In every console generation, there's always one market leader that steals away from the rest and makes them go out of business. In this generation, it is the Wii.. but there's a difference. There is an actual competition this time and they aren't too far away, and they aren't giving up any time soon.
-1: Atari had it's reign of dominance in the old days which pretty much dwarfed all the countless clone machines that spawned. It sold 30 million, and the closest rival clocked in at 3 million
-2: The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) pretty much handed the Sega Master System it's ass on a silver platter. Nintendo outsold Sega by 60 million to 13 million.
-3: The SNES (Super NES) also dominated the competition, although Sega put up more of a fight in this generation (which made it a pretty exciting gen too, but not so much). SNES outsold the Mega Drive by 49 million to 29 million (close race, but Sega's countless addons to the MD were all failures and they had to launch really early which led to the demise of the Saturn, all the while the SNES sold millions of software)
-4: The Playstation (1) totally destroyed everyone in the race, which included the N64 and the Saturn. PS1 sold 102 million compared to 32 million by the N64 and 17 million by the Saturn.
-5: The Playstation 2 was (is) the largest success of any console thus far, making both Microsoft and Nintendo rethink their strategy for the next generation. So far, PS2 has sold in the region of 140-160 million, compared to Xbox's 24 million and Gamecube's 21 million.
Which brings us into this generation, where there is an actual competition involved and though we can already tell who is the winner, there is going to be stiff infighting that will continue to burn until the end, compared to the previous generations wherein the leader was so bloody far ahead of its competition, which caused the other companies to give up and discontinue their systems.
This gen has two competitors that have the money and resources to stand and fight against the Wii's dominance and stay in the mix even possibly longer than the market leader. To me, this is the most exciting sales battle of all because of this uncertainty. Competition is always good, as it brings out the best in every industry. It's a great time to be a gamer!
