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If PlayStation1 Never Happened....

It has interesting implications for Sega, because the Saturn would have ended up being the cheaper system to physically make and ship games for unless Nintendo bit the bullet and transitioned to CD with Sony's help. We're basically left with two weird scenarios:

The N64 ends up with CDs thanks to Sony, which makes the system both immediately better and instantly worse because developers wouldn't be able to work around the low memory by streaming from the cartridge. Few developers actually used this however, so probably ends up being a big win for Nintendo. It would keep Square around as well, and probably end up dominating that generation.

Or...

N64 still uses cartridges and third parties end up on the Saturn thanks to CDs. Dealing with the cost of manufacturing and shipping cartridges is a major turn off, and Publishers would probably push developers towards the Saturn. The Saturn is a pain to develop for, but money talks and there would be real world cost implications with CDs vs Cartridges that trump development cost estimations. Sega ends up with Final Fantasy, and while Sega doesn't roll in cash because of the way the Saturn was built they don't bleed out and would actually be able to support following console generations.
Hadn't thought of that part myself. I'm also in the camp that, CD drive aside, N64 would've been the same. It wasn't really built as a reaction to PS1, unlike Saturn.

Saturn being the original, simpler design with the single CPU setup, focusing on 2D, vs. N64 focusing on smooth 3D. And Sega with a 2-year head start. Something just tells me it'd end up like SNES vs. Genesis all over again, just maybe more in Sega's favor in the end.

Totally; what eventually became Metal Gear Solid was actually a 3DO title, platform changed part-way through development. You can even see the Metal Gear cast being teased on some 3DO promotional material prior to the platform shift.
Damn really? Well I guess I learned something new today. Never would've thought that.
 

BlackJace

Member
Third parties would not be able to get away from the awful practices and treatment that Nintendo was known for, they would be forced to make games for N64 and live under the same roof they were trying to get away from.

Playstation is really that escape that they needed, Nintendo was the drunk alcoholic father and Sega was the unreliable mother.

I mean, it's nice to like a company's product, but this is a new level of wtf
 
Gaming would be a lot smaller today, but the Saturn probably wouldn't have had its terrible 3D processors shoved in it and we would have gotten one more amazing 2D console. To my selfish ass, that's a decent trade.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Lol what.
As a person who lived through and saw the gaming industry change to a more mature and accepted hobby, especially by adults I'm confused by whats wrong and funny about his post?


Really?

Ever heard of PC gaming?
Do you know what PC gaming was like in 1994?
You think it would be like it is now without any of the consoles, ok

This has to be one of the worst posts I've ever seen.
I completely agree 👍
It's better to explain why it is instead of just saying it is, because you're not contributing any better, you're just being disrespectful to both the poster and the impact the original PlayStation had on the industry you love so much.
the industry wouldn't be as big, a lot of adults would still see gaming as a child's thing, some still do and a lot of older gamers return to gaming with the PSX and that's why it was successful, it removed the aged cap.
Yeah someone would have done it eventually, evidently not Nintendo until Wii
And thats only if the Wii would have existed without Playstation, but I don't think it would have, but we don't know that for sure so his post is correct in that respect.
 

Alchemy

Member
Hadn't thought of that part myself. I'm also in the camp that, CD drive aside, N64 would've been the same. It wasn't really built as a reaction to PS1, unlike Saturn.

Saturn being the original, simpler design with the single CPU setup, focusing on 2D, vs. N64 focusing on smooth 3D. And Sega with a 2-year head start. Something just tells me it'd end up like SNES vs. Genesis all over again, just maybe more in Sega's favor in the end..

I didn't even think about how the Saturn was changed to combat the PSX, it would have been a significantly cheaper product. I could see that pushing things in favor of the Saturn, but I'm not comfortable guessing if it would have beaten the N64. Having two years with zero competition and having cheaper games would have been really hard to overcome if the N64 was pretty much unchanged. Sega's financials would have been significantly healthier at the end of that generation.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
To be honest the best people to ask are the developers and publishers, if anyone knows it's them.
Us as consumers and fans, are unaware,
ignorant to things that don't interest us and a bit bias.
 
Why exactly do people think games wouldn't continue to have 'adult' themes if Sony enver entered the console market? Because Nintendo would be on top and they only have 'kiddy' games? That makes no sense. There's still PC gaming. And it's not like there weren't any non-kiddy games before the PS1... And the market would continue to change.
 
I can only speak for myself, but I probably wouldn't be playing games today. The Playstation came out at a time when I was losing interest in the hobby. The SNES and Genesis were fine, but at the time they were only a passing fancy. I'd actually been a more active gamer back in the old Atari days. There wasn't anything wrong with those systems, I'd just been fading away from gaming for several years by that point.

Back then games were just toys for me. When the Playstation came around, not only was I blown away by the visuals, but also by the notion that something had changed. Games were no longer mere toys, they'd become full blown entertainment. It was a major shift and I believe a true turning point in the evolution of video game culture.
 

shandy706

Member
The industry wouldn't be as big, a lot of adults would still see gaming as a child's thing, some still do and a lot of older gamers return to gaming with the PSX and that's why it was successful, it removed the aged cap.

While I see this perspective, I'm not so sure I'd agree completely.

I had a ton of video game playing friends in the 90s. My father introduced me to PC and Atari games in the early 80s (he was playing games in the 70s)

I played both the N64 and the Playstation throughout 1996 and beyond. I can only speak to my own experience, but I would have still turned into a gamer in my 30s (my father was one) even if the Playstation was never released. I believe the gaming landscape would probably look different Company wise, but I honestly think that the boom of technology and advancement in computer systems would have brought on a larger gaming business no matter what.

As large? I don't know
Larger? I don't know

Millions of adults that never played a lot of games still wouldn't care....either way.

The millions of sports fans would still play Madden/Football and the shooter fans would have still poured into playing Call of Duty style games.
 

ChipotIe

Banned
Why exactly do people think games wouldn't continue to have 'adult' themes if Sony enver entered the console market? Because Nintendo would be on top and they only have 'kiddy' games? That makes no sense. There's still PC gaming. And it's not like there weren't any non-kiddy games before the PS1... And the market would continue to change.

Yeah to me that is a strange sentiment. AFAWK any games that would have been on the playstation would have simply been made on the Nintendo Platform instead. And like others have said these developments had no bearing on the PC market. Quake and Unreal would have still been made. Blizzard would have still come out of nowhere to dominate the PC market. Daikatana would have still sucked. Etc Etc.
 

IrishNinja

Member
all of you on this "nintendo would still be top dog"...were you not around for N64?

this basically would've meant that FF VII and other big hitters would've been saturn-only. sega fucked up with the architecture there no doubt, and those games would've certainly taken hits, but no, nintendo would not have come out that gen (or the ones since) a lot better

hqdefault.jpg


You still don't have Sega BluRay yet?

haha damn

*edit Sega also put in a lotta work that doesn't get recognized to both bring in/foster western devs & appeal to older demographics, but that said, it's undeniable that sony took the latter several large steps further & helped bring gaming out of its more niche-like state; let's be honest here
 

BlackJace

Member
You of all people to judge others liking something? Ah boy

Either respond to the topic or keep it in PM, thanks

Well, it's not really even like I'm insulting you. Did you not expect someone to express that level of bewilderment with a statement like that? Comparing video game companies and their practices to abusive fathers and mothers is hella weird. But, this line of conversation might not reach the best of conclusions, so I guess that's that.
 

Into

Member
Well, it's not really even like I'm insulting you. Did you not expect someone to express that level of bewilderment with a statement like that? Comparing video game companies and their practices to abusive fathers and mothers is hella weird. But, this line of conversation might not reach the best of conclusions, so I guess that's that.

Funny how you did not express bewilderment to this statement:

Meh, The world would still kept turning and nothing of value would have been lost. .

Doubt you missed it, its just that it wasent negative towards Nintendo, so there is your conclusion.
 

Alchemy

Member
all of you on this "nintendo would still be top dog"...were you not around for N64?

this basically would've meant that FF VII and other big hitters would've been saturn-only. sega fucked up with the architecture there no doubt, and those games would've certainly taken hits, but no, nintendo would not have come out that gen (or the ones since) a lot better

If the Playstation didn't happen, it is possible that Sony would have stuck with Nintendo and the N64 ends up with a CD drive. That would likely prevent Square from jumping ship and the N64 would have ended up with FFVII.
 

StormKing

Member
Sega would still be alive. Third parties may have turned to Xbox rather than Nintendo. The N64 and Gamecube would have sold more but Nintendo would have not made the Wii. Sony would have been a more successful company in non gaming related areas.

Maybe they would have paid more attention to companies like Samsung, Apple and Google if they were not focusing on Playstation.
 

IrishNinja

Member
I could have maybe had my Nintendo/Sony dream console.

tow that line just a bit further, and you'd see it for the nightmare it'dve been

games would still be on cartridges. Halo 5 on a 64gb cart, only $149.99!

i hate myself for wanting to peek into this alternate reality now

Totally; what eventually became Metal Gear Solid was actually a 3DO title, platform changed part-way through development. You can even see the Metal Gear cast being teased on some 3DO promotional material prior to the platform shift.

didn't know this bit right here - can you link to anything on that? that's pretty interesting, man
 

gelf

Member
Why exactly do people think games wouldn't continue to have 'adult' themes if Sony enver entered the console market? Because Nintendo would be on top and they only have 'kiddy' games? That makes no sense. There's still PC gaming. And it's not like there weren't any non-kiddy games before the PS1... And the market would continue to change.

It does seem a weird assumption to me too. Sega where definitely not afraid of pushing things in that direction at times and it really underestimates the work done by 3rd parties of the time who could have easily changed systems.
 

IrishNinja

Member
If the Playstation didn't happen, it is possible that Sony would have stuck with Nintendo and the N64 ends up with a CD drive. That would likely prevent Square from jumping ship and the N64 would have ended up with FFVII.

a highly limited version, and even then, remember that most devs bailed to sony because
a) no one wanted to stay under nintendo's oppressive measures
b) programming in C+ was a dream even in comparison to the archaic shit sega was using

add in the fact that your CD drive - which still wouldn't happen, as Yamauchi buried that years back by publicly betraying them to Phillips - would be a peripheral, and you still have most devs stuck making games for carts for the largest audience. literally nothing about this idea is good.

Why exactly do people think games wouldn't continue to have 'adult' themes if Sony enver entered the console market? Because Nintendo would be on top and they only have 'kiddy' games? That makes no sense. There's still PC gaming. And it's not like there weren't any non-kiddy games before the PS1... And the market would continue to change.

again, as a huge sega fan, you're quite right that they were going after older groups even in the Kalinske era...however, you gotta admit, gaming broke a great deal more into the mainstream during sony's PSX/PS2 era. they actively put in work to cater to that demographic, and reaped the benefits - i don't see how it's then illogical to say without them, that might not have been quite as well fostered.
 

Ronin

Member
We've already seen how slow Nintendo has been to react and change when facing stiff competition. Now imagine that competition didn't exist. We'd be so far behind.
 
Third parties still wanted to go with CDs, so they would have placed their bets on the Saturn instead. It wouldn't have been a PS1-level success, but it would certainly have beaten the N64.
 

Miguel81

Member
All those CD games would have been put on here instead.

uvEkJsK.jpg

Yup, we wouldn't know any better(PSOne) and Saturn would get all the Tomb Raiders and Resident Evils. Not to mention Final Fantasy VII.

Edit: Great thing about the Saturn winning is all the 2D games we would also get that would have aged like fine wine. A true 2D Sonic 4 would have looked amazing on that beast.
 

IrishNinja

Member
Nintendo would still be king with Sony technology to boot.

If there was no Sony Playstation, we can assume Sony and Nintendo didn't terminate their partnership and ended up releasing the SNES CD; and eventually the Nintendo Playstation, the SNES with a built in CD drive.

That's what I thought, but it wasn't Sony that beat Nintendo to the punch with the PS1 using CD-ROM. Nintendo dropped it themselves by choice. Would they retroactively go back and decide to use CD-ROMS if PS1 never happened what they're trying to say? Wasn't Nintendo's decision to not use them afterall the impetus for the creation of the PS1 in the first place?

exactly; those posts are confusing because they're getting the timeline so very backwards, and adding in a ton of unwarranted optimism to boot. the issue at the root of nintnedo balking at the deal - sharing ownership/royalty/control with sony - would still be in full force

Sega the biggest loser then, if the Dreamcast had of been released it might have succeeded. But then that system failed in large part to not supporting DVD.

while i agree with you on sony pushing the tech, this is a vast oversimplification right here; there's a ton of great reasons why sega passed on DVD tech back in '97/98 when this was being developed.
 

Freeman

Banned
Playstation, Sega, Nintendo, Xbox, Atari, Steam, if you take any of them out things would likely be different but eventually we would have arrived at a very similar place.

Most of us wouldn't be gaming and adults gaming would be a rarity rather than the norm.

You give Sony too much credit.
 

IrishNinja

Member
yeah they never would've done FF VII on saturn instead like rumors had it back then

that'dve been crazy, like seeing Resident Evil or say Tomb Raider on that system
 

_Ryo_

Member
The Saturn would have succeeded. Dreamcast would have also. I don't know about disc storage though. Perhaps Sega would have created a GDI+ disc that held large amounts of data but without the PS1 there'd be no PS2 and without the PS2 pushing DVD media, then other consoles would have had less disc space and smaller games.

Hmm. A lot would have changed.
 

Synth

Member
Don't let PC-GAF and Nintendo-GAF tell you this isn't true. Well, for the West. For the East not so much, but I've got way too many friends whose origins in gaming come from the PS1. I started on the SNES, but I would never have stuck with the hobby if FF7 and the J-RPG era of the PS1 wasn't a thing.

I dunno about this. I feel that the technological advances were always going to lead to more adult themed games as time passed. Sony definitely helped to speed things along, but I don't think the market overall would actually be that different in terms of the games produced. Square was still going to make FF7 anyway (it would have been somewhat different, but they were always going to make it). Namco would have still made Tekken to combat Virtua Fighter, and Ridge Racer to combat Daytona USA. Toshiden would have still happened. Out of the launch line up it's only really Wipeout and Crash that I really see disappearing, and Crash was basically just another Sonic anyway.

People like myself would have still become adults, and likely still played games. That would have served as incentive for developers to create content for us anyway. The possibilities of gaming as an entertainment medium was always too large and varied to remain in the "toy" category once the tech stopped holding us back.

Also, Sega would probably still be making hardware (and would also have probably managed to stunt home console growth enough to give arcades a few more years). So I'd be all for this alternate reality!
 

terrisus

Member
I think that Nintendo would still be the top dog.

I truly believe that the Dreamcast would've been more of a success and that Sega would also still be in the hardware game.

MS may have never entered the game, as their introduction was helped greatly by some of the greatest minds from Sega after the fall of their hardware division.

Sounds like a wonderful world all around.
 

WillyFive

Member
exactly; those posts are confusing because they're getting the timeline so very backwards, and adding in a ton of unwarranted optimism to boot. the issue at the root of nintnedo balking at the deal - sharing ownership/royalty/control with sony - would still be in full force

That's what caused the deal to never happen; but if there was no Playstation, then I can assume the deal did and analyse it from there. You're more than welcome to imagine the world where there was no Playstation AND the deal didn't go through, but that's the least interesting of the two for me.
 

Jamix012

Member
Smaller market in general, but Sega would be alive. MS entering the market a big question mark. Gamecube in general would be a different beast. Wii would have almost certainly never happened and Nintendo would keep trying to compete on power.
 

Synth

Member
Smaller market in general, but Sega would be alive. MS entering the market a big question mark. Gamecube in general would be a different beast.

If gaming expanded to anywhere near the level it's at today, Microsoft would probably have still tried to enter as the next move after "a PC on every desk". Chances are they would have bought Sega as a shortcut, seeing as the main reason they didn't is because at the time they didn't see them as a strong enough competitor anymore (almost entirely due to the effects of the Playstation).

Then they'd have killed the arcades anyway... damn....
 

IrishNinja

Member
That's what caused the deal to never happen; but if there was no Playstation, then I can assume the deal did and analyse it from there. You're more than welcome to imagine the world where there was no Playstation AND the deal didn't go through, but that's the least interesting of the two for me.

how so? the deal fell through because nintendo brokered it, and the next year when it came closer to time, Yamauichi was uncomfortable with the control over their IPs that sony might exercise (nevermind royalty rates, which were historically in their favor). the public humiliation by announcing the Phillips partnership the day after sony spoke was a result.

Sony wanted in on the hardware game but enjoyed years of playing the background - sound chips for the SNES, imagesoft studio with Sega CD, etc. i'm not saying they naturally would've wanted to go past getting their feet wet without being spurned by nintendo (however likely), but that still doesn't create a reality where the SNES add on happens, much less is well regarded/flourishes. if anything, an ahead-of-its-time peripheral like that (see: Sega CD) might've underperformed enough to keep nintendo thinking carts next gen were still a good idea, leaving us right back with the mess that was the N64.

How so? Nintendo would've stuck with the sony deal and moved on to cdrom after the snes.

it's weird to me how quickly some of you draw this conclusion
 

meppi

Member
Not sure if I would have liked it.
The again, if it meant that Sega would have stayed in the hardware business and kept up releasing tons of quality software, I probably would have taken my chances and not regret any of it...

I really miss the old Sega. Warts and all.
 
it's weird to me how quickly some of you draw this conclusion
Well, if sony never entered the console market it would've been because the deal with nintendo didn't fall through. Or are we assuming here that they didn't even begin a deal with nintendo at all?
 
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