Classic Gaming What If/Alternate History Speculation

[Gucci]

I agree about pricing. Just take a look at the 3DS. It was on its way of being a failure at $250. When Nintendo dropped it to $170, sales started to tick upwards. Games were starting to come onto the scenes and third party support started to jump on more willingly.

Over 75 million units as of this past May. Good recovery.

[alienjesus]

A thing to remember about the crash; it only affected the console space. PC gaming kept streaming merrily along. When you consider the full history of video games I'd say them gaining the prominence they have now was inevitable; the specific timing is the only thing that's really in flux if you "what if" major events.

The Crash was also really US specific. There wasn't really a crash in Japan or Europe. At the time, both of those markets were supported almost entirely by games from their own regions too, so the lack of American investment in the industry would not have been considered as a an big impact as you might expect.

[MrPopo]

A thing to remember about the crash; it only affected the console space. PC gaming kept streaming merrily along. When you consider the full history of video games I'd say them gaining the prominence they have now was inevitable; the specific timing is the only thing that's really in flux if you "what if" major events.

The Crash was also really US specific. There wasn't really a crash in Japan or Europe. At the time, both of those markets were supported almost entirely by games from their own regions too, so the lack of American investment in the industry would not have been considered as a an big impact as you might expect.

Yeah, I thought I remembered that being the case but didn't want to put my foot in my mouth and was too lazy to do actual research.