| Shadow1980 said: Later in 2000 the PS2 put up launch numbers that were rather unimpressive. Not bad, but certainly not one would expect from the successor to what had become the biggest console ever. It actually had a worse launch month than the Dreamcast, selling 391k units in October of that year. |
That's not true at all about PS2's launch being rather unimpressive:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/11/07/sony-pulls-in-over-250-million-at-launch
As you said, PS2 was completely supply constrained. It would have steamrolled the Dreamcast immediately had the units been there. That massive launch day for the PS2 in the US was the single biggest consumer product launch in dollars by far at the time - far exceeding the Dreamcast, which itself had just tripled the last biggest.
I agree that "sold out" at launch doesn't mean much without context, but it's quite different when we know the huge numbers with PS2/PS4/PS5 right out of the gate, just like we already know of the 6m-8m pre-orders for Switch 2 (if true). Game systems with those kinds of launch sellouts are a pretty good indicator of success I'd say. They could very well decline and not live up to their potential, but they're not just going to collapse.
