The Videogame Wars: Who is the Real Winner?

We all love gameplay and we all want the complete raw power package of our games but one thing we need to considered does the console of a particular game console need to have both in able to win the videogame war of that generation. The answer to that is a big "no!" Looking back at videogame history, lots videogame consoles had come and gone, some still sparks memorable moments in gaming, some becomes an important part of gaming and some just went into dusk never to be seen again. To all gamers, the winning consoles were always to be remembered, but the losing ones may just be nothing but history, perhaps it's time gamers should realize the true strategy of these particular console wars.

The Atari 2600 was a videogame console produced in the early 1970s, it was superior to both the Odyssey and Intellivision but not only was it the reigning champ of those two, it had also dominate over the many superior competitors from Coleco, Intellivision II, Vectrex, Playdia, Atari 5200, and its very own successor the Atari 7800. How does it prevail when all the rest are more updated and superior in content, three key strategies: consumers supports, large library of triple As titles, and a very cheap price tag, the strategy is that the longer it remains on the market, the cheaper it gets despite that none of the newer competitors introduced anything that would help shattered its dominance.

The Nintendo Entertainment System debut after the great videogame crash of 1983 was the first Japanese videogame console to be released in the U.S. and was also the first console to take videogames into the next level. The NES was met with great triple As titles, it was the console that many popular game franchises were made which many gamers still loves to this day, games that feature scrolling levels like Super Mario Bros., games that feature storylines like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, games that had multiple layers of platforms like Kid Icarus and Metroid, games that had save features built-in like the Legend of Zelda, games that feature multi-path levels and maps like Super Mario Bros. 3, games that uses gun-like peripherals like Duck Hunt, games that will make players become addictive like Dr. Mario and Tetris, and games that featured a password system like the Mega Man series. Perhaps the NES doesn't even need competition since the later competitors that rise against it can't beat the dominance of this phenomenal console. The Sega Master system was the equivalent to the NES, but with much more raw power. It had greater graphics processors, better sound chips, and perhaps a wealth of good titles, but a late start hurts it from the get-go or maybe a lack of third party supports which the NES had, instantly crushed it before it even began and the Atari 7800 wasn't even a threat.

The first two videogame wars had become dominant by Atari and Nintendo, but this next war told a totally different story. Sega, despite losing in the 8-Bit war, was not about to let this opportunity past them by so they decided to take matter into their own hands and created a 16-Bit successor to crush the 8-Bit competitors once and for all and that means the Sega Master, the Atari 7800, and the NES were all obsolete. By doing this, Sega had earned the respect of third party developers which they didn't get in the 8-Bit war, this early bet in the 16-Bit war soon interest the opportunity of one amatuer videogame company, NEC, which later introduced their 16-Bit Turbo Graphx-16 console. Though the two competitors went toe to toe with each other, the big N, however, wasn't interested in getting into the 16-Bit war. They rather instead kept their focus on their 8-Bit territory, but soon when they notice that third party developers aren't interested in staying 8-Bit, Nintendo soon find their dominance in jeopardy.

That's when the big N decided to introduced their more superior Super NES console. SNK another videogame company who joins the war decided to even up the score by introducing their even greater more superior Neo Geo console. All four consoles each had a purpose in the 16-Bit war, but as the war goes on the battle gets even better and the last two standing each brought a different conclusion to the 16-Bit war. Every gamers back in the 16-Bit war knew that the Neo Geo and Turbo Graphx-16 were the biggest flopped of that era, not that they are bad consoles or weaker competitors but the two doesn't seem to win the heart of gamers, the Neo Geo is way too expensive for the hardcore gamers, only 2D arcade craving gamers rich enough could afford it, the Turbo Graphx-16 is also a bit expensive but fares better than the Neo Geo, it had loads of games but none featured good quality gameplay compare to the ones Sega and Nintendo offered. With Neo Geo and the Turbo Graphx-16 out of the picture, the war are then between the Sega Genesis and the Super NES. Just by playing both of them, you can't seem to noticed a flaw, perhaps the Sega Genesis had won that war because it had better gameplays, faster speed processor, and popular arcade titles or maybe because of that world fastest hedgehog. Will in the U.S. at least, but that's not what the other gamers from all over the world are saying and some are serious that the Super NES was the real winner.

The Super NES had better graphics, something the Sega Genesis lacked, it had superior control, better music and sounds, and a bigger more attractive library of games. Not only can you find Super Mario, Kirby, Final Fantasy, Metroid, Zelda and more on the Super NES, but the console itself had win more supports then the Sega Genesis ever did. Unfortunately, the conclusion of the 16-Bit war came to a confusing halt once the 32-Bit era dawn, no one knew who really won the 16-Bit war here in the U.S., perhaps both consoles are too good to be beat, though the Sega Genesis did had a lot of failed add-ons like the Sega CD and Sega 32X, its sales on its own had become a phenomenon and the Super NES, despite coming in late at the 16-Bit war had proven that even later can be better. Also both consoles had dominated different regions of the gaming market around the world, though both were very successful in the U.S., the Super NES, however, is the unbeatable reigning champ in the land of the rising sun(Japan) as well as the entire Asian region and had being produced even until 2003. Also the Sega Genesis, despite, not satisfy by gamers elsewhere, is the king of the 16-Bit competitor in both the European and Brazilian market that even makes it close to the millennium which at the time the Sega Dreamcast was being produced in Japan. To say who really won the 16-Bit crown is quite confusing; perhaps it only matters upon which regions it had its sales on.

Finally, the 32-Bit/64-Bit console war, it's too bad nobody knew who actually won the 16-Bit war, but there's no going back, the 32-Bit/64-Bit war had finally begin and it's going to be one tough fight at that. The biggest introduction of the 32-Bit/64-Bit war was that of newer competition and different game format. In the 32-Bit war, almost all the 32-Bit game consoles used the CD format (except the Sega 32X), and both the 64-Bit consoles used the cartridge format. To start, the 32-Bit/64-Bit era began near the climax of the 16-Bit war, starting in 1993, Atari introduced their powerful cartridge based 64-Bit videogame console as the successor to their failed Atari 7800 console, later on in 1994, Sega then introduced their 32-Bit Sega CD and Sega 32X add-ons which are made to upgrade their 16-Bit Sega Genesis. Then a year later, rumors speaks of a Sony PlayStation console then followed by a true 32-Bit Sega console in the name of Saturn.

Then immediately following that was the debut of a 32-Bit CD based console by another amatuer company called "3D0." Coming in last in that era again was Nintendo with their Nintendo 64 console which to many was proven to be Nintendo's biggest lost in the videogame market. Now the problem between the 64-Bit consoles was that cartridges are way too expensive, for the Jaguar, introducing 64-Bit raw powers too early in the 16-Bit war was a big risk and a big flopped since many hardcore gamers refused to buy it because of the huge price tag and small unsuccessful library of games. For the Nintendo 64, it had raw powers surpassing the 32-Bit consoles, but had lesser memory usage, its games were way too expensive, the cartridge themselves were also way too limited to produced such a high quality title, despite all this the console itself didn't get the same third party supports it had like its 16-Bit predecessor. For the 32-Bit consoles, Sega was on their way to introducing 32-Bit into gaming using add-ons and later with console. Their first attempt was with the 32-Bit add-on, the Sega 32X, which used huge cartridge to play 32-Bit style games, it was the only 32-Bit console that used the cartridge format, but like an add-on itself, the idea was a flopped and only had a small list of games. Their second attempt at 32-Bit came in the form of another add-on called the Sega CD, which had much more memories and more database than a cartridge 32X game.

The bad news is that the CD games can't save game data (possibly because memory card wasn't made until the PlayStation and Sega Saturn arrived) and the loading are way too slow, another big issues to both Sega's 32-Bit add-ons is that both are way too expensive and came as nothing more than simple add-ons, it doesn't even upgrade existing Genesis games, and the Sega Genesis console itself was successful enough without them. Later on in the 32-Bit era, Sega then made a third attempt when they finally introduced their true successor to the Sega Genesis, the Sega Saturn. It was not an add-on, but a full fledge console of its own, it was not compatible with the Sega Genesis, it is a disc based console, it can save game data via memory cards, and can also feature 2D and early 3D graphics. The bad part is that the upcoming 32-Bit Sony PlayStation which debut after the Sega Saturn features more of the same stuff for a hundred bucks cheaper. Even though the 3D0 was in the market, it was very expensive, was hard to find, and had little to no quality game library which later become nothing but a financial failure. The real winner of the 32-Bit war was the Sony PlayStation, despite being a rookie in the console war; it had enough third party supports, great library of games, cheaper prices, and better quality. It was the only 32-Bit console to join the demise in 2003 alongside the 16-Bit Super NES.

This next generation war of gaming is quite surprising, but yet we still had a winner. The first competitor to hype up the war is the Sega Dreamcast, it was Sega's first foray into online and was Sega's first attempt to win back their position at least that's what they believe. When the Dreamcast first debut, a whopping list of blockbuster titles were released for the console including Namco's popular weapon brawler, Soul Calibur, Sega's blue hedgehog mascot, Sonic Adventure, Capcom's survival horror chapter, Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, and even Tecmo's Dead or Alive 2. Though the Dreamcast was a hit the first time through, the same can't be said afterward, Sega did not support the Dreamcast to be backward compatible with their original Sega Saturn games, some of its early games were also compared to some of the late PSOne games(Hydro Thunder, Resident Evil 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 being good examples of these) and was not all too powerful compare to the upcoming X-Box and GameCube consoles. Also the upcoming Sony PlayStation 2 had become a great threat to the Dreamcast announcing features that the Dreamcast lacked and introducing titles that are more superior than Dreamcast very own.

This launch then encourages Sega to wave the white flag out of this next generation war. In fact, the Dreamcast ditch the competitors before the competition even began. That means that by the time the X-Box and GameCube made their debut, the Dreamcast was long gone making Dreamcast Sega's shortest reigning console ever despite it was the second reigning Sega console to make a big splash in Japan (the first being the Sega Saturn). Like the 32-Bit/64-Bit war, the Sony PlayStation brand wins again, Sony's PlayStation 2 had just gotten too many supports, more quality titles pop up every minutes, even with Final Fantasy and Tekken all over the places, even Nintendo's very own franchises can't seem to beat the heat. Though this is the first time Microsoft got themselves into the videogame war, it was also their first dominant despite their console beating the GameCube in sales. This console war was also Nintendo's first step into the disc based format of videogames. Of all three consoles, the PS2 got the most supports and as of today, it is the only console in this generation to go toe-to-toe with its next generation successor, the PS3, as well as the next generation consoles, Wii, and X-Box 360.

Although this next gaming war had only just begun, the number of sales record and market strategies had proven a different story. Depending on what console inspired gamers the most, that console can become its dominant, but the war is not over. We had already seen the early launch of the X-Box 360, it introduced more of the same gameplay features and online capabilities of its last generation predecessor. The PS3 which launch a year later introduced more of what the X-Box 360 had, but add a little bit of innovation to hype it up a bit, but despite it being available in limited quantities and a huge expensive price tag as well as two different models of the console makes the PS3 a confusing console of choice. The Wii; however, is all about fun and innovations and doesn't feature any raw power or graphics goodness like the first two, it was the only smallest next generation console to be on the market not to mention the only fastest selling and affordable console to be on the market today. Since the gaming war here is still heating on, it will be a matter of time before one of them wave that white flag unless if one of them had a surprise of their own in store for us in the future.

Here's a quick rank of the videogame wars:

Early Generation War Winner: Atari 2600

1st Atari 2600

2nd Odyssey II

3rd Vectrex

4th Atari 5200

5th Intellivision II

6th Colecovision

7th Odyssey

8th Intellivision

9th Playdia

10th Commodore 64

8-Bit War Winner: NES

1st NES

2nd Sega Master

3rd MSX

4rd Atari 7800

16-Bit War Winner: Unknown

1st Unknown(U.S.), Super NES(Asia), Sega Genesis(Europe, Brazil)

2nd Unknown(U.S.), Sega Genesis(Asia), Super NES(Europe, Brazil)

3th Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System

4th Turbo Graphx-16

32-Bit/64-Bit War Winner: PlayStation

1st PlayStation

2nd Sega Saturn

3rd Nintendo 64

4th 3D0

5th Neo Geo CD

6th Atari Jaguar

7th Turbo Duo

8th Sega CD

9th Sega 32X

10th Atari Jaguar CD

Next Generation War Winner: PlayStation 2

1st PlayStation 2

2nd X-Box

3rd GameCube

4th Sega Dreamcast

Second Next Generation War Winner: TBA

1st Wii

2nd X-Box 360

3rd PlayStation 3

These are rank according to sales record, not the final dominant result.