Nintendo Vs. Sony: Other Side of the Hedge
Sony’s PS3 and the Xbox 360 are at war where gaming is concerned, it is surprising to see most boards rant about games released on these mean machines but very few people would actually acknowledge the fact that if it was not for the good ‘ol big N, none of us would have been sting glued to the television sets and drooling over Gears of War which has become a pop culture icon of sorts. Heck, if it was not for Nintendo I bet we would have a blossoming social life. Everyone at one point in our lives has stepped into Nintendo’s wonderful world of imagination, the first stepping block has always been given by Nintendo and we have chosen to evolve into mindless Zombies henceforth.
In my opinion, Sony killed gaming with the machine they labeled as “THE PLAYSTATION”, the strategy of throwing everything in has worked really well leaving the corridors of gaming a mundane affair. When was the last time did you see a slew of really good games hitting your console one after the other, the developers have also gotten smarter, they release a bottleneck of games during the last three months leaving the rest of the year with mediocre games and expect you to splurge on each of them.
It will be surprising to note that the number of mediocre titles has drastically increased over the last generation, with numerous small time developers mushrooming up, competition has become really stiff in the industry, and Sony’s Playstation has been the root cause of this change to a large extent, experimentation has been sidelined to grab a quick piece of the gaming pie, each game has some elements borrowed from other games which results in an Inevitable comparison with the original game. Wolf 3d might have been the Grand daddy of FPS but it was nothing more than a game of “Final fight” from a different perspective. I believe Half-Life was the game that defined what the genre could actually do. The game was oozing with atmosphere, which made it such a huge success. The only game that can be deemed as the successor to Half Life is Monolith’s F.E.A.R. this game relies on sheer atmosphere to tell an intriguing story.
The Playstation gave freedom to experiment around and hit upon a successful formula for a certain period of time and then the formula would be applied to its sequels which were to appear on a yearly basis till it got rusted and old and the developers had to go back and experiment once again. If we were to put Nintendo out of the picture there would only be a handful number of games which were responsible in shaping up the next generation of gaming, the biggest hit was the advent of Sandbox games (read GTA III), suddenly everything was in a living breathing city and letting the player choose how he played the game, 75% of games used this to technique, the other 25% mimicked the antics of Devil May Cry and Halo and when Nintendo came out with its amazing Wind Walker it was heavily criticized for using Cel shading
Great games in today’s generation are more of a hit or a miss, Viewtiful Joe, Metroid Prime, Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil, Ico, Shadow of Colossus are only a handful of games that sparked a huge wave of originality which were to be drowned into an ocean of silent whispers. They failed to strike the right cord to make gamers go drooling all over them.
A lot of this cord actually depends on the hype machine surrounding such great games they are not as hyped up as certain other games. Killzone is the biggest example of the hype machine going haywire. I sometimes wonder how much Sony had to pay all the big game websites/magazines to create hype full of air behind their so-called Halo killer .The game was so pathetic in the end that the developers resorted to showcase a CG version of its sequel.
Sony did nothing to reinvent the gaming scenario, which is making them suffer now. It was Nintendo always picking up the pieces of its broken heart and coming back yet again with really innovative titles and the success that they deserve is not a one day story but is spread over period of 21 years.
-Neelesh Mukherjee
Though, I agree with everything you say, for some reason you left out Sega! You mention wind waker for cell shading when it was Sega’s Jet Set Radio that introduced this genre. It too was a fantastic game that nobody bought because it looked different. Also sega invented the 3D videogame with Virtua Racing & Virtua Fighter, infact they invented or re-invented many cool genres like Super Monkey Ball, Samba De Amigo, REZ, Shenmue & many others. Their games were challenging and refreshing. Nintendo & Sega made the videogame industry and Sony destroyed it and got rid of Sega in the process. Long live Nintendo, they are all we have left.
cool. now thats a different view… i am sure more people will say that the big gap in the console gaming industry between then (1990′s) & now(200′s) was fille dalmost entirely by The Play Station. It more than revived the gaming industry because here was a company which took gaming seriously enough to have its own developers in the major continents (USA/JAPAN/Europe). Any way i do have a lot of respect for Nintendo (equal to Sony) and i also have more respect for Atari for having almost single handedly made famous the concept of Interactive Entertainment. Plus continue making such revolutionary games such as Unreal Tournament. We must understand that yes the number of duds (mediocre) games has increased but so has the total number of Great games and if i needed to list them all you will find The PS & the PS2 leading the pack.. hands down.
The author should do just a little research into the actual origins of the Playstation. A closer look at Nintendo’s draconian practices in the late 80′s and 90′s wouldn’t hurt either.
Sony’s hurting themselves right now, from a gaming perspective. They may actually be helping themselves, from a strategic perspective, if the Blu Ray piggy-backing onto the PS3 serves to win the format war against HD DVD…but it’s far too soon to tell there.
And Nintendo didn’t create gaming. They have been (rightly) credited with resurrecting it in the wake of the wreckage left by Atari and others, but they weren’t the first company making video games.
Overall, it’s an embarrassing feature article that reads more like something from a Nintendo-centric message board. Far too much generalization, and far too little factual support. If Sony hurt the industry with the Playstation, a new console with a new and cheaper format that opened the gates for more developers to offer new IP’s and new experiences, then what the hell is Nintendo doing now with the Wii?
The Playstation brought gaming closer to the mainstream than it had ever been before. It established, developed, and grew new markets, while serving as a vehicle for franchises which have become recognizable icons in the industry.
That someone would write an article with an implication that the Playstation brand is or has killed video gaming is asinine in its ignorance. Sony may very well be hurting themselves (and the gaming landscape) now, but they wouldn’t be the first company to be humbled after taking a fall from grace (again, take a deeper look at the origins of the Playstation itself and Nintendo in the N64 era); and even if they do take a fall, it won’t diminish what they’ve done in the past.
What a load of crap almost none of your clames are supported by examples at all. The playstation brought gaming to the main stream and had many of the classics that have helped define gaming today, a trend which was followed the PS2.
“The Playstation gave freedom to experiment around and hit upon a successful formula for a certain period of time and then the formula would be applied to its sequels which were to appear on a yearly basis till it got rusted and old and the developers had to go back and experiment once again.” In case you hadn’t noticed thats exactly what Nintendo dose with all of its first and second party brands, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, each release is the same as the last just with something new tacked on. The storys almost identical for every game as well there has been almost no creativity for years!
The Wii is a cheep attempt to try and catch back market that it lost for a reason that in the end will just give people a reason to make pointless mini games over and over.
Dont get me wrong i think they make some great games but that was years ago now.
Nerds eh? Guess i am too for reading the article…
What a biased piece of shit garbage review. SONY is Gaming, Sony is the Market Leader & Sony is The Industry.
Nintendo tried to f*ck Sony over a cd-addon in the early 90′s, then was promptly booted up it’s narrow ass and kept down on it’s knees for 11+ years while SONY ran the industry through sheer power and fanbase.
Way to kick the PS3 when it’s down, your a “real” journalist….maybe that’s why you’re in india, sittin’ around suckin’ sand, working customer support for Dell.
ok, i agree. The playstion wasnt too bad at all. It had the strategy of getting a lot of people into the market with a wide varitey of games. After that though, sony just went cocky. I havent seen a decent original sony title for a while. GOW2, an exception and final fantasy (which i find ok, not revoltionary) isnt made by sony (thank god its moving back to nintendo consoles). The fact is, nintendo is the only true gamming company. Sony does electronics, M$ does computers. Nintendo is 99.9% gamming, which places emphises on why they should be repsected and why if you looked really close, they are the ones making the good games. Get those 2 greedy companies out of the picture, and put sega back in there.
Let me tell you something. Im a fan of sega and ive been a fan. Of course i used to argue with nintendo fans. however, those 2 companies made each other do the best the could. They self conciously created an amazing competition, which was enjoyed by all. A plethora of exellent titles were comming out in the 16 bit era. Its a shame sega left the console biz, and whats happening to game titles now. Thats why ive become more of nintendo fan. Why not join the enemy whom created great rivalry? Much better than joining a company that dosent even make thier own titles.
oh, and i feel sorry for ps3. …,. …,. …,. ….,.. not.
I’m kinda lost on how anybody could say sony helped videogames go mainstream…you mean to tell me that the NES & SNES didnt take video games mainstream? And even the Sega Genesis. It’s just the simple fact that a cheaper system to develop for came out. Cheaper by the format used (CD’s) and cheaper by the royalty rates for 3rd parties to make games. I am not too sure if the development made it easier and cheaper but I think it was atleast easier to develop for than the N64. This made more games available for the PS1 and just happened to seem more aesthetic due to CD’s (used more reliably than sega) and the look of the controller. But, look at how history is changing…instead of sony staying on the track they were on, they are almost doing what Nintendo did. The N64 was very powerful graphics wise, and again so was the Gamecube…what’s the market like now??? Sony has the more powerful console…I think they screwed themselves from the start. Nintendo has been saying since the last few sparks of life of the Gamecube that the videogame industry needs to head in a new direction other than making more and more visually stunning graphics…and I do believe they have proven themselves. The XBOX 360 in my opinion is only doing good with the whole graphics thing because they have xbox live, and its a fairly cheap console still (while losing money with each one sold)…atleast the core system. Oh and games ofcoarse, but notice how they are still about to lose out against the Wii. Also this is only in the US mainly that the XBOX sells so good. Nintendo invented the thumbstick, the rumble in your controller, the d-pad was also started by them…before that was only the joystick and nobs. Now its motion and pointing devices…and a speaker in the controller. Now tell me Nintendo doesn’t push the industry? And tell me that even you Sony fanboys hafta admit that even while the PS1 & PS2 had its reign in the industry, the things they had were at least partly because of Nintendo’s inventions…rumble?…d-pad?…thumbsticks?…L and R buttons?…hell now they even have motion control. What has sony pushed into the industry and took a chance? The eye toy???? haha please they don’t even use their own damn device!