Could the SNES have been more successful during the 80’s?

As many people know the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is over 30 years old and is considered to be a legendary game console throughout the world. The SNES console was initially released in Japan during the Summer of 1990. The SNES console did not make it to America until August ’91 where it would remain in retail throughout the 90’s decade. Since its initial release the SNES had reported sold over 49 million units worldwide before it was ultimately discontinued from international retailers in 2003. Despite, achieving more sales related success than its successors N64 and GameCube the SNES still managed to fall short to its predecessor the NES. The Nintendo Entertainment System was released back in mid ’83 and since then it managed to reach over 61 million units in sales. While NES was considered the number one home console throughout most of the 80’s it also remained in retail longer than its successors. In America the NES console was not discontinued until ’95 and it also remained within Japanese retailers until 2003. If the SNES were released in the early 80’s its quite possible that it would have sold far more than it did. The 16-bit SNES had more superior gameplay & graphics than the 8-bit NES; the SNES also had distinctive features such as Mode 7 that made it stand out from other game systems within the late 80’s-early 90’s time period.

If the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in ’83 and remained in retail until ’03 it could have possibly sold as much as the Wii console from 2006. In terms of competition Nintendo did not have any major threats until Sega released the Mega Drive console in 1988. In fact, if the SNES were initially released in ’83 Sega would probably attempt to release something more advanced to compete with Nintendo’s 16-but console. If Sega had released the their ’94 Saturn console during ’88 the console most likely would have been more successful than it was during the mid 90’s. If the Sega Saturn were released in ’88 it could have possibly have forced Sony to put out something more advanced in ’94; possibly in the form of a 64 or 128 bit console. If the SNES were released in the 80’s it most likely would of had an interesting ripple effect on the gaming industry to say the least.

Also, there were countless memorable high profile legendary cult classics that appeared on the SNES that could been bigger attractions during the 80’s more so than the 90’s. The SNES gave us various iconic titles such as: Secret Of Mana, Star Fox, Earthbound, MegaMan X, Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG, Zelda: Link To The Past, Super Metroid and more. If majority of the SNES games from the 90’s were released in the mid 80’s they could have been far more successful; especially since Sony did not enter the console wars until 1994. The SNES could have definitely thrived in 80’s even more so than the 90’s since there was hardly any competition that posed a serious threat to Nintendo back then.