a world without Nintendo would mean i'd have more spare coin haha

That's not really true. Between Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo still accounts for the largest chunk of consoles sold this gen (they may well get overtaken by Sony if the PS4 keeps selling like it is, but Sony hasn't overtaken them *yet*). Plus a lot of people got into the Wii or DS last gen, and I know quite a few people have stayed on those consoles (or PS3 or 360) rather than jumping into this gen. That's sort of reflected in the fact that overall, when you roll them all together, consoles have sold a lot more slowly this gen than last.

There's also the case to be made for some of the very influential things Nintendo does in game design. Some of their ideas don't stick but plenty of them go on to become industry standards: targeting systems, analog control, touch screens, rumble, scrolling in games, motion control, non-games. All of these things (and plenty of others) were either brought into games by Nintendo, or at least made popular by them. I don't think there's another company in the biz that would even come close when it comes to influencing game design on such fundamental levels as much as they have.

If Nintendo left the games industry now, we'd basically just have a very homogenous industry - Sony, Activision, Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA all tend to prioritise fairly similar things in game design, and Sony and Microsoft's consoles have ended up being quite similar as well. Whether or not Nintendo's decisions go down well with people (sometimes they don't), they're in many ways the least conservative of the big companies because they wilfully push video games in a very different direction from the rest of the big players. They challenge the industry, rather than just focusing on the technological arms race that the rest of the pack usually goes for. The industry needs that in order to be kept on its toes.

I think people often forget that the great videogame crash of 83 was US specific. Europe had a thriving game scene without Nintendo. It was just on computers rather than consoles.

Still, without Nintendo then we don't have Playstation

You say that, but you don't know for sure. Remember getting rid of Nintendo creates a parallel universe where Nintendo aren't preventing all their 3rd parties from releasing software on other formats. The likes of Castlevania and Metal Gear solid also have origins on non Nintendo platforms. These would no doubt have just found homes on other companies systems.

Also going into the 90s arcade gaming was its own scene. Which was more what European computing drew from. I don't doubt Sega would still have had home consoles, without Nintendo's anti consumer practice's holding their software lineups back no doubt these would have taken the place of Nintendo. Companies like NEC, Panasonic, Phillips, Amstrad etc would still all also have involvement and so it wouldn't be unexpected for Sony to follow into the market as a result of that. Given their kep rivals were making these new fangled gaming systems.

Neo Geo might also have entered with a stripped back less powerful home system were Nintendo's grapple of the market in the late 80s/early 90's not so iron fisted.

Who knows right? But I'm pretty sure gaming wouldn't be the same, many will have you think otherwise but they don't know shit. We are all talking from our asses here.

Ever heard of Uncharted? Ratchet & Clank? Sly Cooper? LittleBigPlanet? Tearaway? Gravity Rush?

We just wouldn't have home consoles. PC would be dominant. All of the consoles people are bringing up are only relevant because of Nintendo.

Sega only rose to relevancy because of it's intentional contrast strategy to the SNES.
Sony only considered joining the console market because Nintendo was proving it was widely profitable and untapped.
And I can't remember MS, but I'm pretty sure it came about because of Sony's success with the PS.

Without Nintendo, none of this would have happened. Sega would have remained irrelevant. Sonic wouldn't have existed. The idea of a gaming mascot wouldn't have existed at all. Sony would then not have made a partnership with anyone because no one would have upstarted the console market like Nintendo did, meaning they'd have no reason to be betrayed and joined the industry out of spite, and then Microsoft definitely would not have made a console because there would be no proof that it would have been profitable.

PC would be dominant, and all of the iconic games of your childhood would come from their, not unlike China or countries like that.

why stop at assuming we wouldn't have sega, playstation or xbox. we probably wouldn't have apple or smartphones either. even calculators like the TI-85 played games and wouldn't have existed without nintendo and algebra and trigonometry would have been lost to an entire generation. honestly without nintendo the entire technology sector would have collapsed and we'd all regress back to the stone age where play time is relegated to sticks and mud.

i for what thank god daily that nintendo game along to invent the concept of play. pure genius.





c'mon guys. things would be different but only just barely.

PC gaming would have died without consoles being around. The market just isn't there other than for niche genres.