Beuli2 said:
So, what kind of explosion are you talking about?
Market expansion.
To whoever is saying that PS2 was a bigger explosion than PS1, check the European sales:
SNES Gen: 17.23 million
PS1 N64 Saturn: 48.02 million
178% growth
PS2 GC XBox DC: 78.44 million
63% growth
The 7th gen expansion will be least apparant in the hardware numbers, unless you count handheld sales where it is very apparant. But when you consider the sales of a game like Wii Fit, it is clear that gaming had to explode into new markets just to tread water this gen. And had Nintendo not abandoned their plan of audience expansion in roughly 2008, 7th gen would crush 6th gen. That said, about 18 months before the first 8th gen home console launches, sales stand at:
PS2 GC XBox DC: 197.57 million
Wii XBox 360 PS3: 189.41 million
Not including Dreamcast, it's actually already a tie.
And the other thing to check is what kinds of games are selling. Based on the types of games that led each generation, it's clear that the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th gens had the most dramatic departures in terms of content and gameplay, which led to selling to different groups of people. 4th and 6th gens still saw what looked like healthy growth, but based on PS1's explosion into Europe and Wii's explosion into women and lapsed gamers, things weren't as healthy as they appeared.
And anyways, 2, 3, 5 and 7 are the prime numbers through 7. Listen, this is pretty much indisputable fact.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
