In 1991, Nintendo shocked Sony executives by announcing that they were cancelling their deal to make the Nintendo PlayStation, instead collaborating with Philips. In real life, Norio Ohga sought revenge, and created the PlayStation brand to compete in the competitive games industry. The product was arguably the best known brand in video game history.
In this timeline, Ohga Shrugs.
This alternate history deviates from the usual political and military focus of the genre, instead focusing on, of all things, video game history. The history is presented through an encyclopedia format.
Read it here
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Compare Player Two Start, a timeline on AlternateHistory.com that covers the same subject matter as Ohga Shrugs with a ton of focus on the political and social aspects of a world where the Nintendo-Playstation partnership never fell apart.
Tropes included in this series :
- Alternate Techline: Seventh generation consoles Revolution and Pluto are more powerful than our timeline's Wii, but weaker than the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
- Always Second Best: Sega to Nintendo, even if it is only by a small amount in the Dreamcast-era.
- The Anime of the Game: Star Fox of all things gets one.
- Arcade-Perfect Port: What this timeline's more powerful version of the Dreamcast becomes known for.
- Balkanize Me: Inverted, as companies such as Square and Enix never become united.
- Coca-Pepsi, Inc.: ANS is a recently formed combination of Atlus, Namco, and Sammy. It makes sense in context.
- Console Wars: It's been Nintendo vs. Sega for over two decades, with neither side ever gaining a decisive victory.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Basically, every time the Game Boy series has a competitor, this happens to it.
- Different World, Different Movies: Some games like Mother 3 are on different platforms and released at different times than in our timeline.
- In Spite of a Nail: Nintendo still manages to decline and rise at similar times as in our timeline, albeit to a lesser extent.
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople): The Wii equivalent keeps its original codename "Revolution," and the Wii U equivalent keeps the codename "Stream." Also, it's the "Game Boy 3DS."
- Media Watchdog: More prevalent than in real life, thanks to gaming's lesser popularity bringing less defenders.
- Multi-Platform: Less common than in real life up until the seventh generation of consoles. And even then, there is still a wide PC/Console divide.
- Oddball in the Series: Mother 4 takes a very different tone than EarthBound. What else would you suspect from the guy who made Shadow of the Colossus in real life?
- Point of Divergence: One man's ability to let a grudge go changed an industry.
- Retro Universe: 20 years after the point of divergence, a lot of the big names in gaming are still big.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Not everybody entering the gaming industry ends up in the same place. Some don't ever enter it at all.
- Super Title 64 Advance: Game Boy 3DS games use the phrase "3D" a lot. Mario Kart is named "Nitro" on the Game Boy Nitro.
