Is PS4 the first console to sell like this without a fad?

[DivinePaladin]

thismeintiel said:

DivinePaladin said:
The whole PS2 succeeding because of the DVD boom is a bit of a history rewrite, which only really popped up after Sony itself claimed around the PS3's launch that the PS2 pioneered DVD. Cheap DVD players were already becoming popular in some households before the PS2 launch - the PS2 didn't seem to have a super tangible effect on this outside of giving gamers an excuse to buy DVDs.

Of course at this point we can't prove either side is more correct with more detailed data that we just don't have, so the PS2 succeeding because of a "fad" is a claim that can just be thrown around!

The PS4 doesn't need to be special compared to the others in the 100m club, it doesn't need an extra ego stroke or to take shots at its older brothers or the Nintendo systems to feel better. If we really want to start defining fads, I can guarantee each of the highest selling systems moved many units to those that don't usually buy systems just due to word of mouth, popularity, or because it was a status symbol. My buddy's non-gamer dad owns a Switch because it's popular, and I believe coincidentally also had a PS2 for that same reason!

I think it's pretty easy to come to the fact that PS2 helped DVD, not the other way around. In pretty much every region it launched in, we have stories of DVD sales skyrocketing, while before the sales were meh, at best. If it was DVD that helped PS2, DVD would have been becoming very popular on their own. Then people saw the PS2 could play DVDs, so they bought it.

Of course, that's not what happened. DVD players were already around half the price of the PS2. No one was picking it up that early in its life for DVDs. What happened was gamers were buying the new Playstation, and knowing it could also play DVDs, they thought "Well, might as well pick up a couple DVDs to test them out."

@ OP

I don't think people are picking up on what you did there. But, yes, PS4 is selling for the same reason PS1, PS2, and, on a slightly smaller level, the PS3. Games. 

Again, on a site so driven by numbers and data, we have a lot of "we knows" and "I thinks" involving this issue, but no real solid numbers I've ever found have ever really helped affirm the common belief that you're holding. That was pretty much entirely my point.