In our world, Nintendo's deal with Sony to make a CD based add-on for the SNES fell through, allowing Sony to make their own gaming console and changing the video game console market forever with the Playstation line. But, what if that hadn't happened; what if Sony and Nintendo's deal succeeded? Today, another hypothetical timeline: a world where the Nintendo Play Station happens.
The point of divergence occurs in the year 1991. In our world, Nintendo breaks their contract with Sony over licensing disputes. In this timeline, Nintendo and Sony keep their contract intact, allowing Sony a large cut of the profits made from the Play Station. Doing this ensures that Sony keeps their end of the bargain, allowing said company to build a CD based add-on for the SNES that is powerful, easy to install, and is easier to use. This add-on is called the Nintendo/Sony Play Station, and it sells for a whopping $250. The console is at long last launched on April 7, 1993.
To ensure the system's success, Nintendo begins developing games for the add-on. At launch, five games are available: Super Mario World CD (the original Super Mario World with 10 new levels, improved music, and better sprite animation), Yoshi's Cookies CD, Super Metroid CD, Legend of Zelda CD (remake of the original game with highly improved graphics, sound, and two new dungeons, and of course, Star Fox. That last game was released for both the original SNES as well as the Play Station, with the latter version receiving near universal praise for its sleek graphics, music, and added content.
The launch of the Play Station doesn't start an "add-on war" between Nintendo and Sega, because from day 1 the Play Station completely humiliates the Sega CD. Knowing that their policies with the Sega CD are hurting their bottom line, Sega decides to have a "change of the guard" so to speak, and now the American office in Sega has as much of a say in game development as does the Japanese branch. Plans for the 32X are nixed, as the Sega CD's sales are dropping fast. Instead, Sega starts looking to the future: the Sega Saturn.
In our timeline, the Saturn's launch was mired by the launch of the Sony Playstation, which completely overshadowed it and practically guaranteed its relative failure in the Fifth Generation's Console War. On this timeline, however, Sony never develops the Playstation because the incentive to do so (being disgraced by Nintendo's decision to drop their contract behind their backs) never happens. Instead, the Saturn's launch is delayed by almost 5 months so as to make improvements on hardware, software, and to include more launch titles. On March 10, 1995, the Saturn is released, with launch titles including Virtua Fighter and Panzer Dragoon.
Back at Nintendo, their efforts to make the Nintendo 64 are held back a bit by the surprise success of the Play Station. Seeing the Play Station as key to the SNES' continued lifespan, Nintendo releases the Nintendo Super Station, a stand alone Play Station that can play both SNES and Play Station games. Their slogan for the time is "so who needs a new system?" This decision is praised by game's media at the time, as it ensured gamers who have had their SNES' for over five years now that they would not need to buy a new system, unlike Sega's decision to seemingly abandon the Genesis in favor of the Saturn.
These journalists, however, would soon be eating humble pie, as the Sega Saturn was demonstrating that a more powerful system can do a LOT more. Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter become instant hits, with the former being hailed as the next great gaming franchise of the decade. The Saturn not only sees new franchises being born, such as Panzer Dragoon, but also many classic franchises are given new life. In our timeline, Sonic X-treme was continuously pushed back until it was eventually cancelled. In this timeline, however, the game is released with no problems under the name Sonic X. In this timeline, the cancellation of the 32X led Sega to place more effort into making the Saturn the "Nintendo Killer" they needed, which meant more resources were put into it; these resources went into the 32X in our world.
Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in the year 1997, just like in our timeline. The new Console War was on; Sega vs Nintendo, once again head to head. However, while in our timeline Super Mario 64 is seen as one of the greatest games of all times, redefining the 3D platform game and demonstrating how to properly make one, in this timeline that honor goes to the game Sonic X, which was released just a few months prior. However, like in our timeline, Nintendo keeps releasing new games on the 64, many of which go on to become classics: Ocarina of Time, Pokemon Stadium, Smash Brothers, among others.
Nintendo loosens up its censorship of games by the year 1995, thanks to pressure from Sony. Starting in 1995, many M rated games began to be released for the Play Station, the SNES, and soon for the N64 as well. Further, many previously censored games were re-released for the Play Station, uncensored and uncut. These include the original Mortal Kombat, which received a near perfect arcade port for the Play Station, and Primal Rage. The N64 release of the latter is widely considered a classic port of the game in this timeline.
Perhaps the big turning point for the 5th Generation Console War was the year 1997. Just like in our timeline, the N64 uses cartridges instead of CD's, so many companies abandoned Nintendo because the N64 didn't have the capabilities needed to run their games. As in our timeline, one such company is Squaresoft, which abandons the N64 because cartridges cannot support the amount of memory Final Fantasy 7 needs. In this timeline, said game is released on the Sega Saturn instead, sparking off the biggest rift between Sega and Nintendo fans since "Sega does what Nintendon't." The release of FF7 provides the Saturn a huge boost, allowing it to temporarily eclipse the N64.
Whereas in our timeline Sega released the Dreamcast in 1999, on this timeline the Dreamcast is held back two years, as the Saturn is a roaring success. The Dreamcast is released on August 15, 2001. Its launch titles include the long awaited Sonic Adventure, which in this timeline is the 10 year anniversary title. To compete, Nintendo releases the Gamecube one year later. The Fifth Generation's Console War had officially ended, with Sega the undisputed victor in sales numbers. As far as games were concerned, however, there was little doubt that Nintendo had made Sega sweat during the last legs of the console war; had Nintendo stayed with Sony's model and made the N64 CD based, Nintendo would have likely trounced Sega.
The release of the Playstation in our timeline was Sega's biggest killer as a first party, console making company. Without the Playstation, the Sega Saturn is allowed to shine, letting said system get the recognition it deserves for being an innovative, fun console with lots of great games and potential new franchises. But of course, this is just ONE possibility. But perhaps I should stop here; to paraphraseJohn Greenleaf Whittier, there is no more painful expression in English than "it might have been."
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