Poll: Which is the most significant gaming device?

[Sovereignty]

Being completely realistic it has to be the PlayStation (Especially cause we're limited to solely one choice for voting.)

Why? It is the ONE system that kept gaming going, really brought the CD media platform to the forefront. (PC, Dreamcast and Sega Saturn really weren't doing well enough.) And it was a great system MANY of todays gamers still remember fondly.

The GameBoy didn't do anything revolutionary. Sort of just a cash in IMO.

The NES was a revitalization of the games industry, but I still think it lacked the real impact the PS1 had, especially considering the times it was released in...

The only other viable contenders would have to be the PS2 and Xbox.

The first still has games being made for it (Which should really say something for it's worth.

And the latter pretty much single-handedly took console gaming online en-mass.


All just my opinions though.

 

[Wertbag]

A gaming device is a device on which you game. End of discussion.

I disagree, my calculator has a game built in but I highly doubt anyone would think to call it a gaming device. Its purpose is not gaming, its primary function is calculations and that is how people will define it.

The PC has contributed an incredible amount to the history of gaming. To ignore one of the industry's oldest and most consistent media is ridiculous.

I would again point out that computers are not a specific thing, its a whole catagory of devices, many of which are not compatible with each other. Terminlogy wise you would compare computer to console, not to a specific model. For example I've owned the Commodore Vic20, C64 and Amiga 500 back in the day, but they were very different to a modern Windows based computer.
The arguement you are aiming towards is which did more for the games industry, consoles or computers? Now thats a tricky question, probably worthy of its own thread...

 

[Conza]

You need to divide it into more than just "playstation, xbox, NES etc". Why are half the Nintendo consoles in their own category while the Sony and Microsoft ones are divided? The 360 was "significantly" more popular than the original, but they're lumped together? And why are the Wii and NES divided, but no the N64? There is literally no sense to your organization.

...That you saw. The list is alphabetical; if you had read my initial post you would've seen that.

Hypothetically however, if we were talking about individual gaming CONSOLE (which you could have mentioned in the title) then it would be the PS2 hands down. It's sold the most units by a wide margin and is still in use today. The only two that might come close are the NES and the Gameboy color.

Again, please re/read my initial post, I started by using the term 'device' which I referenced as including handhelds and consoles. It's not a real definition; I made it to suit my needs of the thread. And you're talking about highest selling, which I am aware, the PS2 selling ~150 million units, is the most popular console ever, but I'm talking about significance to the gaming industry, not popularly, I could've easier just looked that up.

Surely a "gaming device" is a device which is primarily designed for gaming? PC should not appear on this list as it is certainly not a gaming device. In fact PC's are not a single item, its a catagory. Everything from the old commodores, to the Mac, to the numerous MS Windows devices are PCs, its not really specific to any device.

A gaming device is a device on which you game. End of discussion.

The PC has contributed an incredible amount to the history of gaming. To ignore one of the industry's oldest and most consistent media is ridiculous.

Ok, let's think about this. If I started playing music on a toaster, is it 'instantly' a musical instrument? My answer, is no. It was designed to make toast, it still makes toast, I just happen to be able to play music with it as well. A computer ?computes? data, you don?t put a game in, turn it on, and play the game, it does much more, and is therefore not a gaming device, but a rather, a device in which you can game, as well.

So when Mr. Wertberg says

Surely a "gaming device" is a device which is primarily designed for gaming? PC should not appear on this list as it is certainly not a gaming device.

He is correct.

PC is a valid opinion...it's all about what PC did first.. (Simpsons did it)

Should we go back to punch cards? Why not, instead, go as far back as the very beginnings or early mathematics? I'm sorry, it's not a valid option, in my poll, because it was not designed, exclusively, for, gaming - Thank you.

 

[Jazoni89]

I think it is the Playstation. It brought memory cards, popularised the use of CD's for games...

Popularised the use of disc for games?, Hardly. Their was the 3DO, Sega CD (Mega CD), Jaguar CD, Saturn, and the Amiga CD-32 that came out way before, and that's not even counting the hugely popular 1993 PC game Myst. It was that game which pioneered the use of cd's in games, and not the PlayStation.

On topic, i think the Dreamcast, for the only reason that it gave us something us console owners now take for granted, and that is online play (though in a much different guise as it is today, and it was a much less convenient).

It was also way ahead of its time. Its hard to believe that Sonic Adventure with its bright colourful clean graphics came out in 1998, when something like metal gear solid came out on the psone on the exact same year. That just boggles the mind.

Depending on how you read that, one of us has misunderstood the comment, if he means console games, not games in general, then I believe he's correct. Can you name one console that was released post the PlayStation that used cartridges? Are there any? PlayStation introduced laser discs as a 'standard', for consoles (so how I read it, the Myst comment helped popularise the CD-ROM for gaming, in general, but not for consoles). I think the earlier consoles you referred to helped kick off the idea, it certainly wasn't original to the PlayStation, but the PlayStation?s success can be clearly correlated to the death of cartridge consoles, and the era of laser disc consoles.

Interesting how you think of Dreamcast, I was tempted to list it, but ultimately, despite its internet gaming pioneering, as a failed console, meant I couldn't add it, its largest significance I think would be it was the departure of Sega from consoles.

The Dreamcast wasn't a failed console, a failed console is the Jaguar, 3DO, ect. In fact on the contrary, it had one of the biggest selling launch days of any console up to that point, and sold 10 million machines worldwide. History proves that the only reason why the Dreamcast had such a small lifespan was due to Sega's business model, and not the machine itself.

Sega spent way too much money on the Dreamcast, and that was the reason of it's demise. Sega was bankrupt, and they couldn't support the machine any long no matter what they did (they even went as far as to support Arsenal football club just to get abit of money from the sponsor).

Even if the console was much more popular than it was, the outcome would have been the same. There was no going back for Sega.

It was not a huge matter for the consumer though as within its incredibly short lifespan it played host to some of the best software in gaming, and it proves that you don't need ten years in order to have a good library of games.

 

[StormShaun]

This thread shouldnt be up here its gonna be a flame war....

But Ill still say the 360 because I like it more but still I like the PS3 for home and blu ray and exclusives but everything else on PC or xbox360.....and no im not a fanboy

 

[Jazoni89]

This thread shouldnt be up here its gonna be a flame war....

But Ill still say the 360 because I like it more but still I like the PS3 for home and blu ray and exclusives but everything else on PC or xbox360.....and no im not a fanboy

Now that sort of comment is going to start a flame war.

This is not a "which one is best" topic, its the one that is the most beneficial to gaming as a whole.

and neither of the next gen consoles fits that category.

 

[JediMB]

The NES, the PlayStation and the x86 PC were all immensely important to the growth of the video game industry, but since I have to choose one I'll go for the NES. Mostly because it was first out (1983 in Japan) and created the foundation the other two kept building on.

 

[JediMB]

Sega spent way too much money on the Dreamcast, and that was the reason of it's demise. Sega was bankrupt, and they couldn't support the machine any long no matter what they did (they even went as far as to support Arsenal football club just to get abit of money from the sponsor).

Actually, Sega spent way too much money on the Mega-CD, 32X and Saturn, which were all largely unprofitable. Also, they lost loads of money because they killed the Genesis/Mega Drive in a failed attempt to redirect sales to the Saturn.

 

[Jazoni89]

I think the Playstation, because it brought proper 3D (not "3D" 3D, I mean like polygons and stuff) to console gaming.

Where did you learn to fly?

This game came out two years before the Playstation.

Also Starfox, and all of the Super FX games on the Snes had polygons in them.

 

[Jazoni89]

Sega spent way too much money on the Dreamcast, and that was the reason of it's demise. Sega was bankrupt, and they couldn't support the machine any long no matter what they did (they even went as far as to support Arsenal football club just to get abit of money from the sponsor).

Actually, Sega spent way too much money on the Mega-CD, 32X and Saturn, which were all largely unprofitable. Also, they lost loads of money because they killed the Genesis/Mega Drive in a failed attempt to redirect sales to the Saturn.

Those were all contributing factors, but most of their funding went on the Dreamcast.

For example, the Saturn, 32x, and Mega cd didn't have no where near as much advertisement as the Dreamcast did.

 

[JediMB]

Sega spent way too much money on the Dreamcast, and that was the reason of it's demise. Sega was bankrupt, and they couldn't support the machine any long no matter what they did (they even went as far as to support Arsenal football club just to get abit of money from the sponsor).

Actually, Sega spent way too much money on the Mega-CD, 32X and Saturn, which were all largely unprofitable. Also, they lost loads of money because they killed the Genesis/Mega Drive in a failed attempt to redirect sales to the Saturn.

Those were all contributing factors, but most of their funding went on the Dreamcast.

For example, the Saturn, 32x, and Mega cd didn't have no where near as much advertisement as the Dreamcast did.

Lots of money was put into R&D and production, without actually generating any significant income. Also, I forgot about the Nomad.

And, like I said, killing the Genesis/MD prematurely made them lose at least a few years worth of software sales. That's a lot of money.

 

[Jazoni89]

Sega spent way too much money on the Dreamcast, and that was the reason of it's demise. Sega was bankrupt, and they couldn't support the machine any long no matter what they did (they even went as far as to support Arsenal football club just to get abit of money from the sponsor).

Actually, Sega spent way too much money on the Mega-CD, 32X and Saturn, which were all largely unprofitable. Also, they lost loads of money because they killed the Genesis/Mega Drive in a failed attempt to redirect sales to the Saturn.

Those were all contributing factors, but most of their funding went on the Dreamcast.

For example, the Saturn, 32x, and Mega cd didn't have no where near as much advertisement as the Dreamcast did.

Lots of money was put into R&D and production, without actually generating any significant income. Also, I forgot about the Nomad.

And, like I said, killing the Genesis/MD prematurely made them lose at least a few years worth of software sales. That's a lot of money.

Prematurely? The mega drives life span lasted several years, unlike Dreamcast which was two.

Even though the Saturn was still around Sega still pumped out quite a few games, Comix zone, The ooze, and toy story spring to mind.

The Nomad was only released in America, so that wasn't a huge dent on sega's behalf.

Like i said its all contributing factors, but no one can deny that Sega spent far too much money on the Dreamcast than they should of.

 

[JediMB]

Prematurely? The mega drives life span lasted several years, unlike Dreamcast which was two.

Even though the Saturn was still around Sega still pumped out quite a few games, Comix zone, The ooze, and toy story spring to mind.

Prematurely. As in, the Mega Drive was still generating a lot of revenue through software sales when Sega decided to pull it off the market in the hopes of giving the Saturn a much-needed boost.

Wait...

I see I misremembered things a bit. The Mega Drive was only actually pulled off the market in Japan. In the US Sega of America was forced to release the Saturn early, which meant that they had to divert resources from the production of the MD/Genesis to the Saturn, and their supply failed to meet the demand for their 16-bit hardware and software.

In the meantime, Nintendo grabbed market shares with the SNES and made quite the profit.

 

[Jordi]

You need to divide it into more than just "playstation, xbox, NES etc". Why are half the Nintendo consoles in their own category while the Sony and Microsoft ones are divided? The 360 was "significantly" more popular than the original, but they're lumped together? And why are the Wii and NES divided, but no the N64? There is literally no sense to your organization.

...That you saw. The list is alphabetical; if you had read my initial post you would've seen that.

Hypothetically however, if we were talking about individual gaming CONSOLE (which you could have mentioned in the title) then it would be the PS2 hands down. It's sold the most units by a wide margin and is still in use today. The only two that might come close are the NES and the Gameboy color.

Again, please re/read my initial post, I started by using the term 'device' which I referenced as including handhelds and consoles. It's not a real definition; I made it to suit my needs of the thread. And you're talking about highest selling, which I am aware, the PS2 selling ~150 million units, is the most popular console ever, but I'm talking about significance to the gaming industry, not popularly, I could've easier just looked that up.

Surely a "gaming device" is a device which is primarily designed for gaming? PC should not appear on this list as it is certainly not a gaming device. In fact PC's are not a single item, its a catagory. Everything from the old commodores, to the Mac, to the numerous MS Windows devices are PCs, its not really specific to any device.

A gaming device is a device on which you game. End of discussion.

The PC has contributed an incredible amount to the history of gaming. To ignore one of the industry's oldest and most consistent media is ridiculous.

Ok, let's think about this. If I started playing music on a toaster, is it 'instantly' a musical instrument? My answer, is no. It was designed to make toast, it still makes toast, I just happen to be able to play music with it as well. A computer ?computes? data, you don?t put a game in, turn it on, and play the game, it does much more, and is therefore not a gaming device, but a rather, a device in which you can game, as well.

So when Mr. Wertberg says

Surely a "gaming device" is a device which is primarily designed for gaming? PC should not appear on this list as it is certainly not a gaming device.

He is correct.

PC is a valid opinion...it's all about what PC did first.. (Simpsons did it)

Should we go back to punch cards? Why not, instead, go as far back as the very beginnings or early mathematics? I'm sorry, it's not a valid option, in my poll, because it was not designed, exclusively, for, gaming - Thank you.

But why would you want to make a thread about what device takes a very distant second place to another device (the PC), just because it can also do other stuff. A PS3 can play Blu-ray, so does that mean it's not a gaming device according to your definition? Other consoles can play DVD. Hell, even the PS1 (which is in your poll) could play music.

The reason that the PC is far and away the most significant gaming device is exactly because it can also do other things. People bought a PC for those other things and then rolled into gaming, because it could also do that. PCs basically introduced gaming to the public (that and arcades, which aren't in your poll either). And even later, I know a lot of people that were not going to spent money on a console that could do nothing but gaming. And for that very reason, they were PC gamers. Because they could do it on a device that they already had anyway.

Now, if you want to talk about which device is most worthy of standing in the PC's shadow, I think it is the Gameboy (my order would be: GB, NES, PS, Wii, XBOX). I knew many more people who owned Gameboys than any other console and it portable gaming nicely fills a niche, because you can do it while traveling or on holiday. At home, there are usually a lot of other things to do as well, but being able to use a Gameboy anywhere makes it stand out in my opinion.
I think that because of this and the arguments mentioned above for the PC that smartphones will be very significant to gaming as well.

 

[The Code]

Technically, the modern gaming machine wouldn't exist if R.O.B. hadn't been packaged and sold with so many original NES systems. They marketed it as a robot operating system that could play games then, and it took off like a shot.

OT: I don't think that there is one most significant system, but several with key innovations of their own. SEGA was leagues ahead of their time with most of their products, console or handheld. They built the Game Gear, a handheld with a full color illuminated screen long before the Game Boy Advance did. The Dreamcast had a built-in modem for online multiplayer and memory cartridges that funtioned as separate game systems. SEGA Channel was the 90's precursor to XBLA and PSN. Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3 = Sonic 3 & Knuckles. 'Nuff said.

In my opinion, there is no single most significant console. The most significant game company, however, was SEGA.

 

[imperialreign]

I think this is the best example of a few peoples comments on this. If you read my further information, this is only for 'gaming devices', a PC is in part a gaming device, so were the Atari series, Apple II, Commodore 64, the list goes on, but their primary function encompasses more than that, so I couldn't include any of these, despite the fact some were quite well known for being associated with gaming.

So this is why PC isn't a valid option. I own a gaming PC, I built it, and I built it solely with games in mind, does it do anything else? Yes, it does. Some have also mentioned, that the the 'pure' game device is rarer these days, as everything is blending into one, phones are gaming devices, gaming devices are internet browsers, soon phone will be an add-on to something with another primary task, possibly (eg. iPads ect). But I still retain that something built, with the primarily objective of gaming in mind, will remain for some time, and therefore I stand by my poll choices.

IDK - I'd have to beg to differ.

The primary "role" of a PC, as viewed by the mainstream, has changed throughout the years. Granted, you're correct in stating that it's not gaming specific . . .

. . . but, you can build a PC for just such a purpose.

Regarding my point, though - the PCs of the late 70s and early 80s were generally viewed by the public as being solely a gaming platform. The PCs of the early 90s were viewed solely as a gaming platform . . . that notion resurfaced again in the late 90s to early 2000s when 3D accelerators were hitting the market.

So - define one's definition of solely a gaming platform. A couple of the systems you listed in your poll resemble a PC from the early 2000s in form and function.

Considering that PCs have occupied the territory of solely a gaming platform numerous times in their history, I have to give my vote to that category. Considering that a PC has been behind the development of all other gaming platforms, changes in game flexibility and advancement of the gaming market, that further cements my vote.

 

[Soveru]

The PC. Without it none of this would have happened

 

[random_bars]

Probably the Xbox, considering it pioneered online gaming on consoles (as far as I know). And considering this is the basis for the best selling franchise ever... Yeah, most significant IMO.

I'm curious as to what you think is the best-selling franchise ever. Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises] list doesn't contain any online-based franchises until the 16th entry.

I guess a better way of phrasing that would've been "franchise containing the best-selling game ever", sorry. But I meant CoD.

 

[irequirefood]

Contrary to popular belief, the Psone wasn't the first console to have memory cards, that honour goes to the Neo-geo AES which was released in 1990 (a full five years before the Playstation).

Popularised the use of disc for games?, Hardly. Their was the 3DO, Sega CD (Mega CD), Jaguar CD, Saturn, and the Amiga CD-32 that came out way before, and that's not even counting the hugely popular 1993 PC game Myst. It was that game which pioneered the use of cd's in games, and not the Playstation.

Seems I need to do my research next time. Did not know about most of those. Okay, maybe it popularised it in MY home Interesting stuff about the memory cards though, honestly thought it was the Playstation.

 

[sms_117b]

It's really difficult to say, many a console has had a profound effect on the market but I'll narrow down my options and give an opinion at the end. However I will discount Pong - home edition because consoles should play more than one game.

BBC/Spectrum/Amstrad - the first multigame "consoles" for the home, cassette loaded games (the things were almost PC's with keyboards housing the electronics) with out these gaming platforms we wouldn't even have consoles, so they paved the way

Nintendo Gameboy - handheld gaming started here, what more needs to be said.

SEGA CD - oh, this lost little add-on for the Mega-drive 2 was the first thing to bring gaming to CD's, yet no-one seems to ever remember the damned thing even existed.

Playstation - The first console to popularise the CD format (beating the Dreamcast for popularity) alongside a good memory card system which seems now to have been discontinued.

Playstation 2 - A gem of a console, it plays DVD's too and later in life became the platform for casual gaming before the Wii came out or maybe paralell to it...either way this console started moving gaming away from core gamers and more to the whole family (with the DVD player and all, this is all my family had when DVD's were new)

Wii - Truley introduced the casual gaming revolution and motion controls

Most significant from my list, I'll probably side with the PS2, so Playstation on the OP's Poll