Forty years of context may seem like overkill when it comes to examining the FTC’s attempt to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, but I think it is essential for multiple reasons.

Not only is this a great summary of The Console Wars (a topic I’m ashamed to say I don’t know much about), but it also made me realize that the way I’ve been thinking about it was a product of my generation.

I mostly payed attention to video games when I was a teenager, around the time of the 7th generation consoles. Here’s how Ben Thompson describes this era:

In this new world it was the consoles themselves that became modularized: consumers picked out their favorite and 3rd-party developers delivered their games on both.

This time period defined game consoles for me, and I think some part of me believed that this is the way it’s always been and always should be. But reading through the history makes it clear that this is not how it’s always been, and maybe my opinions on how the gaming market should function are simply a product of my age rather than a conclusion I arrived at rationally.

If I continue to argue that the gaming industry should be like the way it was when I was a teenager, I might as well be saying, “The way it was when I was a kid is how it always should be!” And I don’t want to be one of those people.