My platform history:
Early-mid 80s - Atari 8-bit, NES
1989 - Game Boy
1994 - SNES
1996 - N64
1998 - PS1
1998 - Game Boy Color
Final Fantasy was my impetus to dive into PS1. That system had so many RPGs, which are my favorite genre. The N64 lacked that genre and fighting games, though Zelda and SM64 were amazing, and Goemon was a nice little gem. So I became a pretty solid PlayStation customer from 1998 until 2007
Game Boy Color was finally what I wanted from the Game Boy line. Plus, that's when Pokemon Red/Blue came out in the US. I've always had a Game Boy/DS of some kind since 1989.
2001 - GBA, PS2
2003 - Gamecube
Gamecube did a lot to rebuild my relationship with Nintendo. The Zelda games were some of the best games I'd ever played, Metroid was back, RPGs returned to Nintendo systems. The PS2 had a more rounded overall library. Dragon Quest VIII was a bonding experience with my girlfriend that led to her becoming my wife.
2004 - DS
Had a lot of great games. Ultimately became a nice go-to for Dragon Quest. Enjoyed playing Pokemon D/P with my wife in the early years of our marriage. We still play Pokemon.
2007 - Wii, Xbox 360
Wii had a lot of unique gems and was a big craze. But I felt it had a strong start (Wii Sports, Fire Emblem), followed by weak middle years and a relatively strong finish (Skyward Sword, Xenoblade, The Last Story), The 360, on the other hand, moneyhatted a lot of Japanese games, and while I feel in retrospect that Microsoft did more harm than good doing that, I liked the 360 for awhile - until the E74 error killed mine, and Microsoft wanted to charge me $150 to fix it.
2008 - PSP
Wife got me a PSP when my DS got stolen. I kind of wish a lot of PSP and DS games had been made for full-sized consoles, however, which is one of the things that makes Switch so great for me.
2009 - PS3
I didn't like the 7th console generation very much in its middle years, but Valkyria Chronicles brought me to the PS3. The PS3 had an incredibly strong finish leading up to the PS4. Ni no Kuni seemed to signal a return of Japanese RPGs that Persona 5 on PS4 cemented.
2013 - Wii U, PS4, 3DS
I will almost always buy a Nintendo system, even if it sells poorly. PS4 helped usher in the return of Japanese gaming
2017 - Switch
My favorite system of all time. I own over 60 physical games for It, which is by far the largest single console library I own. I try to support third party on Switch in hopes of keeping third party games coming.
I will probably get PS5 when FFXVI drops, but I really want to see Nintendo do a strong follow-up with the Switch 2.
