I think a lot of us don't understand the meaning of "competition"

[VanceIX]

Looking around the video game community today, there has been a huge surge in the people wanting all the consoles to do equally great, and not wanting any of them to fall behind, saying that it is good for competition. 

While I applaude them for their amiable position, in no ways does every manufacturer doing great lead to "competition". In fact, it leads to stagnancy on the part of all the manufacturers. Innovation is impeded, not encouraged, when every manufacturer is doing very well.

Just look at the smartphone market today. The big two, Samsung and Apple, are both doing amazingly well, each selling a comparable amount of flagship phones to consumers. This has lead to little competition between the two, as each is relatively comfortable with their position in the market, and thus see no reason for any major innovation. Apple pushes out nearly identical phones every other year, with a little bigger screen and slightly faster internals, and calls them upgrades. Samsung is starting to do the same thing with its Galaxy S line. 

Now, if one of Samsung or Apple fell behind, it would be good. Why? Because it would force them to innovate, to come up with something the consumers want. Look at HTC and Sony. Both have fallen behind in the smartphone race, so now they are trying different things, such as aluminum bodies, front-facing speakers, dust and water proof phones, etc., in order to take back some of the consumer base. 

The same applies to gaming. Having a clear winner would not be a bad thing, as it would force the other two console manufacturers to rethink their hardware and software policies, and try to innovate in a way consumers want. That way, the consumer is the end winner, as they get better hardware and software as a company tries to gain more relevance.

Now, of course, you never want a company to fall too far behind (example: Sega), but if the PS4 sold ~110 mil and the Xbone sold ~70 mil (and the Wii U sold a lot less than either), it would be beneficial for the industry, not detrimental, as it would make Microsoft and Nintendo need to improve their hardware and software in such a way that it appeals to the consumer base more than Sony.

That's why I don't think that people should be called out for supporting their favourite console. They may be fanboys, sure, but it is people like them that are the deciding factor in the state of the industry, and fuel the real "competition".

/end_rant