Shadow1980 said:
You ain't kidding. It improved massively in the U.S. once FFVII was released:
That was Wii U-level sales prior to its first price cut, and GameCube levels after that, then September 1997 comes along and *BOOM!*, the thing takes off like a rocket and precedes to flatten the N64, which was outpacing it in the year prior and was at the time the fastest-selling home console ever in the U.S. (and to date only the PS4, XBO, and PS2 had better sales in their first 12 months than the N64 did).
Yeah, the PS2 had a really slow start. The 360, PS3, and Wii had similar stock issues affecting them, as they all had worse launches than their predecessors. That's why launch sales are almost never indicative of future performance. Compare that graph I posted above to this one:
Looks a lot different, doesn't it? And the final lifetime tallies all look different as well. The 360 eventually passed the Wii in the U.S. to become the #2 best-selling home console ever in the U.S. The PS1 and PS3 improved their rankings as well. The N64 dropped down to #7, and the GC and Xbox dropped as well. |
Yup, Nintendo totally would've won the 32-bit/64-bit wars if they had been smart and compromised on letting the N64 support both cartridge and CDs. Playstation was a paper tiger until it got FF7, whereas the N64 roared out of the gates.
You can see what a beast the N64 was for its time, really held back by a lack of software. Not even killer app software, it had those, it just needing supporting software to fill in the blanks, that just irks me to this day, Nintendo snatched defeat from the jaws of victory somehow.
PS2 launched supply constrained but also launched on Oct. 26th (IIRC) so it didn't have many days to sell either.
