HappySqurriel said:
I would actually argue that brand loyalty helped both the N64 and PS3 substantially ... The N64 sold 66% as many units as the SNES and was the best selling console that wasn't the market leader until this generation; and the PS3 may be on tract to being the second place console, and best selling second place console to date. With both these systems it is highly likely that they would have been market failures within their first couple of years had they not had the massive established userbase from their previous generation system. You're trying to look at brand loyalty as a "magic bullet" that guarantees a "win", when what I'm saying that it is an advantage that helps a system sell better than it would have otherwise. Product loyalty, vendor lock-in through backwards compatibility, and being first to market are not the most important factors in what systems people choose to buy but do have an impact; especially when there is little difference between the systems otherwise. |
I most certainly do not think of brand loyalty that way; rather, you seem to be framing it that way, even in the first paragraph. I'd sooner attribute the growth of the N64 and the PS3 - well, growth of the PS3, and then whatever sales the N64 managed to get - to their libraries. Brand loyalty might have something to do with it, certainly, but framing it as a major contributing factor feels disingenuous.
