The third console curse: Which was the biggest stumble?

[Leynos]

Soundwave said:

curl-6 said:

Well, I learned something new today!
I never knew the SG-1000 was its own thing; as someone not that familiar with Sega when I always thought it was kinda like the Famicom to the Master System's NES, a JP only version of the same console that looked different and released earlier. Cool stuff.

Although if we get technical we could also argue for stuff like the Colour Game TV for Nintendo which muddy the waters still further.

I'm gonna let the poll and such stay as is for now, so as not to wipe the input received so far. We can just consider it third major console as stuff like SG-1000 and Colour Game TV didn't see global release.

The thing is the Sega SG-1000 and Nintendo Famicom both launched on the exact same day, July 15th, 1983 in Japan. 

They were definitely head to head competitors. The Famicom was so much more advanced though, the SG-1000 was like an Atari 2600 on steroids whereas Famicom was capable of far more advanced games, even the first Super Mario Bros. was significantly beyond SG-1000 (let alone things that would come later like Super Mario Bros. 3). 

They released the Sega Master System (Sega Mark III) then in late 1985 in Japan I believe, and it was more powerful than the NES/Famicom, but not really a full generation ahead. 

And then Mega Drive/Genesis arrived in late 1988 (Japan), that would be a full generation ahead of the Famicom. 

Meanwhile Nintendo stuck with the Famicom from 1983 to 1990 as it was a monstrous success, though not by design. The Super Famicom was supposed to release in 1989 but fell behind schedule, this is why the Game Boy was actually allowed to release, Yamauchi had cancelled the Game Boy project, but with no Super Famicom for 1989, they quickly fast tracked the cancelled Game Boy project to market. 

Mega Drive never really took off in Japan where PC Engine did. PC Engine was the biggest competitor Famicom had in Japan by the late 80s in sales. PC Engine sold roughly 6 million in Japan vs the 3 and half of Mega Drive