Old gamers love to brag about how Nintendo saved the game industry in the 80s... exclusively in the USA for a small niche. Even without its participation Personal Computer and Arcade gaming were strong everybody else. Just because you had a NES or a SNES in your childhood, it doesn't mean there were not other forms for playing games on many other popular platforms (especially in Europe). IBM PC compatible included. If I were to thank Nintendo for anything it would be their backstabbing and abusive control that made Sony (and later Microsoft) enter to consoles.