1987: NES
1991: Game Boy
1992: SNES
1996: N64
1997: Virtual Boy
1998: PlayStation
1998: Game Boy Color
2001: Game Boy Advance
2002: GameCube
2007: Wii
2011: 3DS
2012: Wii U

I basically shared a Megadrive (Genesis) with a friend between 1993 and 1996, and played Dreamcast a lot between 1998 and 2001.

I consider the NES the golden age of my life as a gamer, while GameCube became a low point where I basically stopped playing videogames for almost five years until the release of Wii. To me Wii was a revival of my deep interest in videogames. I haven't enjoyed a game system as much since the late 1980's and early 1990's.

My interest in the videogame industry has never faded though, but in the years when I almost stopped playing games, my interest shifted to analysing the market and the industry as a whole. Not as a professional though :P

I never switched brands. Never needed to, actually. My family is big and every member has a different console. I´m still sticking to Nintendo due to prices and variety of multiplayer games, my nephews have PS3 and Xbox360 so I can always play Sony/MS games with them and they can always play Nintendo games with me.

I never was able to afford more than one home console, but at a certain time when money was shorter I had a Genesis and a SNES, and some years later a PS2 and a GC, because it was easy, very easy to get piracy for Genesis and PS2. After I got my Wii and a better job I gave up definetely with piracy.

I always had the possibility to play and own every console since the NES and have a PC.
Parents bought everything there was.
In the PS2 Era i purchased a GameCube just for WindWaker,a Dreamcast cause i found a huge amount of money(really) and a Xbox for Halo Coop(already cheap here cause PS2 was dominating so hard and no one wanted a Xbox).
While still playing the latest PS2 Games i waited with NextGen to see what Console gets the J-RPGs.
Well got the cheapest 360 version earlier cause my best friend wanted to play..Got some of the earlier great games and later then all the J-RPGs and for Tales of Vesperia even a import 360 cause i didn't wanted to wait for the EU Release.First 360 broke and i bought a 3rd 360 from my best friend who worked at a retail store for cheap again.Played in those year all there was beginning from Kameo over Halo,Gears and even CoD:MW1 what made me start to hate the console.
After seeing how the 360 only survives through yearly CoD,Gears and Halo after the first few good years of the 360 and how much i didn't care for those franchises i looked over to the PS3 cause it got cheaper at that time.
Uncharted 2 was my system seller and the games i cared for came anyway mostly to that console.And all the J-RPGs i bought on the 360 came so much superior on the PS3.The moment i learned to hate the "throwing money around" strategy of Microsoft.
The yearly Fifa Release was the only Game i still played on the 360 just cause my best friend refused to switch over to the PS3 cause he played CoD every spare minute and his "clan" played there and they thought there is something like competitive CoD.
PS3+PC+Fifa on 360 since Uncharted 2.Oh and i bought a Wii for Zelda SS and Xenoblade.
This Gen is an obvious choice with the PS4 and even my best friend switched over cause he experienced PC Gaming(he never had a PC before summer 2013) and learned how silly playing CoD is when you can have serious PC FPS if you need that genre.He is going ham on Steam general.And for everything else there is the PS4 :D
And I will get a WiiU once it drops down to 100-150€ cause of Zelda and X(enoblade)
First Gen i probably won't get every console cause there is absolute no need to.

I've had console from many companies, the only xbox I owned was the xbox 1 original (the first), owned sony consoles and also Nintendo portables and home consoles.

I don't feel like I'm switching, I'm just playing the games I feel like I have to play and then sell them if I don't find them worthy of my collection.

BTW, my collection is mainly Nintendo, with some Sony and Dreamcast games. As for consoles, only kept my Gamecube and DS so far. Even the 3DS, already sold it. Probably will buy it later if remakes for sapphire and ruby are launched.

I didn't switch consoles, but 2005 marked the first time I got another console in addition to a Nintendo one when I picked up a 360 to supplement my future Wii (excluding the Dreamcast that I bought in 03, which I don't really count since Sega the hardware manufacturer isn't around any more, and I mainly got it because it was super cheap at $99. It was right before Sega bit the dust and went to full desperation mode).

Anyway, I decided to pick up a Xbox 360, first and foremost for the third party games I knew Nintendo wouldn't likely be getting. I was wavering between a PS3 and 360 for my complimentary console to the Wii, but eventually ended up on 360 because of PS3's outrageous price. The other reasons:

- Rareware (at the time, they were still somewhat of a highly regarded company and were still one of my favorites)

- Gears of War looked amazing

- I'm no graphics whore, but let's face it, I did crave some top of the line horsepower for my videogames, at least to see what it was like, and Wii didn't seem like it was going to offer it. 

- The online seemed solid

- Halo franchise

I switched to Ouya too. Toastboy's last thread opened my eyes.

No switches for me. PS1 -> PS2 -> PS3 because of the games, MS or Nintendo don't have anything appealing to offer for me. Will get a PS4 once I'm done with a couple of remaining games.

I follow the games. I switched from the N64 to the Playstation as my primary console because there were just more games. I stuck with Playstation for the next gen but I bought all the other consoles because I dont like missing out on good game even if the consoles cannot follow the library of Sony. Because of the price of the PS3 I swapped brands to Microsoft at the beginning of the 7th gen and Microsoft was providing basically all the third party Sony provided but lacked their first party like Jak, God of War, Ratchet and Clank and others, but it had Gears of War. This got me majorly into third person shooters. When Uncharted 2 came out I got a PS3 and started to notice that games Microsoft had exclusively were bring ported back over to Sony with DLC. I said screw it and just played both until my 360 died (again). Since then my family got me another 360 because they noticed it was missing from my collection but I eventually got rid of that because there were no true exclusives. I played Alan Wake on PC and the Witcher 2 was my last game on the 360. I could've played that on PC as well.

I primarily game where most of the top true exclusive games are which is probably why I keep coming back to Sony, but I still play Microsoft and Nintendo because I have other friends who enjoy them, which gives me reason enough to own all of the next gen consoles this gen.

I've always bought Nintendo HW first for first party support (Zelda, Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros, Metroid) and later Sony HW.

After SNES I went N64->PS1->GC->GBA->PS2->DS->Wii->PSP->3DS->PS3->Vita.

Currently I'm only supporting PS3DS because most of Vita library does not appeal to me

My gaming history has been quite extensive but I never really had any proper "switches" until recently.

I started out with a Master System but we also had a family PC, so I grew up with both PC and SEGA. Never had an NES. Went straight to the Mega Drive, didn't even acknowledge Nintendo at this point, it was SEGA all the way for me. Wasn't until later when I got a second hand SNES and got a chance to try out Nintendo.

I was still very much a SEGA kid so next generation I went straight for Saturn, though I also became more of a PC gamer at this time. Mid-90's was the PC gaming golden age for me. I did play a little PSOne though as my brother chose Playstation.

In 1999 I got a Dreamcast; first and only console I ever got on release. Fantastic console, still have it to this day, though admittedly it had a somewhat limiting library. Dreamcast and PC though was a fantastic combination, and from 1999-2003 they where perfectly complimentary. My brother at this time moved over to the PS2 so I played a few games there.

Once I moved to university I got an original Xbox. It seemed like the next logical step for a SEGA fan with Jet Set Radio Future, Shenmue 2, Sonic Heroes and others on the Xbox. One of a very rare few who got the Xbox and genuinely didn't give a shit about Halo (and honestly, never has). Still have that Xbox now, in fact, I'm literally watching a DVD on it right now as I type this.

Eventually I moved over to the Xbox 360 after I was given one by my room-mate when he upgraded to the slim (I was skint at the time so affording a new console was out of the picture). I later got a second hand PS2 in order to play some older games I missed out on.

Most recently I moved pretty much entirely to PS3, it was late 2012 when I got my PS3. Since then it became my primary games console, especially as my PC died last year and I've had 2 red-rings with the 360. PS3 is probably my favourite console to date. I still have an Xbox 360, but I only really use it for exclusives and the occasional game that simply runs better on it like Bayonetta. On top of those, I got a Gamecube for the first time last year. Meanwhile my sister has a Wii, and my brother also picked up a PS3, though obviously I don't live with them now so it's not quite so useful. I'm looking at getting into Wii U in the near future after having seen what games are available. Other than my personal consoles I have friends and family who own, and have owned pretty much every console made, from the 3DO to the PS4 and more; which is nice as it means I get to try everything.

In the case of handhelds, I got a Gameboy Colour back in 2001, then a GBA a couple of years later. Played Pokémon and a few others, but not too much. I got a PSP in 2007 which was one of my favourite game platforms. Lastly, I got a 3DS back in 2012 as part of my phone contract, which is probably my most played platform at the moment.