Console Wars have been around since the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment system and the SEGA Master System. Back then the two involved companies would have friendly jabs at each other and nothing more.
It was a way for the two companies to show their customers that they chose the right console, and for good reason. Especially back in those days as gaming was more expensive, and rare to find someone with two consoles, so it made more sense for these battles as way of defending one’s console choice.
What about now, are console wars still important? Back then the console wars were important, because without the marketing campaigns of the console wars, SEGA may have never been the company it is today. These days console wars aren’t as important as they once were. Sure, these ‘wars’ are fought daily on the Twitter battlefield, but their significance is nowhere near important as it was then.
I think one of the contributing factors to console wars being a dated idea is that people can now afford to have multiple consoles. Gone are the days when you had to make a choice between the latest Sega or Nintendo console, or even forgoing those two consoles in favor of the then, new player Sony PlayStation. Nope, these days there is a high chance that most gamers have two, maybe even all three, consoles in their household. Why have a console war when you can own multiple consoles. That’s not to say people don’t own one, but most of those people have reasons, whether they don’t like the games or the console itself. Either way they have their reasons.
It isn’t just that, but if the people behind the consoles don’t quite care about the war, then why would the customers? Ever since Phil Spencer took over Microsoft’s Xbox division the world finally had a person that didn’t care for the console wars and showed his love for both Nintendo and even Sony at some points. Not long after this, Microsoft published games on Nintendo consoles and Sony consoles.
If that wasn’t enough the world was introduced to cross-play and one has to wonder, what was the point of console wars now, if everybody could play together and on whatever console they wanted to. If I could play a game on the Xbox and my friend could play on the PlayStation, why would anyone care about what console someone owned? I think that’s why the console wars we see on social media today is ridiculous, because isn’t it all about playing together?
Do you think the console wars are dated? Let us know in the comments below or on our Discord!
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