Console war (Tyran)

The console war refers to the competition between different home video game console for market share in Tyran. The "war" mainly refers to the competition between Delkoran, Gylian, and Megelanese consoles; other participants are considered to include Akashi and Quenmin. It has had a notable impact on Tyran's console market, and several leading video game industries.

Etymology

The term is translated as guerre des consoles in French, guerra delle console in Italian, and spillekonsolkrig in Danish.

The term has been criticised for its exaggeration, and is "invariably used with ironic quotes by the actual participants", according to GameCentral. Delkoran developer Zoë Qvist commented that "it's ludicrously wrong for a situation that involves both competition and collaboration, but I suppose 'console tug of war' isn't as dramatic."

Overview

The emergence of the video game industry in Tyran led to the appearance of multiple console systems. Initially, first-party developers dominated, as console manufacturers and video game developers were combined in the same company.

Advances in console technology and the breaking of the first-party monopoly from the late 1970s saw a consolidation among the first participants of the console war: Delkora, Megelan, and Akashi. Delkora's Qualia Corporation achieved notable success during the 8-bit era with its 2600 console. Megelan's consoles grew out of its home computer industry, and the Geloso/Hi-Toro CD 8 debuted in 1982. Other video game industries generally transitioned from arcade games to the home console market.

Gylias' entry as a participant was last-minute, and prompted by a court ruling that the existence of multiple console versions of the same game constituted price gouging. Gyldiv was established in 1987 to take over the manufacture of home consoles as a monopoly, and rapidly produced the Exo. Gyldiv's disruptive transformation of Gylian video gaming closed its console market for a period, further setting it back compared to the Qualia 7800, Geloso/Hi-Toro CD 16, and Akashi's PC Engine.

The 16-bit era arrived in earnest in the 1990s. The first successful 16-bit consoles were Qualia's Neo Geo CD and Gyldiv's Ion, both released in 1990. While the Neo Geo CD was praised for its graphics, its relatively high sale price caused it to underperform commercially. The Ion redeemed Gyldiv after the Exo debacle; with its domestic monopoly assured, it began to grow a following abroad. Its open source system and user-friendly development made many foreign companies opt to program for the Ion directly instead of porting to it.

The Akashian video game industry was badly hit by the recession caused by the neoliberal conspiracy; this played a role in its reconciliation with Gyldiv, and famous games like Time Gal and the Valis series were ported to the Ion CD. Megelan inaugurated the 32-bit era with the Geloso/Hi-Toro CD 32 in 1992. While Qualia followed suit with the Qualia 64 in 1996, Gyldiv chose instead to bolster the Ion with peripherals such as the Ion CD and Satellaview. Akashi similarly saw the release of the LaserActive (1992), which relied on the popular laserdisc format, and the 32-bit PC FX (1994).

Megelan largely exited the console war after the CD 32 due to changes in strategy at Geloso and Hi-Toro; a CD 128 prototype was canceled as it was considered inferior to Delkoran and Gylian competitors. The post-64 bit era saw the release of Gyldiv's Dreamsphere and Qualia's Qube 360, both of which boasted significant online capabilities, recognising the new development trend of video games.

Characteristics

While some fans might have perceived a rivalry between the different participants, the companies were actually friendly with each other and would position themselves on the market based on each other's relative focus and characteristics:

• Gyldiv, as a domestic monopoly, was able to concentrate on user-friendliness and compatibility with personal computers, gaining a "typically Gylian" reputation for fusing stylishness and "applied avant-garde" experimentalism.
• Qualia emphasised longevity, affordability, and services; it also courted third-party developers annoyed with Gyldiv's interference in video game importation and localisation.
• Geloso/Hi-Toro largely emerged from the personal computer industry, and its consoles were based on compatibility and modularity.

In popular culture

The console war was lampooned in Gylian video games GDDD (2001) and Hyperdimension Neptunia (2010), both of which present it as a bizarre RPG-styled war with turn-based battles and parodic depictions of Gyldiv, Qualia, Geloso/Hi-Toro, and other major console developers.