curl-6 on 26 February 2026
With the exception of Gen 7 (and maybe 1/2) there's never really been room on the market for three console platforms.
In the 3rd gen NES dominated but everything else struggled, in Gen 4 SNES/Megadrive did well but Turbografx-16 fell by the wayside, in Gen 5 PS1/N64 sold well while Saturn and the rest crashed and burned, in Gen 6 nothing outside PS2 did well, in Gen 8 Wii U failed, and this gen Xbox Series fell off.
The most successful 1-2 systems inevitably hoover up the vast majority of consumers leaving the third wheel with little but scraps.
