"Nintendo" vs. "Playstation" as a synonym for videogames

M

mumu

Member
Well i guess we all know how older folks used to call everything that looked like a videogame a Nintendo. And i actually thought that in the meanwhile most people are associating the Playstation name with videogames now rather than Nintendo.

Until i saw Larry King Live and some mother of a kid kept telling how much his kid likes to play the "Nintendo". So how much would you say is the "Nintendo" still being used compared to the "Playstation"? 30% vs 70%?

Where does the XBOX figure into all of this? Could it become the next "Nintendo" or "Playstation"?
 
The PlayStation sold 100 million units between 1994 and 2004... It has created a new generation of video game players. The Nintendo Entertainment System sold about 60 million units and came out in 1985. Wait until 2014 and see if anyone even utters the name nintendo or if a new company will be holding the reigns of the video game industry.
 
PlayStation wins easily nowadays.

Xbox is popular, but it's not synonymous with videogames.

Nintendo's names sucks nowadays. 95% of the time, I hear people call them "PlayStations." And then a few might call it an "Xbox." I really never hear anybody say "Nintendos," anymore. Hell, I've heard "Ataris" more than that.
 
I do still hear Nintendo occasionally. Surprisingly, it isn't always older people, either. Of course, the majority is definitely Playstation by far.

I've actually never heard someone call it Xbox unless they really did have an Xbox.
 
Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation...yeah, I could see Xbox becoming a synonym for games in general. It's catchier to say "Xbox" than "Playstation". Well, I know a lot of guys who call it the "pee two"(P2) to make up for that.
 
I'm just going to say that I've never heard anyone say "Lets play Sony" or "Lets play Playstation"

Doesn't many jack shit of course since no respecting person would say something that retarted.

In the 80's, everyone was a fucking dork. No one cared about their image.
 
Mashing said:
I'm just going to say that I've never heard anyone say "Lets play Sony" or "Lets play Playstation"

Doesn't many jack shit of course since no respecting person would say something that retarted.

In the 80's, everyone was a fucking dork. No one cared about their image.
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What are you talking about? The only other way to refer to it is "Let's go play videogames!" which sounds a hell of a lot dorkier than "Playstation".
 
It's funny (and I find it annoying) but many people (including store employees) call PS2 "the Sony 2" around here.

Boy: What system is this game for?

Employee: The Sony 2
 
Eh, I still think "Xbox" is still an embarrisingly American "we want to sound bad-ass, let's add an X to the beginning of everything" name.
 
I bet you'll find this hilarious then.

I overheard this phone conversation when i was at a blockbuster.

This person didn't know what a PlayStation 2 was. they wanted to know if they had Jak for the PlayStation or something, and when the girl said that its for the ps2, the person on the phone pretty much went nuts asking what the ps2 was. It turns out that the person they were buying games for had a ps2 after all.
 
Mashing said:
I'm just going to say that I've never heard anyone say "Lets play Sony" or "Lets play Playstation"

Doesn't many jack shit of course since no respecting person would say something that retarted.

In the 80's, everyone was a fucking dork. No one cared about their image.
Click to expand...

I've never heard that either, but I've worked in retail, and I've heard people ask do you have "nintendo" or do you have "playstation" when refering to next generation systems and games.
 
SEGA isn't one :lol
Nintendo and Playstation are the only ones I've really seen used one a wide scale.


SEGA :lol
Never has it been.
 
It's sad when I go to a store and the person working in the gaming/toy department calls it the Nintendo Gamebox. What happened to my beloved company? :(

Old Atari-Era games still control the market for sound effects that are meant to be "videogame" sounds.
 
SEGA isn't one
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No? Ever watch Mallrats? "SegaBoy".

How about "Jump Around" by House of Pain?

"Try'n to play me out like as if my name was Sega"

My grandma used to call it "endtendo". Her words are starting to feelingy dangerously prophetic.
 
Forgotten Ancient said:
No? Ever watch Mallrats? "SegaBoy".

How about "Jump Around" by House of Pain?

"Try'n to play me out like as if my name was Sega"

My grandma used to call it "endtendo". Her words are starting to feelingy dangerously prophetic.
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I think the kid from Austin Powers referred to his game as his "Sega", too.
 
I hear PlayStation theses days more than any other. I still know some older folks that refer to everything relating to video games as Nintendo. But it's not as frequent as it used to be. I also hear Gameboy used a lot as a catch all phrase. One thing that used to drive me nuts is when older people would call game cartridges "tapes".
 
My dumbass CG professor was talking about how the graphics on the Nintendo PlayStation were as good as pre-rendered stuff of a decade or so ago.
 
"Playstation" is easily the most common synonym for videogames, especially on MTV. I hear "Nintendo" occationally, but the Game Boy name will never die. I've heard more people call the NDS a game boy than by its actual title, even people who own the system. I'm sure the PSP will be called the sony game boy by a large chunk of the gaming population.
 
um..I'm not sure although I think most of the generic, uninformed mentioning of it in other cultural forms is playstation.

Or Gameboy. "The kids brought their GameBoy with them." is incredibly common (and..um correct I guess). No one calls the DS the DS either...the new GameBoy is all they ask for. I wish Nintendoods had caught on.
 
People said Sega instead of Genesis a lot not instead of games in general Atari, Nintendo, and Playstation have all become, at one point, synonomous with games.
 
"Xbox" was used on an episode of Will & Grace, but that was only so it could be used in a joke based on a sexual double entendre.
 
Revolver said:
I hear PlayStation theses days more than any other. I still know some older folks that refer to everything relating to video games as Nintendo. But it's not as frequent as it used to be. I also hear Gameboy used a lot as a catch all phrase. One thing that used to drive me nuts is when older people would call game cartridges "tapes".
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How about when people call game CDs/DVDs "cartridges?" Or call controllers "remotes?" :)
 
The "Sega" thing became popular because in the early/mid-1990s you couldn't watch TV for more than 30 minutes before hearing the "say it .... say it ... SEGA!" slogan. It was probably one of more popular brand campaigns, behind say Nike (Just Do It) and Pepsi (You Got the Right One, Baby).

Most people back then just referred to the Genesis as "Sega".

It's unbelievable that Sega managed to f-ck up that kind of brand power in like 2 or 3 years.
 
I think Nintendo was a lot more ingrained into parents heads for a longer time due to Pokemon being a revival for the company in the late 90s.

My dad's called my systems everything. He's called my N64 a Sega. Called the DC a Nintendo. Called the PS2 an Xbox, and called the Gamecube a Playstation.

And Xbox is catching on, too. At least from what I've seen.
 
You know one funny thing is a lot of people don't know that Nintendo makes Pokemon.

Maybe because its such a huge franchise that encompasses more than just video games (movies, cards, television, merchandising, etc.).
 
i don't think i've ever heard consoles generally referred to as "playstations." but younger people probably do use it that way. my parents still say "nintendo" to mean "video games."
 
Xbox was used in an episode of Simpsons to, lets not forget. the one where Ned dates the actress and she complains about younger Hollywood guys being too cuaght up in their Xbox's! :lol
 
:lol @ SEGA I never heard that used on TV, Movies, or Music.

Oh wait... well only "Juicy" by NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

Uh...and if you don't know, now you know, nigga

Verse Three:

Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis
When I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this
50 inch screen, money green leather sofa
Got two rides, a limousine with a chauffeur
Phone bill about two G's flat
 
sega was huge in the 90's. People like Oli were just too damn young to know such things. Sega in the early to mid ninties was just as popular if not more so than nintendo at the time. They each shared about 50% of the market in the US. Shit even in the late 90's in the movie "She's all that" they refer to playing sega.
 
Everything is "discs" to my mom... When she notices that I bought a new DVD, game, console, controller, or pretty-much-anything-she-doesn't-recognize she'll say something like "Don't you have enough discs already?"

:lol
 
"I'll play you like if your name was SEGA!"

The norms in retail 'round here say "you sony." My mom used to call it "Nintendo." Every other person I know, knows about the Xbox and PS2, even people that don't play games.
 
Xbox was referenced in a few episodes of Angel. For instance I remember Spike playing Crash Bandicoot on his Xbox.

Parallax Scroll said:
How about when people call game CDs/DVDs "cartridges?"
Click to expand...

Yeah that works my last nerve too. I don't hear it as much anymore, but sometimes it still pops up. I heard it used on the local news not too long ago when they were talking about what "game cartridges" are hot for Christmas. Speaking of the media, I absolutely hate it that the mainstream press still assumes ALL gamers are little kids.
 
There's always been TV references to certain consoles. Even the GameCube gets some love in this regard (it was on Smallville and also referenced in the movie "Garden State").

The most blatant and obvious thing I can think of was an episode of Friends though, I think it went like this ...

Monica: She's giving him the greatest gift a woman can give to a man ...

Chandler: She bought him a Sony Playstation?

Audience laughter


In the early 1990s though it was all Sega. Look at movies or TV from that period (Adam Sandler movies or the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Sega is referenced directly.
 
Galian Beast said:
The PlayStation sold 100 million units between 1994 and 2004... It has created a new generation of video game players. The Nintendo Entertainment System sold about 60 million units and came out in 1985. Wait until 2014 and see if anyone even utters the name nintendo or if a new company will be holding the reigns of the video game industry.
Click to expand...
Quick correction, but NES/Famicom sold about 70 million actually, with a good 40 million in the US alone. It's actually the most popular console ever here or Japan iirc (it has yet to be unseated by PS1, though PS2 should do it in the next 2 years). Sony's worldwide lead is thanks pretty much to the huge gains they made in PAL regions, they haven't really surpassed Nintendo's 8bit landmarks in any other territory.
 
I remember one time hanging out with my cousin and we were told to go upstairs to eat. We must've said something like "yeah, be there in 5 min" and never came up since my uncle came down and said "if you guys dont come up no more Nintendo"....*blank stares*...*no movement*...

I love taking advantage of adults when they can't properly punish as they would like to.
 
Both are about equal. Just last week I was watching my Buffy DVDs and both Sony and Nintendo are mentioned. The mayor bought Faith a PlayStation,while Buffy asked her boyfriend why he was playing Donkey Kong while he was tracking a demon with a handheld device.
 
btrboyev said:
sega was huge in the 90's. People like Oli were just too damn young to know such things. Sega in the early to mid ninties was just as popular if not more so than nintendo at the time. They each shared about 50% of the market in the US. Shit even in the late 90's in the movie "She's all that" they refer to playing sega.
Click to expand...

I recall just fine.
SEGA may have been mentioned in movies and songs, but it was never synonymous with video games. The NES made it so that when you said "I'm going to go play Nintendo", it meant "I'm going to go play video games". You could have been playing Berserk on the Atari and you would have said, "I'm going to go play Nintendo".
 
"Playing Nintendo" meant playing videogames in general or specifically playing NES, SNES, N64, even Gameboy in some cases. Nowadays, people saying "playing Gamecube" or "playing Gameboy" when talking about the Gamecube and Gameboy Advance.

I don't think "playing Playstation" ever really meant playing videogames in general; just playing games on the original PSX and PS2. PSX I'm sure was heralded as the new Nintendo by many, but the Gamecube was never really "the new Playstation". "Playing Playstation" will of course extend to PSP, which will probably end up being mistakenly called a Gameboy by many (just like the DS, but that one is a little more acceptable).

I think more people have a made-up name for playing videogames now. Playing GameBox, or requesting X-station games.
 
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