The comic book industry isn’t the only one that get to have this much fun. Take a look at five situations that morphed the industry forever and what could have happened if things happened otherwise.
Sega Doesn’t Give Up Creating Consoles After the Dreamcast: Sega is still a force in gaming today, thanks to the success of Sonic the Hedgehog and its partnership with Atlus- but what if they continued making consoles after the Dreamcast went out to pasture? I don’t know about you, but it could have been a ton of fun.
Final Fantasy VII isn’t a Smash Hit in the United States: FFVII made RPGs cool to a generation of new gamers on the PlayStation and helped make lovers of the genre feel at home after Nintendo seemingly forgot the genre was a huge part of their success with the Super NES. But what if Square’s seminal RPG doesn’t hit the same way in the US? Chances are, neither does the PlayStation.
The Nintendo Game Boy Doesn’t Revolutionize Handheld Gaming: Hard fact- without the Game Boy and the family of consoles it gave birth to, Nintendo doesn’t exist in the same way today. Sure, they beat Sega in the 16-bit wars and the Wii and Switch have made a ton of money, but with the Wii U, the Nintendo 64, the Virtual Boy and the Gamecube, Nintendo has rarely been the lead dog. Supported by a wonderful first-party library, Nintendo has a dedicated fanbase, but it’s been on the back of the Game Boy, the GBA, the DS and 3DS that the brand has had the opportunity to grow into the force it is today. Without the Game Boy, it would be scary to see what Nintendo looks like today.
The PlayStation Vita isn’t a Flop: Talk about a missed opportunity. The Vita tried. It felt great, the games played well, but there wasn’t enough third-party support and there weren’t any real killer apps. Did it have the power and capability to take out the 3DS? Absolutely. It just never happened. If it did, there’s a chance the failure of the Wii U hurts Nintendo even more and Sony begins a two-front war no other publisher can beat.
The Atari Jaguar Finds Its Footing: If the Jaguar is a success, Sony, Nintendo, Sega and Micosoft’s future’s in gaming is so different. If games like Cybermorph and the ports of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D manage to find an audience- Atari could have rediscovered its roots. Instead, it was just another lesson of too little, too late.
