It feels safe to say that we’ve almost entered an era where people cannot rightfully remember the days when video games were still more or less computer games that took forever to load and were essentially something one did when they had the spare time, not something that people could actually make money with during competitions. But Console Wars is going to take us all back to when the big leagues were really created in the video game industry since like it or not, Atari was definitely the start of something that would eventually cover the globe, but it was also the most rudimentary form of what video games would one day become. There’s no doubt about it, Nintendo was, at one time, the absolute undisputed king of the video game industry, but largely because there were no other worthy competitors. CBS is hopefully going to be fair in their representation since Nintendo was a giant in the early days when the market hadn’t been flooded by consoles yet and Sega was still trying to figure out how to counter Mario with their own mascot. Once Sonic the Hedgehog entered the picture though, all bets were off. And yes, it was a grudge match for many years since Sega had been doing all they could to establish themselves in a market where Nintendo had already held sway for a while since apart from their iconic mascot, the company had also managed to unload a wide variety of games to the public, along with a few extras that were pretty cool such as the gun that could be used with the console, the robot that some people still remember, the track and field mat, and of course, the power glove.
Stating that some of these items broke fairly easily and were ineffectual after a certain point didn’t matter, they sold and they were popular for long enough for Nintendo to cash in on them. Sega had a popular product as well, but they had a lot of catching up to do when it came to being competitive and when it came to even equaling the Nintendo brand. Does anyone remember what happened when Sonic came on the scene? He was almost instantly loved by so many gamers that it was a case of ‘Mario, who’s that?’ being said in a joking manner since the famed plumber’s popularity was almost instantly threatened, leaving those at Nintendo to realize that they had a true contender on their hands and that he wasn’t going away. To hear that the companies acted like children though isn’t too hard to imagine since this was their business on the line and things tend to happen to adults when they feel threatened or are in any way challenged in a way that they aren’t prepared for. Of course, it was childish in many ways, but at the same time, one can’t help but think that there were likely a few hilarious hijinks that went on as well between the two competitors that would have been fun to watch simply for the novelty of it.
What’s really funny though is that quite a few people, more than has likely been reported, bought both the Nintendo and Sega systems since they didn’t want to pick between the two. Obviously this was pretty spendy since the unit price back in those days is kind of laughable now, but considering that people were earning less than they are now it was still expensive. True story, $120 for a Sega Genesis amounted to a few weeks of back-breaking labor (laugh, it’s okay) to earn the money to buy a system. Of course, back then the upside was that most systems still came with one game, which saved a person anywhere from $25 to $50, which would have meant another week of mowing lawns and cleaning gutters among other things. Many kids have actually enjoyed having both systems since they enjoy various games from either company, and now that Nintendo does feature several Sega games it’s even easier to get into. Just to be clear, Nintendo does not own Sega at this time, and Sega has been around for a lot longer than people think, but Nintendo was definitely the first mega giant in the gaming industry, and this is one of the reasons why they went after Sega when they first started getting big.
Hopefully, Console Wars will go over the brief history of both companies in order to give some detail to their work and why this feud was so important, but it already sounds as though it’s going to highlight the war that really sparked off when Sonic came into the picture and started to contend with Mario. Right away this is one of the biggest video game battles that many people can recall, and it’s bound to be one of the best.
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