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How Nintendo Dominated The Early Console Market
Back when we looked back at the Bit Wars I mentioned that SEGA's Mega Drive was the first major 16 bit console (the TurboGrafx-16 was also around at this time) but Nintendo still dominated this part of the Bit Wars. The SNES came out 2 years after the Mega Drive but still dominated the market but why? Let's dive into into Nintendo hardware for the answer...
To answer this question let's take a leap into the handheld market and back to 1989 with the release of Nintendo's Gameboy. Atari's Lynx and SEGA's Game Gear were much, much more powerful. They boasted colours and more advanced hardware than the Gameboy including back lighting. The Gameboy only had black and white and much less powerful hardware as well as a lack of back lighting. Thought you could play the Gameboy in the dark? Think again! But why did the Gameboy dominate the handheld market with much less advanced consoles? In essence it all comes down to the games that the Gameboy offered.
In 1989 the creator of the Gameboy stated that as the Gameboy was less advanced than the competition developers could use the system much more easily. On launch Atari's Lynx and SEGA's Game Gear boasted more powerful hardware but a mediocre library of games. The developers couldn't simply couldn't understand the hardware in the game. The Gameboy had less confusing hardware meaning developers could easily understand how to programme games for the system meaning that the Gameboy boasted an impressive library of games at launch. But how well does this mentality crossover to the home console market?
The Mega Drive at launch was the first major 16 bit console at a time when Nintendo's NES, an 8 bit console, dominated the market. As the advertisements said: Genesis (the american Mega Drive) does what Nintendon't". At launch of the Mega Drive this was undeniable but 2 years later the SNES dominated the 16 bit era in 1991. The SNES boasted a much better library of games at launch but why? The Mega Drive boasted more in the way of hardware but Nintendo still beat them but this time there was a difference with why Nintendo beat SEGA. Nintendo had 2 years for the developers to work out how to programme for a 16 bit console meaning the launch games for the SNES were arguably better than the launch games for the Mega Drive. So in essence that's how Nintendo claimed an early victory in the console market, although the NES doesn't follow this as it marked a time of true graphical innovation which SEGA and Atari tried to emulate. Other than the NES Nintendo has more or less stuck to this meaning that systems like today's WiiU is weaker in the hardware department than the PS4 or Xbox One.
