@Hus: Genesis only outsold the SNES in Europe which was a far more fractured and undeveloped video game market back then.
Winning early in Japan is still important though not as much as it was from 1985-1995 when it could decide a console race almost alone. Even so many major game developers are in Japan and they tend to favor the system that wins their home market. It is possible to totally lose in Japan as the Genesis and Xbox largely did and survive but neither were terribly successful worldwide.
If nothing else Japan is market that supports about 5 million console sales a year, doesn't help to lose them. Sony and MS fanboys can come up with whatever excuses or hopes they want, but this is just another example that according to what we've seen so far and historical experience the Wii is heavily favored to win this console race by a large margin.
