Console wars Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Console wars is a term used to refer to the various competition between video game consoles. It can be used to refer to which of the consoles is the most successful and also the arguments between the fanboys of each system. Due to different manufacturers releasing consoles at different times the different wars are not exact definitions.
The NES came out on top in North America and Japan, partially due to its earlier release, and the fact that Nintendo banned developers from releasing their games on other systems if the game was released on the NES. This put a damper on third party support for the Master System, and, indeed, the rest of Nintendo's competition. However, in Europe and South America, the Master System narrowly came out on top. Many more games were released in Europe and South America than in North America, and the Master System had a very long shelf-life in South America, finally "dying" in the mid-1990's.
Despite its technical inferiority, the Game Boy came out well on top here and far out lived the Game Gear, becoming one of the most successful consoles of all time. The Game Boy's victory is generally attributed to the Game Gear's very short battery life. However, the Game Boy also had many portss of popular Nintendo franchises. It was also launched with the extraordinarily popular puzzle game Tetris as a pack-in.
Many other companies attempted to get in on the handheld market and they could also be added into this category especially with the Atari Lynx as it was released at around the same time as the Game Gear and Game Boy. The only other major challengers were the Neo Geo Pocket and the WonderSwan (though the later was in Japan only)
There was no clear cut winner here. The Mega Drive came out three years earlier than the SNES, however its first few years were not very successful and it was not until the release of Sonic the Hedgehog that it really started to sell. The Mega Drive outsold the SNES in Europe. In Japan the Super Famicom outsold the Mega Drive. In the United States, the Genesis roughly outsold the SNES by 5%, but for the most part, they were about even.
The Saturn was in many ways the technically superior console, however some disastrous policies by Sega and brilliant advertising by Sony led to the Playstation easily winning here. The N64 is also generally grouped here despite being a 64 bit console. The N64 was released two years later then its competitors, and its use of cartidges rather then Compact discs alienated developers. The N64 missed the main war and by the time it was released the Playstation had pretty much already won.
This era is currently drawing to a close and seems to be a victory for the Playstation 2, with the Xbox and Gamecube tied behind for second place. Also included in this era was the Dreamcast, which competed with the Playstation 2 before the release of the other consoles of the 128-bit era. Despite some early success Sega's financial difficulties led to the early demise of the Dreamcast.
The brand Sony had established with the original Playstation was a major factor in their victory here as this attracted both customers and developers which in turn attracted yet more customers.
The Gamecube failed largely due to being seen as a toy due to its appearance and that whilst the PS2 and XBox were fronted by violent realistic games such as Grand Theft Auto and Halo the Gamecube's major games (their Mario and Legend of Zelda franchises) were very cartoon like in nature. The Gamecube is comfortably in second place in Japan ahead of the unpopular Xbox however in the west it is behind in last place where it retains a group of hardcore fans (somewhat similar to the Xbox's situation in Japan) though little mainstream success.
At the end of 2004 a new handheld war looks set to start with Nintendo releasing a new type of handheld called the Nintendo DS, and with Sony entering the handheld market with the PSP.
Also, in 2005 the Playstation 3, XBox 2, and a new Nintendo console are expected to be released which will herald a new generation of consoles. This is an Article on Console wars. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Console wars The 8-bit era: Sega Master System vs. Nintendo Famicom\\Nintendo Entertainment System
The handheld wars: Nintendo Game Boy vs. Sega Game Gear
The 16-bit era: Sega Mega Drive\\Sega Genesis vs. Super Nintendo Entertainment System\\Super Famicom
The 32-bit era: Sony Playstation vs. Sega Saturn
The 128-bit era: Sony PlayStation 2 vs. Microsoft XBox Vs. Nintendo GameCube
The XBox despite having the financial backing of Microsoft and being the most powerful of the consoles failed to gain mainstream success though it has attracted quite a large group of fans in the United States and Europe however in Japan its sales are far less then elsewhere though it has attracted a small group of die hard fans there.The future