By RedWordSmith

With the release of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray not that far away, there’s been a lot of talk about who will win this “format war.” The topic is especially of interest to fans of Japanese animation.
However, while many people have been comparing the rivalry of these two formats to the Betamax and VHS debacle, I am more reminded of the 16-bit era of video game systems in the U.S.
For those not familar with what was going in the video game industry in the early in 1990s, Atari’s groundbreaking system, the 2600, was all but forgotten, and games finally became generally unavailable by retail in the late 80s. The dominant system throughout the late 80s was the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. This gradually began to change when SEGA released its Genesis system in the U.S.. Although Nintendo was unable to respond immediately due to fear of canabalizng its NES market, eventually they responded with the Super-NES system; both the Genesis and SNES were known and advertised as 16-bit systems.
The rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo was intense, to say the least. Both vigorously attacked the policies, technical specifications, and games of the other. Throughout this period of time, everyone who was watching wondered who would win the “16-bit war” and become the new dominate company in the video game industry. Both companies, I’m sure, thought that this was the prize they were fighting for – complete control of the video game console market.
Except, of course, that no one won. The 16-bit era ended without a clear leader. SEGA’s fortunes eventually turned, with its later consoles failing to generate significant interest beyond a small but dedicated cult of Dreamcast fans. SEGA later bowed out of the console market and now focuses directly on games. Nintendo did only slightly better; although they’re still around (and the dominant firm in the handheld market), their home consoles haven’t had anywhere near the success of the NES or SNES; the Gamecube has been greatly margalized by Sony’s and Microsoft’s consoles. Where once it was thought that a monopoly was inevitable, there are now three firms with a strong presence.
It’s simply my belief that the world can support more media formats now. How may different audio formats are there? MP3 is still going strong, Microsoft’s WMA format is widely supported, Real hasn’t died, OGG has three major varients, of which FLAC and VORBIS are quite popular among the technically inclined, and Apple’s iTunes has ensured that AAC is not going anywhere soon. In terms of operating systems, multiple versions of Windows will appear in its next major release, Linux is stronger than ever, and a renewed Apple MacOS is hip once again.
I’m not saying that both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will have success. Only that such a situation – with neither format dominating the other, is a very real possibility over the lifespan of these formats.

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