Hey everybody. Yeah, it’s another What If that nobody will comment on but some will read. I’ll try to make this shorter than past editions and hopefully spur more comments. One thing I want to say, and this is kind of a personal note, but updates to my website, http://www.lloydandsheena.com, will be updated on its regularly scheduled day, Fridays. Master’s Monday are still going to be on Mondays, so no worries there. The only worry? One of Graveheart’s Angels taking over my updating duties again. You saw the job Tifa Lockhart did last week, right? Well… okay, it was a hell of a job, but I like a little bit of control, thank you very much. ^_^ So let’s get started. The topic tonight will be the console wars of old. The real console wars when it was games vs. games. The hardware itself played a somewhat minor role at the time, so it was up to the games to deal the decisive punches (and maybe a little BS advertising gimmicks too). We all know what would happen between the SNES and Genesis, right? That would lead to the N64 vs. the Saturn with the PS1 showing up as well. That would lead to the GameCube vs. the Dreamcast vs. the PS2 and the inevitable appearance of the X-Box. Some place the blame on the PS2 for killing the Dreamcast. Others say the GameCube finally dealt the finishing blow. Me? I say the added competition of the brand-spanking new X-Box, along with it doing many of the things that the Dreamcast could, was the nail in the coffin of poor Sega. Interestingly, though, the Dreamcast came out early in comparison to the other three, so maybe there was something to the guilt on Nintendo’s or Sony’s part. Of course, you could also say that the Dreamcast did itself in with a lack of first-party and exclusive games that could catch the eyes of gamers. But what if things were different? What if there was a decisive blow dealt? What if Sega had come out on top over its most heated rival, Nintendo? What if Sonic had spin dashed the Starmen out of the chubby Italian? Just what would it say for the future of video gaming? If Sega were to have won, it would have become evident in the 16-bit era, just as Nintendo’s superiority was evident with the Super Nintendo over the Sega Genesis (although some would dispute this). First of all, what was the Genesis doing that the Super Nintendo wasn’t? Add-ons. If Sega won with the add-ons, they would have been justified in their decisions. This would have spurred Nintendo to do similar. Perhaps this would have provoked them to rush themselves into a deal with Sony for their CD add-on and pay any amount the evil media juggernaut wanted, which was reportedly 25% of all software sales. Astronomical, all things considered. Now, we’ve been over this before. If you don’t recall, open up a new window or tab and look for What If #2. It details the awesomeness that could have been the Nintendo PlayStation. The most important thing to consider, however, would be that Nintendo and Sony would reach an agreement of price that both were happy with. In this scenario, however, Nintendo would begin to panic and accept a deal with Sony with a price that only really favored Sony, who, in this scenario, wouldn’t care too much about the game industry, but just making money (which I still accuse them of, but I’m a Nintendo fanboy, so don’t take it too personally, mkay?). With the hefty contract, third party developers would see the excessive cost/lack of income in making games for the Nintendo PlayStation and do one of the following: They would either a) stick with making the fading cartridge-based games with its limitations, or b) jump ship to Sega. A prime candidate of the latter scenario would be SquareEnix, whose financial situation was the leading reason for it leaving the N64 platform for the PlayStation platform, and poise Final Fantasy VII for a Sega Saturn release, while prepping other titles for possibly the 32X or the Sega CD. Yeah, I know, we heard the Nerd talk about how crappy these two sub-systems were, but remember that they’re popular in this scenario. That means you guys would have dug the crap. Way to go. A prime candidate of the former would have most likely been HudsonSoft, whose games never really stretched from the conventional and familiar. Nintendo would have kept Bomberman on their systems, but they wouldn’t be there exclusively, of course. The appeal of the two sub-systems and the impending Saturn would have coaxed them to take a taster to the other side at the same time. Remember, these third parties are attracted by three aspects. Popularity of the system, the hardware, and their vision. If a system satisfies these three aspects, they’ll produce for them. The Wii is popular and can satisfy a vision, but the hardware is lacking in terms of online specs, HD graphics, and control schematics that a developer is used to. The 360 has hardware and popularity, but visionaries can be considered bland at best as it has a less diverse fanbase than that of the Wii or even the PS3 (hey, at least they have Little Big Planet and Ratchet & Clank). The PS3 has the hardware and the vision, but no popularity (sorry, Sack Boy). With this reality’s Nintendo PlayStation and Sega CD-32X Genesis competing, we’d have to look at things. Both systems have the vision, the Sega CD-32X would have popularity and the Nintendo PlayStation would have the hardware… it’d be that generation’s PS3. Obscenely expensive and powerful. In retrospect, the Sega CD-32X would probably be comparable to the Wii. Popular and willing to take experimental risks. This dominance would lead into the next generation with the Nintendo 64, this time CD-based and still backed by Sony hardware, and the Sega Saturn, experimenting with online and now controlling many franchises that were once Nintendo-exclusive. Plus, we all know who was coming onto the scene at this time, right? That’s right… say it with me now… Snake? Snake? SNAAAAAAAKE!!! That’s right. Companies would be either getting a fresh start or getting a big start for the first time. Many of what would have been on the PlayStation 1 (Sony’s, not Nintendo’s), would have found a happy home on the Sega Saturn. Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Castlevania, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, and others, would lead the way on Sega’s cash cow system. Nintendo just might still have Rare, but how much would you be willing to wager that Nintendo would be in such bad shape after a poor performance with the Nintendo PlayStation. In fact, with no third competition to pull things away from the dominate system to give Nintendo a fighting chance in the market, and keep multiple third parties from all piling onto the little tugboat that would, it isn’t outrageous to think that this might have been the swan song generation for the Nintendo home consoles. But not all would be lost. Nintendo wouldn’t leave the gaming world all together. It’s common to think that if Nintendo and Sega were in reverse situations that Nintendo would go third party as well. And you know what? It just might have. Here’s the problem. With Sony and Nintendo out of the picture, there would be but one system left to deal with… the next generation’s X-Box, by Microsoft. And why not? The market is ripe for the picking and there would be many more companies who want more of the gaming market for the system they supported. So, pile on the popular Microsoft franchises and place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. What would we have this generation? The Sega Wiicast; featuring HD, full online, and Sonic Smashers Brawl; verses the X-Box 360; featuring HD, a huge online community via X-Box Live, and… SquareEnix vs. Capcom. Whose side are you on? So that’ll do it for me this week. Did the right side win? What are your thoughts? And is shorter better, or do you want me to give you fun versions of term papers again? If you want term papers, I’ll revisit this down the road, but if you like shorter, then welcome to the new Master’s Mondays!