Nostalgia at age 16-20...

NES 62m -> SNES 49m -> N64 32m -> GC 22m 
Compared to PS1 101m -> PS2 160m

The Wii was groundbreaking in that it opened gaming to the entire family, to enjoy together. That's how Wii Sports became so successful, everyone from 4 to 90 wanted to try it. And indeed then nostalgia started to play a part as well when those 80s kids got their own kids.

Playstation opened new markets, that's what the numbers show.

It would have happened eventually anyway, but Sony did speed up the process with Playstation marketing. NES and SNES were only sold in toy stores where I lived, Playstation was the first console to be sold in department stores and audio video stores. Then others followed.