Your three friends come to your house for a sleepover and you and your friends decide to play some video games. You have a Nintendo Switch and a PlayStation. And on both devices, you have Sonic games. One of your friends says 

     he wants to play on your Switch, another one says PlayStation is the better 

     Console since it has better games, and finally, your third friend says he doesn’t care which console they play on, as long as they play a Sega game like Sonic. This eventually turns into a yelling match when you realize you have to settle this debate once and for all. To determine the best gaming company, the method of grading these companies will be three categories: quality (how entertaining the games are), cost (how reasonable prices are to buy a game or console), and the number of games made (how many games the company has released to the public). 

 Nintendo

     For Nintendo, let’s start with the number of games released. According to the official Nintendo Wiki, “Nintendo has released a total of 716 to the public since its first video game came out in 1983” (Nintendo Wiki). The next category is cost, which is determined based on how reasonably priced games are, scored on a scale of 1-3 (1 being unfair and unreasonable, and 3 being fair and reasonable). According to Gemma Cockrell, a writer, “I can only afford to own a few games because the price never seems to decrease . . . Nintendo can do whatever they want, and they get away with it” (Gemma Cockrell). This means that Nintendo has unreasonable prices, and can get away with it because people will still buy them, so Nintendo gets a 1 for cost. The next category, quality determines how good the games are that they make, will also be graded on a 1-3 scale. One of Nintendo’s most popular games, Mario Cart 8 Deluxe, has many popular reviews like, “This is by far my favorite video game on the Switch and after the 2.0 update, it’s an amazing piece of art” (Cater James). Another positive review is, “I love it and can’t stop playing it. Most complaints I’ve seen are because of ignorance or quick judgment” (Brett Benjamin). Many other positive reviews just keep going. To look to another popular Nintendo game, Mario Oddassy has some other positive reviews like, “Super Mario Odyssey aka one of the best 3D Mario games to ever release!” (Super Gamer Chase). Or, “Super Mario Odyssey is an absolute gem. It’s my 2nd favorite Mario game of all time” (Hari Kohli). Anyways, according to thousands of reviews, Nintendo gets a 3 for the Quality category. Nintendo ends up with 716 games, a 1 for cost, and a 3 for quality.

 Sega

     Next we’ll rate Sega first with the number of games released. Sega has released a total of 878 games, starting back in 1966. So with a whopping 878 games, we go on to Sega’s next category, cost. The newest Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers, is free to play on your mobile device or PC, so on a scale of 1-3, Sega gets a 3 for cost. Now, to one of the most important categories, quality. So, looking at two different Sega games from now, and from the past. First, let’s look at the one from the past, the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Some positive reviews like, “To be completely honest, I did enjoy this game”(Petepems). There are also some less positive reviews, “The game has lots of glitches and bugs; many gimmicks are buggy, it’s easy to glitch through walls, sometimes the character model can disappear, etc”(Samuel Shawel). Now, let’s look at the newest Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers. Again it has some favorable reviews like, “Sonic Frontiers is one of a kind of game. It feels nice to have a really fun platforming game with a serious story”(Alex Szubka). And again some negative reviews like, “The physics are garbage compared to both 2d and 3d previous sonic games”(ReadyRainFire). So looking at both games from different periods, there were both an equal amount of negative and positive reviews, Sega gets a 2 out of 3 for quality. Sega leaves off with 878 games, a 3 for cost, and a 2 for quality.

Sony

     Last, we will consider Sony. Sony has only released 286 games since its first game back in 1995 with The Raiden Project. Moving along to our next category, cost, one of Sony’s most popular game, God of War, is only $9.99, and considering this is a popular game, they could charge as much as they want and people would still buy it, so the fact that it’s still decently priced is very good for Sony’s score on cost. Sony will get a 3 out of 3 for cost. In the final category, quality, one of Sony’s most popular games is Gran Turismo 7.  Some reviews are positive and shed the game in a positive light, like this one “The best in the series this is a complete Gran Turismo, and have played them all”(Tropical 868). But there have also been some negative reviews that shed light on this game in a negative way, like, “A massive disappointment 😞…the visuals are not up to scratch for a 2022 Sim racer, bland and forgetful”(Trevor Walker). Another one says how that all the microtransactions in the game. “What could have been an incredible driving/racing/car collection game has been ruined by corpo greed microtransactions and a lack of meaningful content”(Mitch Keane). So looking back at the reviews, Sony gets a 1 out of 3 for the quality of games, making Sony’s final score 286 games, a 3 for cost, and a 1 for quality.

Conclusion 

     To wrap everything up, the final scores for all three companies are in, Sony comes in last place for quality with one point as well as the least amount of games, despite begin cost-effective. Next up is, Nintendo with again one point for cost but beats Sony in the number of games released as well as the quality in games. And our grand winner is Sega, with two points for quality and three points for cost accessibility and a whopping nearly 900 games! Well, now if you are ever at a sleepover and you get into an argument over which companies are the best, now you know that Sega is the best! Do you agree? Which gaming system is your personal favorite? 

Work Cited

“List of Nintendo games.” Nintendo | Fandom, https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_games. Accessed 15 March 2023.