Would you say the PS2 had better first party support than the GameCube?

[Wman1996]

Cerebralbore101 said:

Wman1996 said:

I disagree with both. PS2 had more third-party games than Xbox or GameCube, but there was still some overlap. PS2 first-party games could be a deciding factor, even if only for 5-10 million customers.

I think N64, GCN, and Wii U sales show there is a floor for people buying Nintendo platforms almost exclusively for Nintendo games. And I think that floor for Nintendo home consoles is around 5-10 million customers. 

In all fairness, I think across the industry there are about 5-10 million customers in that broad range who will buy a platform for exclusives. Saturn and Dreamcast both sold over 5 million but below 10 million. 

That 5 to 10 million is important though because they are the 1st adopters and the people who tend to buy a lot of games. Losing a few of them is like losing ten regular customers. They also act as free advertising via word of mouth. This is why an early launch lineup of exclusives is so important. Switch had it and sold 150 million units. PS5 and Xbox didn't really have it and so sales of those systems have stayed the same as last gen or been on a huge decline. 

Wii U had a higher software attach rate than N64, despite having fewer physical games. Shoot, Wii U has a higher attach rate than Dreamcast, 3DS, etc.

I'm sure Nintendo would rather have Wii U sales end up like they did than 18-24 million pieces of hardware sold with greater losses and less profit.

5-10 million enthusiastic customers (no matter how casual or core they are) are indeed a lifeblood to a platform that it needs in addition to tens of millions of less enthusiastic customers. 

Despite the fact that it won't have exclusives, at least not console or true exclusives, I do think something like 5 million or, so units are the floor for Xbox 5. While a small group in the world, enough gamers and Xbox fans would show up to hit that amount. Shoot, even something like Steam Deck that is only sold by Valve firsthand in most markets has sold over 4 million units and is probably over 7 million units by now. It is a handheld PC, but it wants some vibes similar to consoles.