Nautilus
Banned
I had this feeling already the last few years, but the last MS presentation and Sony direct just cemented this thought on my head: Nintendo persevered against the other two belonging to the Big Three, and came out on top of the Console Wars, which seems to be heading to a conclusion.
Why, do you ask? Microsoft has all but gone third party at this point, not only having a few of its IP on a Nintendo console, an ecosystem which they have zero control of, but having literally all of its catalogue of first party games, save a few exceptions(that won't remain so for long) on PC, meaning that it is utterly unnecessary to own a Xbox to play MS games. And now the same is happening with Sony.A lot of its big first party games are and will be available to play on PC, and that transitioning process is only going to accelerate, as TLOU Remaster/Remake has shown, as it was announced simultaniously to PS5 and PC and Sony adquiring stufios especialized in porting games to PC, until every single PS game will be available on both systems, to the point that they will probably be released day and date on both systems, effectively becoming a third party developer.
The only holdout that remains is Nintendo, as 100% of their games remains exclusive to Nintendo systems, and that seemingly won't change for the foreseeable future, as Nintendo believes there is value in innovating the hardware in which the games are played, and thus giving further value to the games that are played in it. As such, as the Console Wars revolved mostly about the hardware manufacturers having exclusive games for it, thus driving sales to said platform, and finally giving said manufacturer influence over the industry at large as those select few had a large chunk of its marketshare, with those players backing down and focusing on the sales of its games, and far less on the marketshare they have over the industry through the dominance over the ecosystems that those games are played on, releasing their games on a "neutral" ecosystem such as the PC, it stands to reason that the only player still standing, Nintendo, finally won this 4 decades long war, after going through innumerable battles against Sony, MS and Sega.
But why is it happening now?Simple: Because with the advent of new tecnologies, Nintendo's fierce competition, gaming becoming bigger than ever, and the innerent rising cost of developing games, continuing to fight in the Console Wars became too dificult and risky, especially as a new war started brewing over the horizon: The Platform Wars.
We are already seeing that happening in the PC space with Steam and Epic fighting it out, As this new War focuses not in the dominance through physical means, by forcing everyone onto one hardware and one ecosystem, but rather over one platform that tries to unify all games onto one place, creating a "virtual" ecosystem for players to be invested in, through whatever hardware that is able to contain said platform. And given the digital nature of such War, it won't be contained to only the PC Space: It will spill over to all digiverse:We will see battles unfold in the Mobile Space, in Smart TVs, and most things that has a display and can connect to the internet. So now we see MS and Sony decided to cut short their losses in the Console Wars, and join this new war, as in their eyes, this new horizon brings more opportunities for them, and that they were bleeding yoo much in the Console Wars. Its an exciting new age, where less focus will be given to hardware(excluding Nintendo) and thus we will see less innovation on that level, but far bigger focus will be given to the software itself.My worry is that the market will be flooded with too many similar games due to the lack of hardware innovation outside of it having more power, but I guess we will see.
But that worry is for the future, because presently congratulations are in order for the victors of the Console Wars, Nintendo!
Why, do you ask? Microsoft has all but gone third party at this point, not only having a few of its IP on a Nintendo console, an ecosystem which they have zero control of, but having literally all of its catalogue of first party games, save a few exceptions(that won't remain so for long) on PC, meaning that it is utterly unnecessary to own a Xbox to play MS games. And now the same is happening with Sony.A lot of its big first party games are and will be available to play on PC, and that transitioning process is only going to accelerate, as TLOU Remaster/Remake has shown, as it was announced simultaniously to PS5 and PC and Sony adquiring stufios especialized in porting games to PC, until every single PS game will be available on both systems, to the point that they will probably be released day and date on both systems, effectively becoming a third party developer.
The only holdout that remains is Nintendo, as 100% of their games remains exclusive to Nintendo systems, and that seemingly won't change for the foreseeable future, as Nintendo believes there is value in innovating the hardware in which the games are played, and thus giving further value to the games that are played in it. As such, as the Console Wars revolved mostly about the hardware manufacturers having exclusive games for it, thus driving sales to said platform, and finally giving said manufacturer influence over the industry at large as those select few had a large chunk of its marketshare, with those players backing down and focusing on the sales of its games, and far less on the marketshare they have over the industry through the dominance over the ecosystems that those games are played on, releasing their games on a "neutral" ecosystem such as the PC, it stands to reason that the only player still standing, Nintendo, finally won this 4 decades long war, after going through innumerable battles against Sony, MS and Sega.
But why is it happening now?Simple: Because with the advent of new tecnologies, Nintendo's fierce competition, gaming becoming bigger than ever, and the innerent rising cost of developing games, continuing to fight in the Console Wars became too dificult and risky, especially as a new war started brewing over the horizon: The Platform Wars.
We are already seeing that happening in the PC space with Steam and Epic fighting it out, As this new War focuses not in the dominance through physical means, by forcing everyone onto one hardware and one ecosystem, but rather over one platform that tries to unify all games onto one place, creating a "virtual" ecosystem for players to be invested in, through whatever hardware that is able to contain said platform. And given the digital nature of such War, it won't be contained to only the PC Space: It will spill over to all digiverse:We will see battles unfold in the Mobile Space, in Smart TVs, and most things that has a display and can connect to the internet. So now we see MS and Sony decided to cut short their losses in the Console Wars, and join this new war, as in their eyes, this new horizon brings more opportunities for them, and that they were bleeding yoo much in the Console Wars. Its an exciting new age, where less focus will be given to hardware(excluding Nintendo) and thus we will see less innovation on that level, but far bigger focus will be given to the software itself.My worry is that the market will be flooded with too many similar games due to the lack of hardware innovation outside of it having more power, but I guess we will see.
But that worry is for the future, because presently congratulations are in order for the victors of the Console Wars, Nintendo!