Why do people say the PS2 started out slow?

[johnsobas]

It's not a good comparison for what people are using it for.  PS3 has competition right away, it doesn't get the 1 year headstart (even more in Japan) that PS2 had the luxury of getting. 

PS2 sold 20 million units before gamecube and xbox even launched, all the developers naturally went to PS2.

The same situation with 360, it can afford to have a fairly slow launch because there was no competition!  PS3 cannot afford to sell at the rate that 360 did a year ago, it will be third place if that happens.

Also keep in mind that PS3 launched 6 million units behind the 360, and now it is more than 6 million units behind with Wii also widening the gap very fast.