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Welcome to the Alternate History Wiki,

We currently have 99,036 articles and growing!

Since: 26 January 2005.

Conventions in use in this wiki • Guide to good Althist writing

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How You Can Contribute

Alternate History imagines what would happen if history had gone differently. We are a community for creating and discussing a wide range of alternate timelines: large and small, ancient and recent, realistic and fanciful. If you'd like to add to our growing multiverse, the following pages will help you get started.

First time here? See the Guide to Newcomers.
Need inspiration? Look over our List of Alternate histories, Points of Divergence, and Ideas.
Want to add to a timeline already here? Contact the author to discuss your ideas, and follow our Adoption Policy.

Before you start writing, read the Conventions of this wiki. Especially, please note:

Future history is not alt-history, so all our timelines must take place in the past.
Fan fiction is not alt-history, so timelines derived from other works of fiction are not allowed.

On This Day

7 December 1941 - American planes bombard the Confederate Naval base at Pearl Harbor. (Choose Your Own Alternate History! - Third POD, Divergence Three) -
On This Day in Alternate History

This Month's Featured Althist

Dreamcast — Possibly the hardcore gamer's favorite console of all time.

Ohga Shrugs

The PlayStation brand is an oddity in video game history. Whereas Nintendo entered the video game console market as an outgrowth of their involvement in the toys industry, and Microsoft got involved to protect their multimedia interests, Sony got involved due to a grudge.

In 1991, Nintendo and Sony had made a deal to collaborate on a CD-ROM attachment for the then-new SNES. When Nintendo embarrassed Sony by backing out of the deal without telling them first, Sony's president Norio Ohga was so outraged that he provided the funding to create a new console to compete with them.

This timeline asks the question "What if Ohga shrugged it off?"

Enter a world where video gaming is still a largely niche hobby, where Sega and Nintendo remain the dueling masters of the market, where series like Gran Turismo and Gears of War never existed, where the relatively obscure franchises like Mother have become big names, where Final Fantasy was a Nintendo exclusive for two decades.

Welcome to Ohga Shrugs.