History MediaNotes / ConsoleWars

The oddball was the Platform/NeoGeo. Released in 1990 (the same year as the SNES), it was way more expensive than the other 16-bit consoles and was there so that fans with lots of money could play the exact same arcade game at home. And we mean '''lots''' of money - individual games cost as much as a new SNES or Genesis ''console'', and that's after shelling out $600 for the Neo Geo itself. Since SNK used the very same hardware in their arcade machines it made porting cheap (for SNK that is),[[note]]The reason Neo Geo carts were so expensive - and so big - was because they had a lot more ROM chips inside of them, and these were not cheap. The "330 MEG PRO-SPEC" wasn't just a marketing ploy, some games were that big or even bigger, though keep in mind that "MEG" here means mega''bits'', so "330 MEG" is actually about 82 MB. For context the largest SNES games were only 6 MB[[/note]] and thus new Platform/NeoGeo games continued to trickle out as late as ''2004''. SNK also released the Neo Geo CD, which had identical hardware to the regular Neo Geo outside of loading games from much cheaper to produce CD-[=ROMs=] rather than the gigantic carts, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading at the expense of lengthy load times]]. A combined 1.18 million arcade and home cartridge units were delivered, along with around 570,000 CD consoles. The only true competitor for the Platform/NeoGeo, Creator/{{Capcom}}'s CPS Changer, had no third-party support and less than a dozen releases[[note]]The CPS Changer somewhat stretches the definition of console - it has no processors or RAM, all the hardware is contained in the individual games themselves, which are basically full arcade boards in a shell. It's been described as a "glorified supergun" because all the CPS Changer does is provide an output to the TV and inputs in form of SNES-compatible controllers (the system was bundled with the Capcom CPS Fighter joystick). The photos towards the bottom of [[http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-capcom.htm#page=models this page]] demonstrate how this worked, the large grey box is the game, the much smaller black box on top is the CPS Changer[[/note]]. Only 1,000 were made, only 600 sold, and you can expect to pay several thousand dollars if you wish to acquire one. Good luck finding games for it.

The oddball was the Platform/NeoGeo. Released in 1990 (the same year as the SNES), it was way more expensive than the other 16-bit consoles and was there so that fans with lots of money could play the exact same arcade game at home. And we mean '''lots''' of money - individual games cost as much as a new SNES or Genesis ''console'', and that's after shelling out $600 for the Neo Geo itself. Since SNK used the very same hardware in their arcade machines it made porting cheap, and thus new Platform/NeoGeo games continued to trickle out as late as ''2004''. SNK also released the Neo Geo CD, which had identical hardware to the regular Neo Geo outside of loading games from much cheaper to produce CD-[=ROMs=] rather than the gigantic carts, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading at the expense of lengthy load times]]. A combined 1.18 million arcade and home cartridge units were delivered, along with around 570,000 CD consoles. The only true competitor for the Platform/NeoGeo, Creator/{{Capcom}}'s CPS Changer, had no third-party support and less than a dozen releases[[note]]The CPS Changer somewhat stretches the definition of console - it has no processors or RAM, all the hardware is contained in the individual games themselves, which are basically full arcade boards in a shell. It's been described as a "glorified supergun" because all the CPS Changer does is provide an output to the TV and inputs in form of SNES-compatible controllers (the system was bundled with the Capcom CPS Fighter joystick). The photos towards the bottom of [[http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-capcom.htm#page=models this page]] demonstrate how this worked, the large grey box is the game, the much smaller black box on top is the CPS Changer[[/note]]. Only 1,000 were made, only 600 sold, and you can expect to pay several thousand dollars if you wish to acquire one. Good luck finding games for it.

The oddball was the Platform/NeoGeo. Released in 1990 (the same year as the SNES), it was way more expensive than the other 16-bit consoles and was there so that fans with lots of money could play the exact same arcade game at home. Since SNK used the very same hardware in their arcade machines it made porting cheap, and thus new Platform/NeoGeo games continued to trickle out as late as ''2004''. SNK also released the Neo Geo CD, which had identical hardware to the regular Neo Geo outside of loading games from much cheaper to produce CD-[=ROMs=] rather than the gigantic carts, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading at the expense of lengthy load times]]. A combined 1.18 million arcade and home cartridge units were delivered, along with around 570,000 CD consoles. The only true competitor for the Platform/NeoGeo, Creator/{{Capcom}}'s CPS Changer, had no third-party support and less than a dozen releases[[note]]The CPS Changer somewhat stretches the definition of console - it has no processors or RAM, all the hardware is contained in the individual games themselves, which are basically full arcade boards in a shell. It's been described as a "glorified supergun" because all the CPS Changer does is provide an output to the TV and inputs in form of SNES-compatible controllers (the system was bundled with the Capcom CPS Fighter joystick). The photos towards the bottom of [[http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-capcom.htm#page=models this page]] demonstrate how this worked, the large grey box is the game, the much smaller black box on top is the CPS Changer[[/note]]. Only 1,000 were made, only 600 sold, and you can expect to pay several thousand dollars if you wish to acquire one. Good luck finding games for it.

Nintendo also got a huge boost late in the game when they tasked British developer Creator/{{Rare}} with reviving the then-dormant ''Franchise/DonkeyKong'' franchise. The result was ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'', which pioneered the use of pre-rendered 3D graphics in video games. It immediately became the fastest-selling game of its time, becoming the KillerApp of the SNES' later years and helping Nintendo win the war once and for all.

With the Switch OLED revision selling 19.71 million units as of September 2023, it has become clear that it will be the final Switch model, and Nintendo is now gearing up for a proper and long-awaited system successor, rumoured to release in [[https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sources-nintendo-switch-2-targets-2024-with-next-gen-console/ late 2024]] (though more recent reports suggest it will be pushed back to Spring 2025, to avoid stock shortages and give developers more time to make launch titles.) All Switch sales combined have now passed ''139.36 million'' units, and Nintendo expects it to [[https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/02/switch-sales-pass-139-million-will-be-main-business-heading-into-2024-says-nintendo-president remain the company's core business in 2024]], meaning the console is now in very real contention to possibly eclipse Nintendo's own DS as the best-selling handheld ever, and the [=PlayStation 2=] as the best-selling console ever period.

With the Switch OLED revision selling 19.71 million units as of September 2023, it has become clear that it will be the final Switch model, and Nintendo is now gearing up for a proper and long-awaited system successor, rumoured to release in [[https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sources-nintendo-switch-2-targets-2024-with-next-gen-console/ late 2024]]. All Switch sales combined have now passed ''139.36 million'' units, and Nintendo expects it to [[https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/02/switch-sales-pass-139-million-will-be-main-business-heading-into-2024-says-nintendo-president remain the company's core business in 2024]], meaning the console is now in very real contention to possibly eclipse Nintendo's own DS as the best-selling handheld ever, and the [=PlayStation 2=] as the best-selling console ever period.

The [=PS2=], meanwhile, proceeded to grab up the majority of the market early on and hold it, despite being less powerful than the later [=GameCube=] and Xbox consoles. Once again, a factor outside of its game library helped the [=PS2=] achieve victory -- at the time of its launch, it was the cheapest DVD player on the market. The system has shown rather outrageous longevity as well, being manufactured and having titles released for it in ''2013''--the same year [[Platform/PlayStation4 its successor's successor]] released--whereas the Xbox and [=GameCube=] had largely faded out by 2007. With nearly ''4000 games'', it has the largest library in console history. In the end, the [=PS2=] has sold nearly three times the ''combined'' sales total of its two main rivals, making this easily the biggest CurbStompBattle since the NES took on the Master System and Atari 7800. At 153.6 million sales, it is the most successful home console of all time.

The creation of the Game Boy Color was ultimately an admission that that iteration of the console had gone as far as it could go. In 2001, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance, effectively a portable Game Boy-compatible SNES. (Compare with humorous intent to the first Portable War's massive casualty -- Sega's Nomad, which played the original Genesis cartridges, doing away with porting/repurchasing games. Another instance of Sega's console curse -- good ideas, horrific timing.)

The Apple Pippin, released in conjunction with Bandai, was a weird mesh of computer and console sensibilities with all of the worst attributes of both -- too expensive for a console, too underpowered for a computer, and a software library that barely cracked two digits. It's mostly useful for filling out every tech site list of "Ten Worst Consoles" or "Five Apple Flops."

Atari attempted a comeback with their 7800 -- a souped-up, backward-compatible version of the 2600; while the 7800 secured a decent third-place finish in this war, the damage Atari's reputation had taken ensured it never had much chance of challenging Nintendo or Sega, though one small consolation was that the 7800 at least outsold the Master System in North America. Atari also continued to sell a more compact version of the 2600 as a budget console, and released the XEGS (a version of the Atari 65XE computer repackaged as a game console) in a failed attempt to revive interest in its [[Platform/Atari8bitComputers 8-bit computer game lineup]].

Japan also got the [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-playdia.htm#page=models Bandai Playdia]] and the [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-loopy.htm#page=models Casio Loopy]], released in 1994 and 1995, respectively. The Playdia was a CD-based system geared mostly towards young children, with most of the small library (only 33 titles) consisting of educational games and games based on their pretty expansive roster of anime [=IPs=], which can really be best described as interactive cartoons. The Loopy was marketed towards tween girls and had the unique gimmick of a built-in thermal printer for stickers, only '''ten''' games ever made it to stores. As you expect with the [[AudienceAlienatingPremise very narrow target markets]] these consoles were going after both came and went without a trace.[[note]]And this wasn't the first console either company released that totally flopped. The [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg70-super_vision.htm#page=reviews Bandai Super Vision 8000]] (released in 1979) and the [[https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg80-pv1000.htm#page=reviews Casio PV-1000]] (released in 1983) both died on arrival, the former because it was too expensive and was released before console gaming was even a thing in Japan, the latter because it was released 3 months after the Famicom and SG-1000 and wasn't even in the same league as either one. They made so little impact that they're not even worth mentioning in the 8-bits folder above.[[/note]] These are also considered "holy grails" to western collectors, though neither offers anything in the way of gameplay value if you can't read Japanese text.

* '''Sides''': ''[[Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]]'' vs. ''Platform/AtariJaguar'' vs. ''Pioneer [=LaserActive=]'' vs. ''Platform/AmigaCD32'' vs. ''Platform/FMTownsMarty'' vs. ''Memorex VIS'' vs. ''Nintendo Platform/VirtualBoy''.
* '''Winner''': The 3DO sold the best, but the Virtual Boy was the only one whose parent company wasn't bankrupted or driven out of the market[[note]]Though thanks to the $100 million sale of the technology behind the 3DO's intended successor to Matsushita (the parent company of Panasonic, who ended up doing nothing with the tech outside of putting it in [=ATMs=] and high-end coffee machines) the 3DO project as a whole was quite profitable, and the 3DO company would continue on as a game publisher for other consoles until they went under in the mid-00s[[/note]].

* '''Sides''': ''Nintendo Platform/GameBoy'' vs. ''Platform/AtariLynx'' vs. ''Sega Platform/GameGear'' vs. ''NEC [=TurboExpress=]'' (aka PC Engine) vs. ''Sega Nomad'' vs. ''Hartung Game Master'' vs. ''Bit Corp. Gamate'' vs. ''Watara Supervision'' vs. ''Timlex Mega Duck''.

The Hartung ''Game Master'', the Bit Corp. ''Gamate'', the Watara ''Supervision'', and the Timlex ''Mega Duck'' (or ''Cougar Boy'' in Latin American markets) were all failed attempts to cash in on the Game Boy. Many of their games were just ripoffs of other titles.

The oddball of this generation probably goes to the RDI Halcyon. It was made by RDI Video Systems, which is the company that was famous for making ''VideoGame/DragonsLair''. It was a system that was able to synthesize speech and perform voice recognition. It is also considered to be the only console ever made that is more powerful than the [=PCs=] that were released at that time. Unfortunately its enormous price tag of $2,500 (which is around $5000 in today's money) caused it to probably be the lowest selling console of all time. Probably, because no one is really sure if the system actually managed to make it to market. Only around a dozen copies were manufactured and given out to investors and collectors, with RDI itself going [[CreatorKiller bankrupt]]. It also had a very limited game library of only 2 games, none of which (ironically) was ''Dragon's Lair''.

The oddball was the Platform/NeoGeo. Released in 1990 (the same year as the SNES), it was way more expensive than the other 16-bit consoles and was there so that fans with lots of money could play the exact same arcade game at home. Since SNK used the very same hardware in their arcade machines it made porting cheap, and thus new Platform/NeoGeo games continued to trickle out as late as ''2004''. The only true competitor for the Platform/NeoGeo, Creator/{{Capcom}}'s CPS Changer, had no third-party support and less than a dozen releases[[note]]The CPS Changer somewhat stretches the definition of console - it has no processors or RAM, all the hardware is contained in the individual games themselves, which are basically full arcade boards in a shell. It's been described as a "glorified supergun" because all the CPS Changer does is provide an output to the TV and inputs in form of SNES-compatible controllers (the system was bundled with the Capcom CPS Fighter joystick). The photos towards the bottom of [[http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-capcom.htm#page=models this page]] demonstrate how this worked, the large grey box is the game, the much smaller black box on top is the CPS Changer[[/note]].

Another footnote could be added for the Platform/SuperACan. Its games were largely [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WDwMsUC-rAU ripoffs of other games]] and it was never released outside of Taiwan.

The Wii was unique amongst the competing players in that the console hardware was not a loss-leader; Nintendo made a profit for every console sold, whereas Microsoft and Sony relied on revenue from software to plug the gap. This is [[OlderThanTheyThink actually a return to prior trends]], as the idea of selling console hardware for a loss originated with the Atari 2600.