What if PlayStation didn't happen?

[Warmsignal]

I thought it might be interesting to do a "what if" on this topic. As we all now know - the PlayStation we've come to know as an unstoppable force in modern gaming almost never happened. Originally, the PlayStation was a project formed from a joint venture between Nintendo and Sony, to create a CD based add-on for the Super NES to be called the PlayStation. However, Nintendo went back on the deal they had agreed to with Sony, breached their contract and insulted them by creating a frivolous partnership with Sony's main competitor at the time, which was Phillips. This ultimately led to Sony making the decision to design their own gaming hardware independently and release the PlayStation as we know it today.

But what if that didn't happen? What if Nintendo had stayed the coarse with Sony and released the PlayStation add-on? How would that have changed the gaming landscape for the upcoming 5th generation of consoles, and what would the console gaming landscape look like today? Would SEGA have survived their rocky patch of the later 90s? Would Nintendo and Sony stayed in partnership for generations to come, or would Sony break away and do their own thing later? Would the Nintendo 64 have been a CD based console? Would the 3DO or Jag have fared better without Sony? Would their be another major contender in the console market that would have broken through, and if so, who? One thing that's for sure - the CD-I Mario and Zelda games would not have existed. But would we have gotten FMV ridden Zelda and Mario games via the PlayStation add-on? FMV was all the rage, at the time.

Personally, I think SEGA would probably survived the 90s had it not been for Sony taking most of their market share. There might even be a SEGA console on the market today without a Sony one. What are your theories as to how console gaming would have played out if Nintendo and Sony were officially partnered by the mid-90s?

[bikingjahuty]

Cool topic!


Here are a few thing I'm pretty sure would have happened if Sony has never entered the console market


The Dreamcast would have maybe survived until the mid-2000s

There were a lot of things going against the Dreamcast, but the biggest one was the PS2 eating up its market share like crazy after it was released. Without the PS2, it would have been able to hold on until at least the XBOX and Gamecube came out a whole year later. I've heard that Grand Theft Auto 3 was originally being developed for the Dreamcast until it was switched to the PS2 shortly after that console was released. If GTA3 would have been a Dreamcast exclusive it would have been a massive success for them. On top of that, a lot of the Sega games that eventually came out for the PS2, XBOX, and Gamecube would have assuredly been Dreamcast exclusives, giving people even more reason to buy one. While I do think it would have struggled against the XBOX and GC, I think that the extra year of games and not having the PS2 to compete with would have saved the DC.


Nintendo would be even bigger than they are now
We all know Square famously jumped ship from the N64 to the PS1 to develop FF7 and their other games, and I think for the sake of convenience and ease of programming they'd have released FF7 on the N64 along with many of there other games. With that said, I think FF7 would have turned out to be a dramatically different game on the N64, as would any other now classic PS1 JRPGs released on it. I think some probably would have never happened at all given the limitations of the N64 carts. But beyond Square I can imagine the N64 would have got a lot more games that would eventually be developed for the N64, which would result in many of the now classic games we know and love to be not nearly as iconic and memorable as they would end up becoming as a result of being released on Sony consoles.


The Saturn may got a much bigger library of games, especially JRPGs

I think a lot of the devs who ended up releasing their games exclusively on the PS1 would have decided to develop those games on the Saturn instead given its use of discs. I think Square would have remained with Nintendo, but i could see many other JRPG devs making more games for the Saturn without the PS1 being around. I think this would have resulted in way more Saturn games not just in the US, but globally as well. Like the Dreamcast, the Saturn had way bigger problems than just the PS1, but the void left by the PS1 not existing would have greatly benefits Sega during the 5th gen and beyond.


XBOX might be the biggest name in gaming right now

I think the XBOX would have made a much, much bigger splash if not for the PS2. I think it would have become to gen 6 what the PS1 was to Gen 5. It would have had a ton more exclusives and would also have dominated even more than it did in Gen 7 and 8. I honestly think it would be bigger than Nintendo today if Sony has never entered the video games market.


Sega would have released a 7th gen console

Without Sony to compete with I believe they would have been in a much, much better spot financially through the late 90s and early 2000s, enough so that they could have developed another console for the 7th generation. Beyond that who knows how well it would have done, but I truly believe that you would have been able to buy a new Sega console up through the mid 2010s if Playstation had never happened. Sadly, I don't know if Sega would have made it until gen 8 as a console developer, mostly because of how much the Wii and 360 dominated the gen prior, but it would have been awesome to have one more Sega console, and to have at least given Sega a fighting chance up until recently.

[sworddude]

Cool topic!


XBOX might be the biggest name in gaming right now

I think the XBOX would have made a much, much bigger splash if not for the PS2. I think it would have become to gen 6 what the PS1 was to Gen 5. It would have had a ton more exclusives and would also have dominated even more than it did in Gen 7 and 8. I honestly think it would be bigger than Nintendo today if Sony has never entered the video games market.

I don't think xbox would have happened withouth ps1 and them seeing a big fish like sony a household name in other departments in terms of electronics back than and in the current era.

Would only be nintendo and sega than. Withouth sony joining the party I highly doubt microsoft would ever enter the console market.

[Warmsignal]

I could see Microsoft entering the market before companies like Sony or Phillips, being primarily in computer software I'm surprised it took them so long. I believe their involvement with the Dreamcast's Windows CE platform was the inspiration Microsoft needed to toss their own hat into the ring, much like Sony's involvement with Nintendo in the early 90s. Nintendo and SEGA are both partially responsible for creating their own competition.

[oldgamerz]

If the SONY PlayStation 1 never made it to the console market I don't think backwards compatibility consoles would be a thing period. (or at least not in the 6th generation on game consoles) But if SONY never broke ties to Nintendo than Nintendo might have hampered SONY with some of their restrictions and policies. Or likely, the SEGA Saturn would have been more popular since SONY took most the market,

 (I read somewhere) the PS1 was easier to program games for. Easier than the SEGA Saturn was.  and the programmers took advantage.

Nintendo I don't think needed SONY or Phillips, they were already successful with the NES/Famicom and SNES/Famicom and the Nintendo 64 was not a failed console anyway, it may have had it's limitations but it was and is a solid console in my opinion.

I agree that the Xbox original probably would have not been in the gaming market

As for the Dreamcast? I think it would have been successful as well, even though I'll be honest and say I never played a SEGA Dreamcast console before

[oldgamerz]

I thought it might be interesting to do a "what if" on this topic. As we all now know - the PlayStation we've come to know as an unstoppable force in modern gaming almost never happened. Originally, the PlayStation was a project formed from a joint venture between Nintendo and Sony, to create a CD based add-on for the Super NES to be called the PlayStation. However, Nintendo went back on the deal they had agreed to with Sony, breached their contract and insulted them by creating a frivolous partnership with Sony's main competitor at the time, which was Phillips. This ultimately led to Sony making the decision to design their own gaming hardware independently and release the PlayStation as we know it today.

But what if that didn't happen? What if Nintendo had stayed the coarse with Sony and released the PlayStation add-on? How would that have changed the gaming landscape for the upcoming 5th generation of consoles, and what would the console gaming landscape look like today? Would SEGA have survived their rocky patch of the later 90s? Would Nintendo and Sony stayed in partnership for generations to come, or would Sony break away and do their own thing later? Would the Nintendo 64 have been a CD based console? Would the 3DO or Jag have fared better without Sony? Would their be another major contender in the console market that would have broken through, and if so, who? One thing that's for sure - the CD-I Mario and Zelda games would not have existed. But would we have gotten FMV ridden Zelda and Mario games via the PlayStation add-on? FMV was all the rage, at the time.

Personally, I think SEGA would probably survived the 90s had it not been for Sony taking most of their market share. There might even be a SEGA console on the market today without a Sony one. What are your theories as to how console gaming would have played out if Nintendo and Sony were officially partnered by the mid-90s?

I could be wrong but if the PlayStation never happened. Other later CD based consoles might have flunked also. The PlayStation was a technical marvel, Lots and lots of games may not have been created if it weren't for the SONY PlayStation 1 I'm sure many video game developers would may not have existed.

In my opinion the SONY PS1 was the best CD based entertainment console of the 1990's the controller is great, the console had a ton of great responsive games as far as I could tell

It was the console that I've had the earliest experience on too

[telekill]

I might not be a gamer today if Playstation hadn't happened. Let's go down the proverbial alternate timeline of what-if's.

Xbox wouldn't exist either:

Without Playstation, I don't think Xbox would have happened. At least not as soon as it did. That would leave Atari, Sega, and Nintendo. Why Atari? Why Sega? This goes back to my theory/belief that the industry can only sustain the top three gaming competitors. In our timeline, Sony knocked out Atari as the weakest link and Microsoft knocked out Sega as the weakest link. Without Playstation and Xbox, both Atari and Sega would have made it into the 2000's with their hardware.

Dreamcast\Consoles:

Dreamcast may have looked different internally. I think that Sega would have had a bit more time to develop it, and thus, the Dreamcast would have been closer to PS2 power if it had waited an extra year to launch. Continuing with this, we would have had Shenmue complete on the Dreamcast as it would have had a full lifespan of 5-6 years, instead of 2 years. Certainly there would also be at least one successor to the Dreamcast.

I believe we would have seen Sega VR release either on Dreamcast or its successor. Sega was always pushing the tech envelope and had a VR headset developed for the Genesis. The... GENESIS!!!. It was cancelled due to motion sickness being an issue for obvious reasons. That said, I think we would have had VR before we did in this timeline.

Game Gear Successor:

Sega would have probably created a successor to the Game Gear. I think it essentially would have been a direct competitor with the GBA and (jumping down this rabbit hole), had original Game Gear backwards compatibility similar to what GBA did with the GB and GBC.

I think Atari would still be hurting regardless of Playstation released, but I think we would have seen one successor to the Jaguar before the company went under as a console creator.

Personal Affect:

Now, why would I possibly not be a gamer today without Playstation? Gaming changed on Playstation. The first Playstation changed the industry not just from a technical perspective, but also from the perspective of how gaming  stories were told. Games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider were on the Saturn as well, sure, but it's other games like Metal Gear Solid, Parasite Eve, FF7, Oddworld, Heart of Darkness, Dino Crisis, etc. etc. etc. This is the generation that started the narrative driven single player games and that is what my favorite genre is.

You could see some story telling on N64 and some on Saturn as mentioned above, but both Nintendo and Sega were more arcade experience driven; especially Sega. Nintendo did a great job bringing games like Zelda into 3D and it's my favorite Nintendo franchise because of how well it transitioned. It took until Dreamcast for the likes of Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia and other narrative driven games for them.

As for my personal history, I would have definitely had a Saturn (went with Playstation between the two). I would have still bought the Dreamcast at launch (probably). Depending on where I was at, I may have gotten the Dreamcast successor, but had Sega not jumped into narrative driven games the way Sony did with its first party devs, I would probably have grown passed gaming during the Dreamcast era.

The worst part of all this is.... Uncharted wouldn't exist. 

[Warmsignal]

I think that developers of certain franchises would have went the most promising route. I don't think the games would simply cease to exist. They chose the PlayStation because it was straight forward hardware and Sony was very friendly in aiding third parties. SEGA was not, during the Saturn years. Then again, Saturn might have been delayed for further development if Sony was involved in the development of N64. I think N64 would have probably been optical media, rather than cartridge format with Sony's help as they were one of the largest manufactures of disc drives at the time. It might have been both, or might have again gone with the route of a CD add-on allowing for larger games somewhat like they did in Japan, only with standard disc format.

Then again, maybe the era of sprite based games would have mostly continued through-out the fifth gen without the tremendous emphasis on 3D?

I think Atari surviving would still be unlikely, they were very close to bankruptcy from the early to mid 90s. The fifth generation was a very strange period in the market of game consoles. People didn't buy the 32X, 3DO, Jaguar, Saturn, or even the PlayStation very much in North America until about 1997 when sales finally took off. It seems like the consumer wasn't ready to buy new hardware when it became available. Everything was a hard sell in the mid 90s.

[pzeke]

What if the PlayStation didn't happen?

Either I would've ended a Nintendo nut or not a gamer at all.