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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Did Nintendo save gaming with the NES?

 

Did Nintendo save gaming with the NES?

Yes 70 70.00%
 
No 30 30.00%
 
Total:100
javi741 said:
Robert_Downey_Jr. said:
Nope. It was a crash but like the stock market gaming was always gonna come back. Nintendo happened to be at the right place at the right time and capitalized on a vacant market. The crash wasn't this long dark ages. It was like 2 years where things got saturated and new sales slowed down.

It wasn't going to comeback, Nintendo literally nearly killed themselves risking to put NES in retailers for free just so they could accept the NES in store shelves. 

That totally bypasses reality. The Famicom was released in Japan in mid 83 and quickly became a huge success. Nintendo only cautiously released the NES in the US in selected test markets before they went full out in mid to end 86 so they had already filled their pockets with 3 years worth of japanese money.

It is rather the other way around. Nintendo at the time was the only company who was able to ressurect the console gaming market in the US because they were the only company with the needed know how, third party backing of mostly japanese developers and most importantly the necessary fundings.



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SpokenTruth said:
mZuzek said:

If Nintendo hadn't done it, someone else would have. I do believe that.

In other words, yes. Nintendo saved gaming. Because they were the ones who did it, and not someone else.

Are you familiar with the New York test market of 1985?  Go check it out.  No, someone else would not have done this.  It was single handily the boldest and riskiest move in the history of video games and was directly responsible for the resurgence of the US video game market.

Have any of you read the 1993 book 'Game Over'?  Or just read any review or story about it. 

Most of my video game history knowledge comes from this book, "The Ultimate History of Video Games - from Pong to Pokemon and beyond" by Stephen L. Kent, which is a good read as well.



Mandalore76 said:
SpokenTruth said:

Are you familiar with the New York test market of 1985?  Go check it out.  No, someone else would not have done this.  It was single handily the boldest and riskiest move in the history of video games and was directly responsible for the resurgence of the US video game market.

Have any of you read the 1993 book 'Game Over'?  Or just read any review or story about it. 

Most of my video game history knowledge comes from this book, "The Ultimate History of Video Games - from Pong to Pokemon and beyond" by Stephen L. Kent, which is a good read as well.

Two great books



NES did what it did, we can't disconsider that. But, I believe arcades and mostly PCs would fill the gaming gap. And PCs back then weren't like today, when we talk about home computers we are talking about Windows Or Mac, maybe Linux. Back then there were commodore 64, Amiga pc, Msx and others. All of them being closed systems.

And Nintendo prior to releasing NES in USA by themselves they tried partnering with Atari to distribute the Famicom overseas. Nintendo has an strange historic of making terrible partnerships and shooting their own feet, like with Sony Play Station and Philips CDi.



snyps said:
Pc gaming would have been more popular. If NES didn’t happen, genesis/mega drive would have been the one to usher consoles back in.

Sega had created not one, but two relatively unsuccessful consoles during the time of the NES (SG-1000 and Master System). Sega Genesis was created as a response to the success of the NES with a push towards marketing. Had the NES not been a thing Sega probably would have seen the video game market as a niche market and stopped after their second failed system. 



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Duplicate post

Last edited by Doctor_MG - on 08 July 2020

I find the "Nintendo saved gaming" to be a too much US centric statement. Gaming was doing fine outside the US at the time of the crash.



Yes. I mean, you could make the argument that if Nintendo hadn't saved the industry, someone else would. Or that gaming would have been different, more PC/arcade focused, but succesful nonetheless. But in this current timeline, Nintendo saved and shaped the gaming industry not only with an incredibly succesful console that made gaming mainstream, but by giving birth to some of the most influential and popular franchises ever.



Of course? It's a pretty well documented historic moment.

I mean, gaming would resurface one way or another, but gaming wouldn't be nowhere near as popular or as advanced as it is today.



My (locked) thread about how difficulty should be a decision for the developers, not the gamers.

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=241866&page=1

Nautilus said:
Of course? It's a pretty well documented historic moment.

I mean, gaming would resurface one way or another, but gaming wouldn't be nowhere near as popular or as advanced as it is today.

For the US market? Yes. The major market to the date. And one of the pillars became videogame mainstream.