RolStoppable said:
I was only using the word 'luck' because that's how DonFerrari always interprets it when someone points out that Sony had favorable circumstances (read: their competitors committing severe mistakes). The Genesis/Mega Drive and PSP proved to be competitors that didn't commit blunders and Nintendo beat them anyway. But these instances being so rare shows that it's the norm for generations to be decided early. Neither the PS1, PS2 or PS4 faced any strong competitor. The PSP, PS3 and PSV did and they all lost. The PS5 has to go up against Switch, so if Sony can win that sales race, it will be the first time that they beat strong competition. Another reason why I am not convinced that Sony is as good as people want to believe is that Sony has shown no signs of reacting well when the going gets tough. In the Japanese market Sony could always count on the support of their third party partners, but their hardware sales have dropped sharply; it's already a foregone conclusion that Switch is taking Japan's home market. In the USA Sony had dropped to a distant third place with the PS3, so they were far from being the standard for home consoles; the PS4 couldn't score a big win in the USA despite all its advantages over the Xbox One. So the premise of this thread that PS has been the standard for home consoles since 1994 is quite wrong in the two biggest video game markets; and what has been happening is that Sony's sales have shifted to territories where they benefit from the lesser presence of their competitors. During the PS2 era, Sony was thought to be unbeatable because they were 2 out of 2. After their exit from the handheld market, they are very much recognized as beatable except for one thing: They are still 3 out of 4 in the home console market, so that 1 loss is commonly assumed to be a one-off that won't repeat, ever. |
The PS1, PS2 and PS4 didn't face strong competitors? Who would be a stronger competitor in the console gaming field than Sega, Microsoft and Nintendo? Sony has beaten them in multiple generations no less, so I would not be so quick to dismiss their achievements, although it seems to be the go-to excuse for people who just don't want to recognize Sony for what they have done. By the way, USA is not the whole world and we are talking about worldwide recognition here, not just the US. The PS3, even with Sony's stupid decisions, eventually squeezed into second place worldwide. The Wii of course was the winner, which according to your logic was due to not having strong competition. Others might say that the heated battle between Sony and MS was competition enough for anyone.
As for Japan, it has become portable land. Microsoft has never had any real presence there and it hasn't really slowed them down, it is not a significant market when it comes to worldwide sales of *home* consoles any more. The Switch is a different beast altogether, which complicates comparisons. It dips into both home and portable markets and I daresay that if it wasn't portable, it would be far less successful.
