Did this console wars shit always exist? I never paid much attention to SRS video game discussion prior to this generation, and I still don't get the fanboy phenomenon at all
It did always exist, however from NES up to around N64 it didn't really get much attention as Nintendo had such a choke-hold on the industry in terms of sales AND quality. (Now it's just sales)
There were random Sega fanboys and a few asian people pirating PS1 games, but it was mostly noise that was ignored.
By the time the PS1 got its footing and had quality titles, there were many many deniers, and that's what really gave root to today's Nintendo fanboys. Sega didn't ever prove much of anything, other than they had blood in Mortal Kombat and blast processing.
But with 4 competitors on the market now (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and Apple), every camp has to be more vocal to make themselves distinct. And as much trash as people give the PSP, it sure as fuck made a huge god damn dent in the previously impervious handheld wall that Nintendo had built that stopped the Lynx, Game Gear, NGPC, Wonderswan, Turbo Express and god knows what else.
