How Nintendo revolutionised Gaming... Again – Part 1
It is an arguable fact that Nintendo has had the biggest impact on the Video Games Industry. The company entered the games industry with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (known as the Famicom in Japan) in 1987. The NES was a third generation
console and was capable of producing 8bit graphics.
The NES can be directly linked to the revival of video games in America after the Video Games Industry crash of 1983. Competitors emerged after the success of the NES in America but Nintendo continued to be the dominating brand with the highest market share.
The main competitors for Nintendo in the third generation were Sega, with the Master System and Atari with the Atari 7800.
The NES completely destroyed the competition in the market as the console sold over 62 million units worldwide compared to around 10-13 million by Sega Master System and a measly 3.77 million for the Atari 7600.
Mario Brothers was Nintendo’s most popular franchise with the NES as the game has been reported to have sold over a staggering 40 million units since it launched with the console in 1987. Mario, since then, has become the official mascot for the Nintendo
brand and has gotten countless games and spin-offs. Even now the Mario franchise is considered the largest gaming franchise in the world.
Nintendo wasn’t as successful in the fourth generation with the release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) as Sega had beaten Nintendo to the market with the release of the Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive in Japan) in 1988 where as the Super
Nintendo was released in 1990. Sega, being first to the market with the 16bit console priced at $190 was able to get a considerable user base and thus establish itself as a serious contender for Nintendo in the console market.
Sega found their own mascot in Sonic the Hedgehog, as the first Sonic game sold over 15 million copies on the Genesis. It was still no match for the new 16bit iteration of Mario as Super Mario Brothers for the SNES sold over 20 million units and continues
to sell even on current generation Nintendo consoles which have backward compatibility.
The SNES eventually did overtake the Genesis but the market lead was not that significant as the Genesis sold around 47 million consoles during the console’s lifetime compared to 49 million units for the SNES.
Nintendo however failed to stay in the lead in the fifth console generation when Sony entered the market with the release of the original PlayStation in 1994 and took the world by storm. Nintendo had to settle for second place with the Nintendo 64 (N64).
The reason behind the success of the PlayStation was Sony’s decision to opt for Optical Media instead of Cartridges which the N64 used. Optical Media was cheaper to manufacture and offered more storage thus the majority of the developers preferred the PlayStation
over the competition.
Super Mario 64 for the N64 is considered by many gamers as the best Mario game ever developed and was the best selling N64 game with over 20 million copies sold on a system with a total user base of about 33 million.
Continued in Part 2
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