What if scenarios

[Kudasai]

Have you ever wondered what the outcome would've been if something in the industry was done differently? For me the one thing I always harp on is the N64 and what if Nintendo went with CD's instead of cartridges? I can't help but wonder just how diffently things would have turned out if that had happened. So what are your gaming what if scenarios?

[HardcoreHunter]

Well if Nintendo kept their contract with sony for CD based games then the Playstation would have never been made. I think there would be more problems with innovation without the Playstation trying new things. When they first launched they pretty much had a beefed up snes controller with better grips and the addition of triggers. Later on they made the analog controller which has been copied and improved upon since. As well the only systems out at that time would be Nintendo and the Dreamcast. Without Sony being around to divide Nintendo's consumer base, would microsoft even attempt to enter the video game ring, or would Nintendo be far too intimidating of an opponent going into the 6th generation. Even then would both sides be thinking the same thing on advancing controller designs without the sony analog for reference of ergonomics.  

Really just seems like a huge rabbit hole. It's like what if Shinji Mikami never got hired to make Goof Troop for the SNES. Goof Troop had lots of puzzles, 2 characters that played slightly differently, and limited inventory space. Mikami later went on to make Resident Evil which had lots of puzzels, 2 characters that played slightly differently, and limited inventory space. So if Goof Troop was never made, would there be a chance that he never would have gotten to make Resident Evil?  On the plus side there were survival horror games developed or out at the time which didn't draw influence from RE, but they seemed to have had less of an impact into other tittles. 

[Sawdamizer]

Valve released half life 3....

[Distortedreasoning]

i liked that the n64 stuck with the cartridge medium, it had both major advantages and disadvantages. i know it ended up being a weak point mainly due to cost, and storage, but nintendo could have mitigated some of its drawbacks by designing the console a little bit differently. but yeah, a cd based nintendo console means no playstation. maybe saturn is a bit more successful since they dont gotta compete against sony? but they still mess up on the hardware for the system? sega was badly mismanaged but they dont bleed out as much and can turn it around with the dreamcast?

 

my what if is what if sega never releases the 32x and instead doubles down on the sega cd and spends more time on developing the saturn instead of rushing it like they did?