I can only assure you from one thing, the console market in Brasil expanded at least 10x after the psx. It's amazing how some people live in poverty and yet play PES in ps2. I guarantee that there are MILLIONS of ps2 in my country right now. And after ps3, much more people buys original games. The piracy is not only because of the high taxes and poverty in my country, but more because of culture. Even some rich people pirate games because "they are not dumb to pay for it". But ps3 is changing that. So i agree with some people. The rise of the market is more because Sony invested not only in US and Japan. The problem is, PS3 is fucking expensive and has no piracy. This killed a lot of "mindshare" in the world.

If nintendo or sega had done what sony did in the ps1 era we would consider it a genius move. 

I can see where Sony is coming from considering the enormous sales of the PS1, but it was already a large form of entertainment before the PS1. The NES and Atari 2600 were GINORMOUS and Gameboys were HUGANTIC. Sony didn't really legitimize it since gaming was already popular.

Sony basically did in the PS1 era what Sega did in the Genesis era... and guess who usually gets "genius" credit between them?

Oh it's PR guys.  I'd probably guess that almost everyone who has had hardware in the gaming industry would claim the same thing.  You want your PR guys to say this.  It's your old-fashioned political argument of "I was the first to say this" or "I backed it before everyone else".  Don't know why people would get angry at that.  I expect them and the others to do it.  There's a reason companies always boast how long they have been in the industry and how much total unit sales they have accomplished.  It's good PR.

As for the truth of it, can't deny that Sony really had some big systems with PS1 and PS2.  But you also can't deny that the American and Japanese markets had not only been well established but well "legitimized" as Sony would put it.  I don't think they could make a case for that.  Mario was a household name and even Sonic from Sega was very well known along with other hosts of franchises.  Not to mention PC gaming and arcade gaming was big all around both areas.  Gaming was seen as a form of entertainment and pretty mainstream.  Playstation and Sony just fed off of it like other contenders to come such as MS.  Really I don't think we see any knew expansion in these areas until Wii/DS/iPhone gen which is rather obvious now.  Hell the way people describe those systems, for better or worse, pretty much says they agree haha.

Obviously though, an argument could be made for the European and definitely the Asian markets.  I would say what they did more was establishment as they were a bigger company with more resources than Nintendo, Atari, or Sega.  As for legitimizing in the European market, it is always tough to say.  Gameboy was getting big there.  Arcade and PC gaming were both taking off.  Really, all at around the same time, due to the end of the Cold War.  And then when we move after that, PS2 and DS along with heavy push from PC gaming really marked the next era.  I guess if we wanted to say the console push, then definitely Sony, but obviously there is more to the market (especially in Europe) than console gaming.  Asian market and Oceania, I don't think there is too much contention that Sony was the big player and really helped to open it up.  Along with help from PC gaming, it really was the big factor.

So that's my take, but remember this is just PR.  Sony has been a big player in the industry and did a lot for the industry in getting more gamers to play and combining entertainment functions as they said.  But don't buy into PR by any side.  For the industry to get where it is right now, it took the works of all the major players from the start to the recent.  I'm just glad they got it here and for many people around the world as I personally like gaming.  As long as they all continue to do their part, then I'm happy.

you are as evil as your avatar looks. Evil pure evil.

Gaming didn't start out as something for just kids and many adults played Atari systems and competing systems decades ago.

You must have missed the technology part of my post. It made a difference. I know those games were available on NES and SNES, but it doesn't change the fact that the technology wasn't present to really push them and make it "cool" to play these games. Adults may have played those games but were generally seen as geeks, and in many ways the view is still present for a lot of games and gamers today even with all the marketing.

My own personal example: I know a lot of the games I was playing back then (I was 5/6 when I started) were also for adults, yet I didn't know any adults that played games. When Playstation entered the scene, I notcied a gradual increase in the number of parents, cousins, uncles etc. that started to play.

The way Sony marketed the games was highly effective in pushing the games towards the 15-30 demographic. The fact that there was a massive gap between Metal gear and MGS supports the technology argument. It was the advent of 3D (not the steroscopic kind) games and Sony managed to cash in on the new tech and push it onto new gamers and a larger market. The inclusion of FMVs and 3D cut scenes in the games Sony had on PS1 helped to reinforce the idea that games were entering a more mainstream audience with direct comparison to movies.

The general view (before PS) was more that games could be played, but were really more for kids. How many adults heavily played console games before the playstation generation? It wasn't accepted as a proper form of entertainment for adults. It was very much niche in terms of adult entertainment. With Playstation it expanded the market to include those who didn't have children.

As for Gran Turismo, can you name me another racing simulation that made it mainstream before Gran Turismo? Console games before were more arcade titles.

You guys are all forgetting the Game Boy.  How embarrassing.  The Game Boy was far more mainstream than the PS1 and it was released 5 years earlier.  The Game Boy was the system that brought gaming out of the living rooms and bedrooms of NES and PC gamers and brought it out to the rest of the world on trains, planes, buses, and school playgrounds.  And the Game Boy trounced its competition much more successfully than the PS1 did.  You'll find more fans of the N64 than you will of the Game Gear.

The most successful game on the PS1 was Gran Tursimo with 10.85 million sales.
The Game Boy had all the mainstream smash shits:
Super Mario Land 2: 11.18 million
Pokemon Yellow: 14.64 million
Super Mario Land: 18.14 million
Pokemon Gold/Silver: 23.10 million
Tetris: 30.26 million
Pokemon Red/Green/Blue: 31.37 million

Tetris was (and still is) played by men and women of all ages.  The whole world plays Tetris nowadays, and not just for free.  It's had over 100 million paid downloads on cell phones.  That blows anything on the PS1 out of the water.  Tetris alone expanded the market more than anything Sony did.

And then 2 years after the PS1 came out, Pokemon happened.  Pokemon definitely stole the PS1's thunder.  There are more movies inspired by Pokemon than movies inspired by the entire PS1 library.

I'm pretty sure at least two people mentioned that!