The more I think about it. Sony were just the first company to dominate all the territories at the same time.
In the 16 bit days, Sega gave Nintendo a damn good run for their money in the US. Did okay in Europe, but were actually 3rd in Japan to NEC's PC Engine.
The market was much smaller in the NES days, although Nintendo dominated the home console space, home computers such as the ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64/BBC Micro etc were very prevelant in some countries.
The PS1 was the first system to command a very large market share globally. They repeated this with the PS2. The PS3 however faltered in the US and some parts of Europe (particularly the UK) and has been dethroned in those places by the 360 which is why it's sales will never match the PS2.
It'll be interesting to see if they can return to global domination. I suspect MS have managed to chew off a large enough chunk of market share now that the "blip" of the PS1/PS2 success is over and we'll go back to much more segregated markets again.
I leave Nintendo out from PS3/PS4 cycles because I don't view them as direct competition. I'll always have a Nintendo console next to my other console just for the magic Nintendo churns out. That generally seems to be the case for most gamers.
RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.
