Why graphics and power don’t matter

The original PlayStation did it. The PlayStation 2 did it. The Game Boy, The DS and the Wii all did it. They all proved the best graphics don’t equal the best sales or game experiences. I remember the day we got a PS2 - despite it clearly trailing in terms of graphics capability behind the Xbox and GameCube, it went on to sell 155 million units and become the best-selling game console ever. Meanwhile, the Xbox and GameCube both sold 24 and 21 million units respectively, a fraction of the PS2’s sales.

If we cast our mind back to 1989 though, the Game Boy had just been released. It was Nintendo’s first shot at a handheld that could play more than just one or two games. Nintendo used its experience from the Game & Watch to create a handheld with a monochrome screen, controls mimicking an NES controller and a cartridge slot. It went on to sell 119 million units (along with its Color variant), while its cutting edge competitors, the Game Gear, sold 11 million and the Lynx, sold less than a million units.

The key to the successes of these consoles? Games. They both offered game experiences you couldn’t find anywhere else on the planet. Games like Final Fantasy X and Shadow of the Colossus bolstered the PS2’s success, while Pokemon and Tetris did their share to make the Game Boy one of the best-selling consoles of all time.

But in today’s world, it seems as if Sony and Microsoft are focusing way too much on the console’s specs. It seems as if both the PS4 and Xbox One are trying to edge each other over whose games look better. It also seems as if they’re both changing from just a game console to an entertainment hub and in that process, they may have forgotten the key to success. Sony, despite clearly having won the sixth generation with the PS2, seems to have forgotten it with its handheld Vita. Despite boasting PS3-quality graphics, the Vita has only sold about 5-6 million units (numbers moved haven’t been disclosed since January last year, when it was 4 million), while the 3DS has sold over 42 million units. Nintendo knows that ultimately, the best game experiences win. It’s ultimately the games that have kept Nintendo afloat, to be precise, it’s their first-party studios. Without EAD, Nintendo would have been long gone, but the best games have kept the company afloat.

Anyway, what do you think? Would you rather play a mediocre game with the best graphics, or would you rather play an old-school game like Mario 64?