Every 4 to 5 years, a new generation of video game consoles are launched. The companies do whatever they can to convince you that their console is the better choice for now and the future. Some consoles become huge successes. Some consoles barely survive in the end. Some consoles just crash and burn. Starting this November (in America), the next console launch war is coming when Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii join Microsoft's already launched Xbox 360 for the 7th Generation of gaming.For this special Gaming Trends, I'll be looking at previous console launch wars to see who tried to do what and who came out on top. I'm going to be starting from the 16-bit era, because the consoles from the Atari days all died from the crash of '83 and the 8-bit era was pretty much all Nintendo.
THE 16-BIT LAUNCH
Consoles: Nintendo's "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" vs. Sega's "Genesis" vs. NEC's "Turbographx-16"
Sega's Plan: With Nintendo owning 90% of the gaming market and thus killing major success for the Master System, Sega decided to build an even better console. The system launched in 1989 to compete against the NES, but Nintendo quickly came out with it's own 16-bit console.
NEC's Plan: Their plan was basically the same as Sega's: build a better console then the NES in order to take their market share. But first they would have to get through Sega's Genesis.
Nintendo's Plan: After seeing what Sega and NEC were up to with releasing new consoles, Nintendo was starting to realize how old the NES was looking by comparison. So in 1991 they launched the Super NES in order to dominate the market once again.
The Battle: Even though this battle had 3 consoles, the Turbographx-16 was quickly overshadowed by the Genesis and SNES due to having limited hardware (ONE controller port?), a steep $400 price with no game included, and lack of third party support. Sega created Sonic the Hedgehog as the cooler alternative to Mario, created the infamous Sega scream, and used slogans such as "Genesis does what Nintendon't" and "Blast Processing". Nintendo stuck with their powerful franchises Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, and Donkey Kong. As the years went by, Sega was slowly taking the market away from Nintendo thanks to its stellar titles.
A major turning point in the battle was when Mortal Kombat was to be released. With Nintendo's policy of censorship, the SNES version of the game had all the major violence cut out. Sega, however, decided to keep all the violence intact to position themselves as the "mature" gaming console. It paid off for Sega, as the Genesis version was widely regarded as the better version. This made Nintendo keep all the violence intact for Mortal Kombat II.
Each console came out with their own CD-Rom Drives. The Turbographx-16 and Genesis's CD-Rom Drives would wind up being total failures. Nintendo was going to come out with a CD-Rom Drive with Sony, but then decided to have Phillips create the CD-i system, home of the infamous terrible Zelda games. The CD-i would also become a total failure.
The Winner: Nintendo once again came out on top, selling 49.02 million units worldwide. But with Sega able to sell 30.75 million units, they were posed as serious rivals. The Turbographx-16 only sold 5 million units worldwide.
Lessons Learned:
1. Add-ons for a console will usually end up in failure. Each console tried to do a CD add-on and they all sucked. Nintendo made the biggest mistake of their lives when they screwed over Sony.
2. Give the gamers what the other guys won't. Sega saw how Nintendo wouldn't give gamers the violent content found in Mortal Kombat, so they gave it instead and outsold the SNES version.
3. The basics really matter. The Turbographx-16 may have been a decent console, but it could've been a whole lot better if a) they had more then one controller port and b) they had packed the console with a game to compensate the $400 price. It did enjoy success in the Japanese market, but sucked everywhere else.
THE 32-BIT/64-BIT LAUNCH
Consoles: Sony's "Playstation" vs. Nintendo's "Nintendo 64" vs. Sega's "Saturn"
Sony's Plan: Since Nintendo decided to screw them over, Sony thought they should enter the game market with their CD based console. But what exactly does some company that's had no history of games before think they can do to stop Nintendo and Sega?
Nintendo's Plan: After suffering some delays, the Nintendo 64 arrived a year after the Playstation. However, even though CD's were becoming the new popular format for games because of their cheaper cost, Nintendo stuck with cartridges. What could possibly go wrong?
Sega's Plan: Sega came out with their own 32-bit console, but unfortunately for Sega, between the time of the Genesis and the Saturn, they also released other hardware consoles; the Sega CD and Sega 32x. Once the Saturn came out, support for those hardware ceased, not amusing gamers at all.
The Battle: Sega's Saturn was suffering problems left and right. First off, after seeing how powerful the Playstation was, Sega decided to add a second processor in a panic, thus making the console too hard to code for, resulting in bad looking 3D games. They also decided to release the Saturn four months earlier than planned, but very few titles were ready and it was $100 more then the Playstation. All these problems lead the Saturn to become a disaster.
The Playstation, despite being from a company that supposedly knew nothing about the game market, went on to enjoy great success. When the console launched, it had games ranging from several different genres. Sony's key for the Playstation's success was marketing the console as a "lifestyle accessory" for males in the late teens to late twenties. The console would eventually have many AAA franchises for the console, including Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Metal Gear Solid.
The N64, meanwhile stuck with cartridges for several reasons. Games were harder to pirate, load times were a lot faster, they had internal batteries for save files, and they were more durable then discs. Despite all these advantages, many third party developers stuck with Saturn and Playstation because it was ten times as cheap to make games on the CD-ROM format. With higher costs for cartridges, N64 games cost higher and so it gave Playstation another advantage. Despite Playstation having many AAA franchises, Nintendo's franchises of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon kept the console strong, along with several Rareware titles.
Final Fantasy VII was a huge mark for Sony, as up to that point, all the Final Fantasy games were for Nintendo's consoles. Once Squaresoft decided to jump to the Playstation, Nintendo claimed it didn't need Squaresoft's business because "Square's games were dull, slow, and gamers did not want to play dull, slow games". Gamers didn't want to play FF7 so much that it became one of the most popular games of all time. Oops!
Towards the end of the war, the Saturn was long dead, Nintendo was starting to abandon the console for the Gamecube, and the Playstation continued to be manufactured at least 5 years after the release of Playstation 2.
The Winner: The Playstation completely shattered Nintendo's sales by selling over 100 Million units worldwide, and even when this era ended, would still live on for at least a few more years. The Nintendo 64 only sold 33 Million units, and was killed off by Nintendo before the Gamecube launch. Saturn only sold 9 million units worldwide, thus putting Sega in a very bad position.
Lessons Learned:
1.Your mistakes will come back to bite you in the ass. Nintendo's mistake of screwing Sony led to the Playstation selling over 100 million units worldwide, THREE TIMES as much as the N64. Sega completely confused everyone on what they were doing, and so the Saturn couldn't even sell 10 million.
2.Get with the times. Cd's weren't such a big hit in the 16-bit days, but by the time the 32-bit/64-bit launch was about to being, people were ready to switch formats. Cd's were cheaper and easier to manufacture then cartridges, so why NOT switch? Sega and Sony did that, but Nintendo didn't, thus another reason Sony prevailed and got more AAA licenses for their console then Nintendo.
3.Head starts and delays don't help. Saturn tried to get a head start on it's launch and it immediately suffered for it. The Nintendo 64 wound being delayed a year after the Playstation was launched. When you're going to release a console, be sure you release it on time. Being too early or too late is going to affect you in a major way.
THE 6th GEN LAUNCH
Consoles: Sony's "Playstation 2" vs. Nintendo's "Gamecube" vs. Microsoft's "Xbox" vs. Sega's "Dreamcast"
Sony's Plan: The Playstation made Sony number 1. All they had to do was repeat the same strategies that made them a success.
Nintendo's Plan: After killing off major support for the Nintendo 64, Nintendo tried to hopefully recapture the market they once completely dominated with their Gamecube.
Microsoft's Plan: With the video game market threatening to overshadow the PC market, Microsoft decided to enter the gaming fray with it's own video game console, the Xbox.
Sega's Plan: After the Saturn disaster, Sega put all their remaining eggs in one basket and tried to everything they could think of to make a console worth purchasing: Dreamcast.
The Battle: With a console that had online gaming built in, having a slew of great games like Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur, and releasing a year before PS2, all seemed good for Sega. EA decided to not support the Dreamcast at all, making Sega create their own sports titles that rivaled EA's games and would sometimes even surpass them. But the sins of the past were still too great, as everyone was still hyped for PS2 and still couldn't forgive Sega for the Saturn. Dreamcast died in early 2002, but hacked games would still be released for it in later years.
What did the PS2 offer? For one, it was backwards compatible with 99% of all PS1 games and peripherals. It also doubled as a DVD player, and since DVD players were going to become a hot item, it was a great deal for gamers. Despite shortages during launch and being inferior in terms of hardware and graphics, the fact that it kept coming out with one great game after another and prices for the console were constantly slashed kept it above the Xbox and Gamecube. The PS2 also came out with various add-ons to the console, which ranged from being good like the Eyetoy to disastrous like the Hard Drive. Early PS2's also became well known for suffering from disc read errors. In the end, the PS2 remained on top mostly because of the software, since hardware-wise, they've had a lot of problems.
Meanwhile, Microsoft was now entering into the gaming world, hoping to capture the market from Sony the same way Sony captured the market from Nintendo. When the Xbox launched, however, many of their first party games turned out to be terrible. Only one game would eventually stand out from the rest: Halo. Halo was seen by many as the only reason the Xbox did not fail right away, as it was the only title that was truly phenomenal. In 2002, Microsoft would begin Xbox Live, a centralized online gaming service that would make the console very popular for online gamers. Eventually, Xbox was not only starting to get games once exclusive to the PS2, it started to get it's own exclusive titles such as Ninja Gaiden, Splinter Cell, and Star Wars KoToR. In 2004, Halo 2 would become the number one best selling game and most played game on Xbox Live. Despite it's somewhat success, it failed to capture a majority of the market controlled by Sony, taking a distant second place. It's sales in Japan were poor due to the huge size and lack of support from most Japanese developers. However, it's Xbox Live service still remains the best form of online console gaming.
Nintendo, however, were very stubborn in this console war. They decided to not have their console use the DVD format, but rather their own kind of MD-esque format. In 2002 when Sony and Microsoft were going online, Nintendo thought that the online gaming market wouldn't be worth much, so instead of having online games (besides Phantasy Star Online), Nintendo offered "GBA-GC Connectivity", where certain multiplayer games would be played by using the GBA as a controller, and LAN connections for certain games. However, the huge cost and complexity of the GBA-GC Connectivity turned off gamers, and the LAN option that required multiple Gamecubes and televisions and copies of the same games made it even worse. Exclusive third party support was pretty much nowhere to be found from this fiasco, not to mention how Nintendo games were always outselling them, thus creating the "kiddy" image for Gamecube. Desperate for sales, Nintendo dropped the price of the Gamecube to $99, increasing sales for a time.
The Winner: The Playstation 2, just like it's predecessor, shipped over 100 million units worldwide. Xbox came at a distant second with 24 million, Nintendo was third was 21 million, and Dreamcast sold only 10.6 million.
Lessons Learned:
1.Get with the times II. DVD's were now going to be all the rage, and what does Sony do? Make their game console double as a DVD player, thus giving gamers a really good reason to spend $300. Xbox of course copied this, but Gamecube didn't. They went with the MD format for their games and thus it didn't play DVD's or even CD's.
2.One game is all it takes. Halo was not only a good game, it was a revolutionary phenomenon the same way Goldeneye was in the generation before, and thus gave gamers a major reason (and to some people the only reason) to get the Xbox.
3.It's time to go online. Xbox Live became a major success and a template for what online gaming should be about, proving that Sega was really on to something when they started doing this for the Dreamcast. Sony quickly followed as well, but not Nintendo. They only offered Phantasy Star Online as their online game, and thus quickly became hated by gamers wanting to face others around the world.
THE 7th GEN LAUNCH
Consoles: Sony's "Playstation 3" vs. Nintendo's "Wii" vs. Microsoft's "Xbox 360"
Sony's Plan: They've been dominating the market for 10 years, so of course their plan is to keep that going with the next version of the Playstation, which will surely sell millions of units so easily because people LOVE Sony right? Right?
Nintendo's Plan: Instead of trying to compete against the other consoles, Nintendo wants to revolutionize the way we play games by changing the control scheme. They also really want casual gamers to buy their new console, especially your mom.
Microsoft's Plan: They may not have taken a huge amount of Sony's market away, but they had something good going. They decided that for the next gen launch, they would get a head start on everyone else and offer the console in two different packages.
The Build: Sony has been receiving lots of bad press for the Playstation 3, mostly because of the premium package price of $599. Technically it's a cheap Blu-Ray player, but many still see it as an expensive game machine. What's worse, due to the diode shortage, only 400,000 units will be available for the US at launch. Japan is getting only 100,000, and Europe isn't even getting them until March. After 10 years of dominating the video game market, Sony's reign could come to an end.
Xbox 360 launched a year ahead of the competition. But just like the Dreamcast, that proved to be of little to no advantage. Deciding to manufacture the consoles two months before launch, the shortage basically screwed lots of gamers who pre-ordered the console and still couldn't get them. Some anticipated launch titles such as DOA4 weren't released until several weeks later. Months afterwards, however, is where things would get worse. Hardware failures were being reported left and right. Only certain games for Xbox were backwards compatible and very few of those games were actual AAA titles. This fall, Microsoft hopes to regain some footing with Gears of War, a heavily hyped first person shooter, and Grand Theft Auto 4.
With Gamecube being a failure, Nintendo decided to try something daring by changing the way we play games. The DS with it's touch screen turned out to be a success, so for the Wii, Nintendo is using a remote control with motion sensing as the controller. While many good looking games were shown for it, many people still feel reserved about this gimmick. Another key feature for the Wii is the Virtual Console, which works just like the Xbox Live Marketplace. Gamers can buy games for the NES, SNES, N64, and other consoles from the past with Wii points. One of the launch titles for the Wii will be the next Legend of Zelda game, and of the three consoles, Wii is the cheapest at $250. Based on the looks of it, Nintendo seems ready to take back the top spot.
Possible Lessons to Learn:
1.Don't get ahead with the times. Sony and Microsoft are constantly bickering back and forth over which format is better: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. There has yet to be a clear winner between the two, and so eventually, one of their consoles is going to suffer greatly once a clear winner, if any, is chosen. Nintendo, meanwhile, I assume is sticking to their MD format, and since nearly everyone has something to play DVD's with nowadays, the lack of a DVD player isn't so bad.
2.Package choices suck. Xbox 360 came out with two choices: A core package and a premium package. Sounds good in theory, but the core package offered so much less and the price was reduced so little. So basically, there's really no reason to buy the core package over the premium package. Sony will be doing the same thing, and it remains to be seen if it will work out for them. Nintendo is sticking to the one package approach, and theirs is going to come with a free game.
3.Backwards compatibility shouldn't be ass-backwards. The Playstation 3 is said to be able to read nearly all Playstation 1 and 2 games. Wii is said to be able to play Gamecube games, but whether it's all of them or a select few remains to be confirmed. Xbox 360, however, is only able to read SOME games until new patches come out, and even then, you still can't transfer your files very easily. If the PS2 was able to make this so easy in the year 2000, there's no reason it should be so hard in the year 2006.
With the console launch war upon us, we can only hope that the companies will learn the lessons from the past instead of making the same mistakes time and time again.
Info from, where else? Wikipedia
