There is:
1) marketshare
2) profit
3) game library
Profit in my opinion is the biggest factor. Maybe not so much for us gamers, but no profit means death.
Getting a high marketshare without profits is only winning if you get the money back on games and royalties or you have other king of product to back you up. Kinda like Sony with the BR. Let`s say they lose so much money that they close their gaming division. Suppose that even without their gaming division that BR makes their way to most houses and Sony wins the format war getting back their money. Is this example the marletshare approach is a good one, but the long term objective is profit. Getting the biggest marketshare along with big profits is the ideal situation that every company seeks (too obvious).
Game library is a tough one. Taste on gaming is really subjective. I hate Halo, one of the best selling games ever. I love Chrono Trigger, the game sold 2 million, its sequel was shit and now the franchise is dead. What I am trying to say is that a good game library is always great for gamers but do not means profit to companies. Dreamcast is said to own a great and unique library. Gamecube IMO have some of the best last generation games. Even if a system has a great library (for their users) it may not survive in the long term without profits.
Satan said:
"You are for ever angry, all you care about is intelligence, but I repeat again that I would give away all this superstellar life, all the ranks and honours, simply to be transformed into the soul of a merchant's wife weighing eighteen stone and set candles at God's shrine."
