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curl-6 on 05 May 2026
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Chrkeller said:
curl-6 said:

True, but Nintendo's first console sold 60m and Sony's first sold 100m, with both winning their respective generations. 

A console being a first doesn't in itself mean low sales.

Sure, but those are outliers.  We shouldn't use outliers as a baseline for expectations.  Sega, NEC, SNK, Phillips, Apple/Bandai, Commodore, Panasonic, Mattel, Magnavox, Google (streaming) Steambox, etc first consoles were not that successful.  

Xbox established a brand, GC made people question if Nintendo should go third party (which was stupid IMO, but did exist).  Consoles went on to have HDDs are standard and online become a thing.  And PC ports become normal (when they were not previously).  The xbox had an impact, the GC didn't (from a hardware perspective).  Nobody uses z-buttons, c-sticks or mini disks.  

Edit

Apple has been trying to break into gaming as well, so far very limited success.  The OG xbox breaking into gaming is by default a success.

Funnily enough, the Master System, Sega's first global console, secured a bigger marketshare than the OG Xbox, the market itself was just much smaller then.

Xbox definitely had a big influence on gaming, arguably more so than even the PS2 despite selling a 6th as much. I guess I see success in more commercial terms, like did it achieve its sales goals; MS's aim wasn't just to establish a small presence in the living room, they wanted to establish a big presence and sell 50m consoles, and they didn't manage to achieve that.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 06 May 2026