Runa216 said:
Honestly...looking back I don't know or understand how or why Xbox was ever all that popular. It had a huge surge in 2005-2009, but to be honest I genuinely think they got lucky there, by having Sony botch so spectacularly. The original Xbox was NOT a successful console, barely selling more than the famously poor-selling Gamecube. It had a few hit franchises but it really didn't have a huge audience. The Xbox 360 had a huge start with dozens of amazing exclusives and ideas, capitalizing on Sony's failures and running roughshod on its competition...but once the PS3 picked up, that console proved to sell more than the 360 in the end, resulting in the 360 - Microsoft's best-selling console ever - in last place that generation. And why? They couldn't keep up the pace into the second half of that generation. And the Xbone has been a flop since day 1. Poor PR, poor exclusives, then no exclusives due to PC and eventually Switch getting them, and no real place to pick up the slack, with virtually nothing of value on the console (outside of Game Pass) for the last 3 years of this generation. Given their history, I predict they'll do well for the first 2-3 years of the next generation but then flop hard as PS5 and Switch continue to dominate. Honestly, they've NEVER been all that successful, with two of their consoles flopping hard despite having a lot of presence in US/UK, and the third having a great start but unable to stick the landing. They're just not good at this. Sony had the exact inverse problem, and Nintendo has always been all over the board. Sony's PS1 came out and dominated the incumbent leader (Nintendo), then made records with their followup, the PS2. They dipped and did poorly with the PS3's first half - the same half that Microsoft capitalized on - then came back in the latter half of that generation and once again dominated with the PS4. For comparison's sake, PS's weakest offering (PS3) sold more than Microsoft's best (360). And since this is a thread comparing Xbox and Nintendo, that's a bit harder given Nintendo's long history and fluctuations. The NES, SNES, N64, and Gamecube all had declines in popularity, only to spike in the Wii era and flop again in WiiU. The Switch is back to doing remarkably well (And let's be honest, I think Nintendo does best when they innovate or think outside the box. The same pattern can be seen with the portable lines, with Game Boy, Game Boy Advance decline, then the DS/3DS decline). I think that a healthy gaming environment has two distinct companies. Sony for the basics, high resolution stuff, HD games, core games, and indies...while Nintendo does all the wacky, out-of-the-box thinking stuff. We have creativity, we have power, we have variety, etc. Microsoft just fails at doing what its competition does. I kinda feel sorry for it, becuase Sony having good competition is good....but they have not had that. Man, I sound like an F-word. I just like comparing, though. That, and after buying an Xbox 360 and Xbone and never playing them (I literally spend more time Netflixing and updating firmware on my Xbone than I ever did playing games on it), I'm completely lost as a customer of theirs. Hell, I didn't even bother buying Cuphead on Xbone because I got it on Switch and had it on PC first. Just no reason to have an Xbox. No wonder it flopped in the long run. |
I like Xbox but I never owned the original. According to magazines at the time, the PS2's sales were already so incredible that the 6th gen console war was over before the Gamecube and Xbox even sold their first console. They had sales figures and polls supporting it. I remember being sad because I was a Nintendo fan and I kept saying "When Nintendo releases THEIR system, then you'll see!" Unfortunately, leaving the previous gen leader unopposed for so long was suicide.
Now, with the Xbox 360, I can tell you exactly why they caught fire:
-It had a one year headstart
-When the PS3 was announced, they showed off games like Fight Night 3 that looked way better than anything the Xbox 360 had shown. Then, at some event (E3?) they showed games that were believed to be exclusive to PS3 running on the Xbox looking just as good. Suddenly the hardware didn't look so weak.
-Sony announced the price of the system ($499 and $599) a whopping TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS more expensive than the Xbox 360 systems.
-The gaming media collectively seemed to enjoy trashing Sony, blowing many things out of proportion almost as if there were some conspiracy.
-The Xbox 360 continued to grab franchises that were considered "PlayStation franchises" (GTA, Resident Evil, etc.) as well as exclusive DLC--sometimes permanently exclusive. Comparisons often showed the 360 version of games to be superior most of the time.
-Though the PS3 gained capabilities over time, it was always well behind the 360. PS3 had a web browser first, Dynamic Themes and a Blu Ray player but aside from that, the Xbox was getting most things a year or more before PlayStation if PlayStation even got them at all. Netflix, Achievements, Cross Game Chat, Custom Soundtracks, etc. It always felt like the PS3 was playing catch up.
PS3 had some good features (cross buy with PSP for example) but they never seemed to make the same waves as Xbox 360 features.
-Online gaming really exploded and even with free online, it was just perceived that Sony offered and inferior online experience. Even when Sony's online was often on par or better (Sony had more dedicated servers). Again, it just seemed like public perception was against Sony until like 2009.
-Everything wasn't perfect in Xbox land. They had issues with defective machines, lack of features (HDMI in early versions), etc. Sony had the image of being hacked and the "ApocalyPS3" where gamers couldn't play specific games and the PSN outage where no one could play online.
-A lot of undeserved hype for Kinect (I enjoyed mine, though...)
It all added up to Sony having a worse gen than probably should have and Microsoft having a better gen than they probably should have.
*Forgot to mention that, not only did you original Xbox sell relatively poory, it also had a short life and every console was sold at an estimated $100 loss. It was considered a Trojan horse to build the new brand.
