Console wars have usually been very dumb, but the corporations don't care as much anymore. It's really just "consumers" and "gamers" who still treat them like they exist.
The fourth generation was basically the first console war. I guess you could argue they happened in the first three generations if you want. But Atari smoked everyone in the second gen, and Nintendo really smoked the competition in the third gen. Sega and Nintendo very much had a console war. Genesis/Mega Drive beat Super Famicom/SNES to the market by two years and mocked the Famicom/NES with its outdated hardware.
Seventh generation saw Sony saying things like "the next generation doesn't start until we say it does."
Console wars don't make sense anymore. Nintendo has been doing its own thing for a while, and is now unopposed in the handheld market. Xbox is focusing far more on subscriptions and cloud-based gaming than hardware as the future. PlayStation is really the only one that continues on the steady path, but that makes sense with their console domination.
Lifetime Sales Predictions
Switch: 151 million (was 73, then 96, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million)
PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 57 million (was 60 million, then 67 million)
PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)
3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)
"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima
