List of Changes from Our Timeline (Ohga Shrugs)

The following is a list of differences between the Ohga Shrugs timeline and out timeline. Not that this list may be incomplete.

Main Changes

 * Sega remains a major player in the Video Games Console industry
 * Microsoft and Sony never enter the console industry
 * With the very minor exception of the Neo Geo family of handhelds, Nintendo virtually owns the handheld gaming industry with their Game Boy series of portables.
 * In general, recent consoles have been weaker and cheaper than in our timeline.
 * Censorship and regulation of games is more common, particularly for digitally distributed games.
 * The industry in general is notably smaller.

Hardware

 * In absence of the PlayStation family, the Saturn, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and GameCube are much more successful.
 * The Dreamcast is released in 2000, with more RAM than in our timeline.
 * The Game Boy series continues after the Advance, with the moderately powerful Nitro in 2006 and the suspiciously familiar Game Boy 3DS in 2012.
 * The seventh generation consoles, the Sega Pluto and the Nintendo Revolution, are more about half as powerful as our timeline's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. However, this still makes them much more powerful than the Wii.
 * Motion controls never leave the mark that they do in our timeline.

Companies

 * Activision has acquired Eidos as of 2009
 * Bandai acquired Taito in late 2005.
 * Visual Concepts remains a part of Sega, as does Camelot.
 * Square Enix is never formed, remaining as two separate companies called Square and Enix.
 * Level-5 is essentially Enix's main developing arm, albeit with an unusual degree of independence.
 * Hudson Soft is bought out by Nintendo in 2005.
 * Konami is somewhat smaller than in our timeline, thanks to less income from soccer and Metal Gear games.
 * Midway files for bankruptcy a year later, and the distribution of their properties is somewhat different.
 * Sammy goes on to acquire Namco rather than Sega.
 * Ready at Dawn becomes known for their Spyro reboot for the Game Boy Nitro
 * THQ remains intact, thanks to better crisis management and a successful reboot of the Mortal Kombat series.
 * Universal is a major publisher, thanks to their early support of the Crash and Spyro series.

Games and Series

 * Earlier Assassin's Creed games take place within a single city and the surrounding countryside, as opposed to a number of metropolises.
 * The Sonic series contains several more acclaimed sports games, particularly for Golf and Tennis. Handheld iterations of the series are rarer, and reserved for the Neo Geo series of handhelds.
 * Monster Hunter and Guitar Hero become popular at later dates, due to limits in technology at their inceptions.
 * Mother has its third installment on the Nintendo 64 thanks to help from Fumito Ueda.
 * Fumito Ueda goes on to create Ico nearly a decade later than in real life, as a Nintendo first party game.
 * Various games cancelled in real life, like Donkey Kong Racing and Kirby Story, see the light of day in Ohga Shrugs.
 * Dragon Quest has always been a Nintendo exclusive. Final Fantasy was also up until the thirteenth installment, which went multiplatform.
 * Final Fantasy, rather than including two MMO's, has two more traditional console RPG's. These have an emphasis on gameplay over story, as does the rest of the Final Fantasy franchise compared to our timeline.
 * Ice Climber receives a series reboot in 2010.
 * Mario Sports games are surprisingly rare.
 * A series of Sega crossover fighting games called Sega Superstars Smackdown has had three iterations so far, made by the team behind Power Stone.
 * Star Fox has only had three games, including 2005's Dark Phoenix from Capcom.
 * The Touhou series has a long history of appearing on consoles, particularly Sega consoles.

People

 * Gunpei Yokoi works for Nintendo until 2006, and continues to live to this day.
 * Hironobu Sakaguchi continues to work for Square as an executive producer.
 * Tetsuya Takahashi left Square to make the long-running Xeno series with Bandai.

Other

 * Both the Nintendo eShop and SegaNet have typically updated on Thursdays since 2006.
 * The ESRB is also applied to most digitally distributed games, limiting their growth.
 * Various games are released on different dates, either sooner or later.
 * Many animated shows based on video games exist, including Star Fox Adventures and Metal Gear Solid: Special Ops
 * A charity known as "Extra Life" was founded in 2005 by members of The Behemoth, and continues to be a major success to this day.