Even in the 90s, Nintendo was trying to shut down the console wars: "We ought to appreciate what PlayStation has achieved"

The console wars are a tale as old as time—or at least as old as the point when games consoles from multiple companies came onto the market. Whether Sega claimed to do what Nintendon't or actual customers determined to justify why their console of choice was objectively the best, this war continues to rage on to this day. However, even as far back as the 90s, it wasn't an ideology that Nintendo wanted to promote.

In a 1997 Dengeki Nintendo 64 magazine interview with Nintendo's former general manager of Nintendo R&D3, Genyo Takeda, which has been shared by Time Extension along with an English translation, Takeda said that he didn't think "we should adopt a narrow view like 'Nintendo vs. [Sony Computer Entertainment].'"

During the interview, Takeda was asked what he thought about PlayStation's success, to which he said: "I can’t deny the fact that the PlayStation is selling well around the world." He notes that Sony's approach was different from Nintendo's and says that Nintendo was aiming for quality over quantity while PlayStation had a wide variety of developers produce "an abundance of software." However, this approach "seems to be working for them," he adds.

"I’m honestly curious to see how it will play out," he continues. "Plus, that approach has led to unconventional games like PaRappa the Rapper. Considering all of that, I think we ought to appreciate what PlayStation has achieved."

Now, it's almost 27 years since that interview was published, but it's still fair to say that Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo have all achieved plenty worth celebrating. Of course, there are still debates amongst fans that lean into the whole console war idea, generally when it comes to arguing which of the big three companies has the best exclusive games. That's what makes Xbox's recent decision to release some of its former exclusives, such as Pentiment and Grounded, on rival platforms so surprising. So far, only four former Xbox games are confirmed to be going multi-platform, but we'll have to wait and see if this is expanded upon further in the future. 

Check out our recommendations for the best Nintendo Switch games for more great titles to play.