By: Marc Duddleson
The last videogame system... it's something few of us have probably ever thought of. By saying "last" I'm not trying to say I believe videogames will go away. However, I believe there will be a final system... someday, there will be a point where one system will rule the market. There will be no competition.
I will give a bit of history to demonstrate my point. The NES revived the gaming market. At the time, there was basically no competition. If you heard about a new game coming out, the fact that it was on NES was pretty much obvious, and did not need to be stated. All the great games, and all the bad games... they ended up on NES. Then came the Sega Genesis. It was a 16 bit system, and technically superior. It was the first time Nintendo had experienced much of a threat. Genesis became rather popular, and Nintendo decided they would come out with a better system. That's when the Super Nintendo was born. Though both were 16 bit systems, the SNES and Genesis were quite different. SNES could display many more colors, had much better sound, and had Mode-7 technology. Though many games were released for both systems, and those games were fairly similar, Genesis had its limits, and SNES could exceed those limits with ease. Genesis began to die.
During the time that followed, two major events occurred: Nintendo's partnership with Sony, and the creation of the Sega Saturn. Nintendo teamed up with Sony to make a disk drive add-on for Super Nintendo. The two companies, being very different in their views on what is important for a product and what isn't, couldn't work together. The project was scrapped at the last minute, but Sony didn't forget what they had learned. They decided to finish the system, and release it; as you might have guessed, this is the Playstation. The Playstation began pretty well. It did all but kill the little life that the Sega Saturn ever had. Super Nintendo began doing less and less well. The Donkey Kong Country series pumped it back up with lots of life, but Nintendo couldn't stick with their 16-bit classics forever.
The time had come for Nintendo 64. You may or may not have known that it was originally a CD system, much like the Playstation, but with superior hardware. Squaresoft, like they always had, announced full support for the system, and began work on Final Fantasy 7. Halfway through the production of Final Fantasy 7, Miyamoto, creator of Mario and Zelda, complained that the CD storage medium simply didn't allow him to create the perfect game he had dreamed of. With Miyamoto being the most respected designer in the world, Nintendo made the change to cartridge at the last minute, and Square was extremely upset when they were told this. They begged Nintendo to reconsider. But they stuck with cartridges. Square was devastated. Here they were, with an enormous game, planned to be on a system that couldn't support it the way they had dreamed. They could have stuck with a Nintendo 64 version of Final Fantasy 7, and people would have loved it anyway. In fact, they would have probably made even more money. But, for the sake of their masterpiece, they went to Sony's system. This was the main reason Playstation became so popular. If it was not for Square, many gamers would have ignored the system, and Playstation would, by now, be a thing of the past, and Sega would be Nintendo's only competitor. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way.
Sega had been basically forgotten in the whole mess. They survived mostly on their popular arcade games, as their last system was a failure. They made the Dreamcast, which, so far, has done quite well. Naturally, Nintendo and Sony had to counterattack the possible threat with new systems. So, the Playstation 2, and the Nintendo Dolphin were announced. This is were we stand today.
By now, you've probably forgotten the title of this article. This is about when there will be a final system. Using facts from the past and present, I will try to tell you what I believe will happen to videogames. Quite obviously, the Dreamcast will not be the most popular system of the next generation of consoles. Playstation 2 already has lots of developers, and lots of games coming for it, most of which are probably average at best. Square is developing for PS2, but currently intends to do the same for Dolphin. This is a key point. Though Sony's got lots of fans to back up PS2, if Dolphin gets lots of good Squaresoft games, I have no doubt that it will be the most popular system in the next duel between Nintendo, Sony, and Sega. Still, no matter which system comes out on top this time, there will be more... but probably only 2 more generations. All 3 companies, unless some alliance is formed, will release another generation of consoles, likely to be 256-bit systems. The same thing will happen again. One system comes out on top. Again, if Nintendo gets Square's support at all, they will most likely come out on top. Then, I believe there will be one more system...
Who will win the battle of hte 512-bit systems? Well, though they try hard, Sega is unlikely to still be making systems by this point. I believe they will simply be a 3rd party developer. Sony and Nintendo will be the stars of this fight. Square, once again, will probably be an important key to who wins. However, Sony is only in this for the money. Sure, Nintendo is in it for that too, but they actually care about their reputation, and have high standards. It is Nintendo that will come out on top. Why? Because they've got determination to be the best, and they know how to do it. So, what happens afterwards? Well, these systems will probably be almost real. There will be no room for further innovation. There will be room for only one ruler, and so all competition will die off. All the great games will come to one system, just like the days of the NES... it will happen someday. We just have to wait.
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