It wasn’t until 1997 that PSX became the leading console. And much of that had to do with Nintendo suddenly cutting support for the SNES, which probably should have been more of a wind-down. 1996 was a big year for SNES, and then there was nothing. It makes me wonder if Nintendo ordered third parties to stop supporting the SNES in early 1997 (even earlier, end of 1996 in the US).
The main reason is because Nintendo made such bad decisions with the N64 and GameCube. If Nintendo hadn’t gone with ultra-expensive cartridges, they would have held onto the major 3rd parties that Sony gained.
It’s kind of a no brainer for consumers when you see a console with 20 games vs one with 500 games, and the one with 500 games is selling them from between 1/2 to 1/5th the price.
The PSX and were was also the more interesting and compelling platform, as it didn’t have the perceived limits of the N64 and GameCube. Also, PS2 has a killer app with Grand Theft Auto 3 and the series that followed. Interestingly enough, from one of Nintendo’s former Dream Team second party Devs DMA (Space Station Silicon Valley, Uniracers, and Body Harvest) who Nintendo effectively kicked off the team during the N64 gen.
I think PS2’s sleek look also helped it against the ugly Xbox and GameCube designs.
PS3 failed for against Wii for kind of similar reasons. Wii was sleek, compelling, and had a high volume of games compared to its competitors. On top of that, the competitors were too expensive. Sony was saying things like “People will pay this expensive price because they will want to in order to play our games.” And while some did, most bought Wiis and DS Lites instead.
Anyway, I’d say that Sony’s dominance has ended with the release of the Switch, as Switch has been the top console of the market for a while now, with the PS4 only occasionally catching up. Again, PS4 got lucky that Nintendo screwed up so badly with the late Wii generation and throwing support instead behind another monumental fuck-up: the Wii U.
Last edited by Jumpin - on 07 June 2020I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
