Ssh... don't tell anyone. You'll spoil the fun of believing that Sony is dead for those who think the console wars last a couple weeks. Max. The difference between a Sony launch and a Nintendo launch is Nintendo generally pumps the big system sellers like Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros., whatever they can finish in time up front, whereas Sony holds back until the second holiday (Tomb Raider, Crash, GTA3, MGS2, FFX, GTA4, MGS4). We've seen this trend with both companies dating back as long as they've been in the industry. FFVII is generally credited with the PS's success, and there's no doubt Sony did an excellent job taking it from a niche title to a blockbuster in this country. However, REDC, Crash 2, Tomb Raider 2, even Frogger were also among the successful games released in the holiday 97 time frame.
Kwaad, the thing you should have noticed is that PS never lost its market leadership to the N64 in the US and it N64 didn't even get close in Japan, so all developers went to the PS. For PS2 it was even worse, they had a 10M lead in the US and Japan combined, and after the launch of the Gamecube/XBox and the holiday season the lead only increased, once again establishing Sony's console as the one to develop for by third parties. Of course PS3 is not dead yet, but just comparing the start of PS, PS2 and PS3 without taking the competition into account makes no sense at all.