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Forums - Gaming Discussion - How Sony became king of consoles again

colafitte on 25 September 2018

The only video game characters universally recognized for the average person are Mario and Pikachu, probably Master Chief in USA and maybe Sonic or Crash could be others that come to my mind, but i don't think so. After those, videogame characters are just known for people that usually play games, like Link, Donkey Kong, Cloud, Snake, Ryu, Drake, Kratos, Joel and Ellie, etc....and despite the money that the videogame industry moves, is still a medium not as popular as TV or movies.

People outside of gaming recognize more names of consoles or games than characters...That's why Mario is so popular, because his name is the game...(and Pikachu is because the success of the TV series), but it you asked people in the street who is the main protagonist of Zelda....., well, you could imagine what name people would say. Besides Mario, people will recognize more names like Fortnite, Warcraft, Call of Duty, FIFA, Nintendo, Playstation, Xbox than 99% of videogames characters.



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omarct on 25 September 2018
GoOnKid said:
omarct said:

Thats not very impressive considering nintendo has been milking the same 10 characters for over 20 years. Imagine if Sony started making 3-5 Kratos games and spinoffs every generation, what would happen in 20 years? Anyways all of Nintendos characters are kid friendly so they can make tons of toys and other merchandise, so of course more people will know of the characters. Yet this means nothing to the king of video games title, now if it was the king of video games merchandise or king of video game toys or maybe king of reusing IPs, then I would agree. Just did I quick search and since 1981 and there are around 300 video games featuring the character MARIO.

Is Mario popular because there are so many Mario games or are there so many Mario games because he is popular?

I would say the former. Repeat something long enough and people will remember it. That is the whole concept behinds ads and commercials on television. 



omarct on 25 September 2018
RolStoppable said:
omarct said:

Thats not very impressive considering nintendo has been milking the same 10 characters for over 20 years. Imagine if Sony started making 3-5 Kratos games and spinoffs every generation, what would happen in 20 years? Anyways all of Nintendos characters are kid friendly so they can make tons of toys and other merchandise, so of course more people will know of the characters. Yet this means nothing to the king of video games title, now if it was the king of video games merchandise or king of video game toys or maybe king of reusing IPs, then I would agree. Just did I quick search and since 1981 and there are around 300 video games featuring the character MARIO.

You make an interesting point. From 2008-2013 Sackboy starred in three numbered LittleBigPlanet games, two handheld-tailored play-alikes for PSP and PSV, a racing game (LBP Karting) and the crossover PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Who is Sackboy?

I am pretty sure most playstation users know who sackboy is, what is your point? 5 years is no where near enough time to become as famous as Mario, Go back to 1981-1986 and ask people who Mario was. 



GoOnKid on 25 September 2018
Ka-pi96 said:
colafitte said:
The only video game characters universally recognized for the average person are Mario and Pikachu, probably Master Chief in USA and maybe Sonic or Crash could be others that come to my mind, but i don't think so. After those, videogame characters are just known for people that usually play games, like Link, Donkey Kong, Cloud, Snake, Ryu, Drake, Kratos, Joel and Ellie, etc....and despite the money that the videogame industry moves, is still a medium not as popular as TV or movies.

People outside of gaming recognize more names of consoles or games than characters...That's why Mario is so popular, because his name is the game...(and Pikachu is because the success of the TV series), but it you asked people in the street who is the main protagonist of Zelda....., well, you could imagine what name people would say. Besides Mario, people will recognize more names like Fortnite, Warcraft, Call of Duty, FIFA, Nintendo, Playstation, Xbox than 99% of videogames characters.

I'd say Lara Croft as well. Although that's partially because of the movies as well as the games.

Nah, we all know why she is famous. It's because of her big ... guns.



omarct on 25 September 2018
RolStoppable said:
omarct said:

I am pretty sure most playstation users know who sackboy is, what is your point? 5 years is no where near enough time to become as famous as Mario, Go back to 1981-1986 and ask people who Mario was. 

You responded to a comment about showing video game characters to 1,000 random people, so now you are already backpedaling by falling back on PlayStation users.

Not that it really matters. Did you know that Sackboy has essentially been buried? That's my point. Your argument made it sound like it's easy to make a character popular, but the frequency of LBP games had the opposite effect. There hasn't been anything new with Sackboy in a prominent role in years.

The main difference is that Nintendo had a massive head start. Secondly because of their policies they had very little third party support which forced them into dumping all their money into their IPs, the main difference is that rather than branch out like Sony, they decided to focus on the same profitable IPs because they figure it was better for merchandising(and they were right). Count how many different triple A playstation exclusives there have been over the last 2 or 3 generations compared to Nintendo.

Edit: I am pretty sure that for a good decade or so Nintendo had basically no competition, it is very easy to make people play similar games every year when they are the only decent games around. Over time this built a fan base that has lasted them until even today.

Last edited by omarct - on 25 September 2018

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OTBWY on 25 September 2018
Bristow9091 said:
OTBWY said:
To research who the actual king of video games is, try this experiment.

Hold up portraits of Mario, Kratos or MC. Ask about 1000 random people in the street who they recognize.

Fuck that. hold up pictures of Bubsy, Knack and Pepsiman!

Knack will win baybee!



AngryLittleAlchemist on 25 September 2018
OTBWY said:
To research who the actual king of video games is, try this experiment.

Hold up portraits of Mario, Kratos or MC. Ask about 1000 random people in the street who they recognize.

Better yet: Spider-Man and Link

I know who would win :cappa:



OTBWY on 25 September 2018
omarct said:
OTBWY said:
To research who the actual king of video games is, try this experiment.

Hold up portraits of Mario, Kratos or MC. Ask about 1000 random people in the street who they recognize.

Thats not very impressive considering nintendo has been milking the same 10 characters for over 20 years. Imagine if Sony started making 3-5 Kratos games and spinoffs every generation, what would happen in 20 years? Anyways all of Nintendos characters are kid friendly so they can make tons of toys and other merchandise, so of course more people will know of the characters. Yet this means nothing to the king of video games title, now if it was the king of video games merchandise or king of video game toys or maybe king of reusing IPs, then I would agree. Just did I quick search and since 1981 and there are around 300 video games featuring the character MARIO.

Mario is still popular because of consistently amazing games throughout all the years and it sells. It is the most successful video game franchise for a reason. The legacy speak for itself, hence why Mario is the Mickey Mouse of gaming.



OTBWY on 25 September 2018
AngryLittleAlchemist said:
OTBWY said:
To research who the actual king of video games is, try this experiment.

Hold up portraits of Mario, Kratos or MC. Ask about 1000 random people in the street who they recognize.

Better yet: Spider-Man and Link

I know who would win :cappa:

Spider-Man is not a video game character. Don't @ me.



AngryLittleAlchemist on 25 September 2018
OTBWY said:
AngryLittleAlchemist said:

Better yet: Spider-Man and Link

I know who would win :cappa:

Spider-Man is not a video game character. Don't @ me.

Sony made Spider-Man. Why else do you think the OG Ps3 had that font? :lol: