GameCube is pretty much the test case for this.
It really, really (reeeeeeeally) needed to launch in like November 2000, which would've been a year earlier.
Giving the PS2 a full year+ headstart (18 months in Japan) was too much and then having it release alongside the XBox while XBox had a killer app in Halo and the GameCube really didn't have a game on that level was a big problem.
GameCube should've launch in US/Japan in November 2000 with Zelda: Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark (taken from the N64, lets face it, Perfect Dark barely ran properly on the N64) as launch titles.
I think if this happens, do they beat Sony? No. But they probably would've had a healthy no.2 position, and XBox would've kinda been DOA, far too late in the game as GameCube would have a larger userbase with the year head start.
