You are putting too much weight to the hype, i think that the psx made the ps2 as a obvious selecion for many people, the price was still accesible and it had great games coming, the dreamcast didnt had much to offer from the beginning and the GC only had Nintendo for most of it
Compared to this generation, the PS3 was way too expensive for the ps2 users to make the change, im not sure about the xbox though i dont i find it to be that good aside from the online service, the ps3 has bluray and incredible graphics, the wii has the controller and a huge nintendo on its back
Nintendo is the best videogames company ever!








