I have pondered quite a few what if scenarios over the years. Some of my favorite ones are what could Sega have done to actually make the 32X a success, or what would it be like if Atari had stayed relevant? But there is one question I have really wanted to try to get an answer to that I decided to tackle head on.
I recently shot a series of long form videos breaking down the different aspects of what the world might look like if Nintendo had never released the NES in north America following the video game crash of 1983. What would the arcade, home console and PC gaming landscape look like? How would the mobile market or handheld market have developed without Nintendo taking the lead? Would we even have smart phones today?
I break it down by topics in each video going through who would have been affected, who would have found success without Nintendo and who would have failed without their partnership propping them up? Would Blockbuster video still exist? Would Netflix have ever turned to Streaming? Would we have HDTV’s in a world where Nintendo didn’t exist or was relegated to some obscure little company left in Japan?
I will be releasing the video in pieces. I am still looking for ways to augment the story with visuals but I want this to be more of an analytical what if scenario based entirely on conjecture and speculation. Not grounded in hard facts or bogged down with actually predictions based on things we can’t firmly hold to. It should be a fun little diversion from the norm.
Stephanie Bri 