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Classic Video Games / Will we see another "Atari" or "Nintendo?"
« on: May 20, 2017, 01:45:20 am »
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 - ?
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 - ?