I have to agree with most of the people here that Nintendo saved videogames. In terms of the whole PC market I honestly can't comment since nobody I knew had PC's back in those days. Even today PC is hit or miss with my friends since everyone has a different setup. Consoles made gaming alot easier as all you needed to have was the same console and you could bring your game over along with yoru control etc. Again I can only go by consoles and video games would have not been the way it is today without Nintendo. Actually I want to add SEGA as well. Sorry but I just don't see me playing video games today if it wasn't for them.

I don't think people are seriously arguing that there would be NO video games if not for the NES.  I think what people are saying is that video games would not be the huge, multi-billion dollar industry with hundreds of millions of customers today if not for the NES, and I think they're right.  The NES saved the console gaming business, which is vastly larger than the PC gaming business.

I guess you are right.  But talk about mass market.  The last videogames my parents played before the Wii were Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt on the NES.  The system my family bought also came with the powerpad.  Those three games (and maybe Tetris) had the most mass market appeal b/t the creation of PacMan and Wii Sports.  And, yes, Nintendo is doing wonders for the videogame industry again.

The games themselves would be entirely different if not for nintendo, the commodore 64 was the most successful home computer selling around what 20 million pieces, Nintendo deserves alot of credit, first of all the very strong and sucessful home console seemed to contribute to killing off the proprietary home computers like the commodores and atari's, forcing computer gaming to consolidate on the dos and windows pcs, yes mac and linux and what not exist but face it most games are played on windows
sega deserves some credit from wrestling a monopoly in the US from nintendo
all sony ever did was show that by throwing money at something and going for loss leading sometimes works,
if sony never got involved the only things that would be different is that the awful final fantasy movie never would have existed (maybe) and I would be able to play through SHining froce 3 completely in English

@masschamber:
Sony made serious market expantions in the PS1 and PS2 eras both selling more than 100million units no other console in history as ever done that not even the Gameboy did that.

If it weren't Nintendo, it would have somebody else. Just like scientific discoveries--it's a matter of time before somebody figures something out.

So in games, somebody other than Miyamoto is bound to think of fun platformers too.

As it happens, a guy named Miyamoto worked for Nintendo, and Miyamoto was probably a year or two ahead of other game designers, so Miyamoto and Nintendo should get credit for it.

I dont even know why sony keeps thanking nintendo for what they did"in making the gaming industry what it is today"(they know in the inside they hate them with all their guts).

@soriku

If it wasnt for sony there would be no kingdom hearts! pwned./

Nintendo definitely saved the console gaming market. The console prior to NES were in no way comparable to PS2 or other consoles for that matter. NES brought widespread gaming like no other console did (or could do at that point).
If nintendo didn't enter the market at the time they did (for their own profit of course) console gaming would not have existed as it does today.

@TalonMan:
If the computer console killed gaming(almost) then should expect a market crash in 7-13 years because of the X360 and PS3? or will the Wii counteract that happening.

Leo-j, possibly because Nintendo did make the industry what it is today?

While video gaming would definitely have continued and continued to grow I imagine the market size would have been about a decades worth smaller than what it is currently. In other words I think that last generation the sum total of all console sales would be around 90-100 million consoles, as opposed to 170-180 million.

@Mitsuhide, the videogame market would probably have expanded during those generations without Sony in any case. The market always seems to naturally expand.