Gotcha, thanks for the history lesson. I had no idea. And good pivot by them, they've done well. Could've just been obselete and left behind, but they evolved.
It's an interesting study for tech investment, watching the 80's. Companies that you thought were done, and the bubble had burst, retooled, had some new ideas and came back strong. It's a good way to speculate on companies that are struggling now and stocks are down. A company that might be primed to switch from hardware to software. Or a company that's working on their own console to try to enter the wars themselves...like did you know Atari recently came out with a new console that is a hybrid console/PC?
Back before the 360/PS3 generation you could see the next big shift in gaming was going to be to digital, and games on demand. Lower manufacturing costs, and production costs cause you don't need to create physical games or disc drives. It's half way through that development now, like you can see with the cheaper options in this generation.
But after this where does it go? People said VR, but I think that's a little more of a gimmick like the power glove than a real option. Things are on the fence now, what's better? More realism, or just acknowledge it's a video game but make it fun and play well?
Nintendo has stayed in their own little world, but keep carving out their own market. To the point they OWN the handheld market now. Just shows that you don't have to compete head to head to hang tough, just do what you do well.