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| Will we see another "Atari" or "Nintendo?" |
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| brazbit:
Through elementary school if someone asked if you wanted to play a video game they wouldn't say video game, they would say Atari. Virtually everyone had one and the brand so dominated the market it was synonymous with video game. By "Atari: they implied the 2600 despite the 5200, 400 and 800 also being on the market not to mention competitors like the Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey 2 and countless others. In Jr. High and High School it was "Nintendo" as in: "Do you want to play Nintendo?" "I'm going to Johnny's to play Nintendo." "Them kids these days seem to always be on the Nintendo..." It didn't matter if it was the rare case where the console was actually a Sega Master System or Atari 7800. When the 16 bit consoles came along this died away as there were a lot of Sega systems out there, but not enough to become the go to name for the industry. N64/PlayStation same thing. While Sony has been strong the last few generations, and in spite of using the "PlayStation" brand for all of them, rarely is PlayStation used as a generic term for video games (I doubt Sony would be the term as they manufactures tons of different products). So will we see another Atari or Nintendo? Or is the market too diverse? Or, god forbid, will console gaming dwindle to cultural insignificance before another brand emerges to be the next Atari or Nintendo? Or heck... is "PlayStation" it already and I just don't hear it other than in the very occasional movie or show? Generation: 1 - "Pong" (Generic term despite being an Atari brand) 2 - "Atari" 3 - "Nintendo" 4 - ? 5 - ? 6 - ? 7 - ? 8 - ? |
| hexen:
No, I don't think we will. The time of the console is more or less over, it's running on fumes now. Consoles are moving towards one-in-all type multimedia devices, and basically becoming inferior versions of PCs operating very similarly with no distinction like they used to have. In a couple console generations (or equivalent) we may actually get a new generic title, though - computer games. However I think even that is unlikely. Calling video games by a blanket like "Atari" or "Nintendo" had a lot to do with the fact it was an immigrant niche technology in my opinion. With video games now in the mainstream, being on of the biggest entertainment options (perhaps the biggest) as well as them being old enough as a medium now that most adults have grown up in a world where they exist makes it a lot less likely to not know the broad details of the systems/brands. In the 80's dad was asking his kid about when you're going to stop playing "that Nintendo/Atari", but now that kid IS dad. Even people who don't play games grew up around those who did, and I think the major brands are just common knowledge now for most. There is going to have to be a major step in technology to go back to that, and it will have to be more than just a big leap forwards... it'll also have to be a leap to the side. |
| marvelvscapcom2:
My Grandma uses Xbox as a blanket term as a name for all video games lol ;D She always says "You guys playing the Xbox again?" When me and my cousins are playing Wii or such. It's really funny. :) But as for the masses calling a console by a blanket term, i don't think it will ever happen again. But i think i would add Gameboy in your list. When gameboy came out. No matter if you had a gameboy color, gameboy pocket, gameboy light, gameboy sp. If you had a handheld in your pocket. Most kids would say "Field trip tommarow, bring your gameboy. let's play gameboy." it was synonymous with portable gaming for a while :). |
| kashell:
I highly doubt we will. It's unfortunate. Smart phones are dominating the youngins now, which has something to do with this shift. |
| brazbit:
--- Quote from: marvelvscapcom2 on May 20, 2017, 05:32:53 pm ---But as for the masses calling a console by a blanket term, i don't think it will ever happen again. But i think i would add Gameboy in your list. When gameboy came out. No matter if you had a gameboy color, gameboy pocket, gameboy light, gameboy sp. If you had a handheld in your pocket. Most kids would say "Field trip tommarow, bring your gameboy. let's play gameboy." it was synonymous with portable gaming for a while :). --- End quote --- Good call. I all but missed out on the original Gameboy, my best friend had one and I played a game or two on it but I had Tiger LCDs to hold me over as I lusted after the Atari Lynx which never came home (until 2015 and was well worth the wait). I never even owned a cartridge based handheld prior to the Sega Nomad. The Gameboy just never did much for me growing up. I have an original now (technically it's my wife's) and have found a new respect for how they reimagined popular games to be played on the far inferior hardware. While Lynx, Turbo Express and Game Gear buried it technologically, and in most every other category other than battery life, the gameplay they pulled off with the system made it worthy of the achieving that status. I didn't think of it because I didn't experience it first hand (Tiger LCDs don't reach the exalted status of even Grandmothers calling them a GameBoy) and because to me it was still a Nintendo product, but I can see how to most I could see them being distinct and possibly even viewed as unrelated. I do remember the name being tossed around liberally. |
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