Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

[Sload Soap]

Seriously though, that small change would change things. If Mario didn't exist would Nintendo continue on a similar path without a mascot? Would Sega feel the need to create Sonic? Where would we be?

[Gucci]

What if the crash of '83 never happened?
What if the industry never recovered from that crash?

I know it was due to the overflow of poor quality games being released constantly (ET was the one that caused the crash, or at least was the biggest reason -- I think). I won't pretend I know anything about the crash in general but from what I can recall, it was Nintendo that was responsible for the recovery.

[MrPopo]

A thing to remember about the crash; it only affected the console space. PC gaming kept streaming merrily along. When you consider the full history of video games I'd say them gaining the prominence they have now was inevitable; the specific timing is the only thing that's really in flux if you "what if" major events.

[marurun]

ET didn’t cause the crash. It was just one of the highest-profile examples. Pac-Man for 2600 was the other. It was still an OK game but it was a piss-poor adaptation developed in minimal time. Atari was starting to treat games as cheap, throw-away projects. Do it cheap and fast and push it out because people will buy it anyway… until they won’t.

[Blu]

What if...Nintendo never lost the Popeye license and Mario didn't exist?

The Berlin Wall would stay up and Bernie Sanders would now be in his 11th year as Emperor of Space.

Holy crap, this is signature quality material. Absolutely brilliant, Sload. lol.

[REPO Man]

What if the Vita had native HDMI out, DS3/4 support and used microSD?

Would it have found more success?

[Gucci]

I don't think the HDMI out or the controller support was the downfall to the Vita. It was mostly caused by the pricing of proprietary memory cards and the drop in first party support instead of righting the ship.

They could have done a Vita 2000 with microSD support and release a microSD adaptor for the card slot since the microSD card is physically smaller than the Vita memory card. Instead, they took the Vita out back and shot it.

A thing to remember about the crash; it only affected the console space. PC gaming kept streaming merrily along. When you consider the full history of video games I'd say them gaining the prominence they have now was inevitable; the specific timing is the only thing that's really in flux if you "what if" major events.

Interesting information there. I never thought of looking at the crash form the PC gaming perspective.

[REPO Man]

I pointed out that microSD support would have been used in lieu of a proprietary memory card. Basically I'm talking about Switch-style capabilities but not entirely an entirely 1:1 design.

[Gucci]

I disagree.

The PSP had composite and component out since the release of the 2000 series. It wasn’t a selling point by far. The Go had a docking station that was very Switch-esc but a niche accessory on a failed variant wasn’t going to get any traction.

I have component cables. It isn’t anything great.
I have the Vita TV. It’s novelty at best. Annoying, restrictive, and overall a poorly designed and implemented product.

Most arguments I’ve seen point to pricing of the proprietary memory cards and lack of support from the console manufacturer on the software front, which I agree wholeheartedly. And to a lesser extent, pricing of the unit itself. It was spitting distance to a feature rich PS3.

Some throw in the AT&T partnership with 3G into the mix, but I disagree on that front.

Edit: the Switch Lite, in the US, from April 2020 to March 2021, sold 4.09 million units. The Switch itself sold 7.07 million units. In other words: there’s a large market for portable only consoles. Yes it’s cheaper but 4 million people (assuming 4 million individual people bought a single Switch Lite), was willing to forego TV out in favor of a cheaper price.

[Nemoide]

The Vita should have been $100 cheaper from the get-go and not require a memory card if you're playing games off of physical media. Maybe gotten rid of the cameras and rear touch pad to save on manufacturing costs. Going back further, if the PSP used some kind of card game format instead of UMD, physical games could have been made backwards compatible with the Vita, which surely would have helped in Japan where the PSP was tremendously popular.

My biggest problem with the Vita though, is that it doesn't feel as portable as the DS. With the DS, I can just close it and throw it in a bag, comfortable that it will be safe. With the Vita I have a special case that puts a clamshell over it and then ANOTHER case to hold it while it's in a bag. I feel like it's too delicate to REALLY be portable unless I'm being extra careful. I thought the same thing with the PSP.