I never thought of it that way.  Interesting.  The more the outside world becomes "against" them, the more loyal they become.  Hm.

Sega fans for putting up with the Sega CD, 32X, Gamegear, and Saturn.

How do we define loyal anyways? Who always buy their products? Always buy their products first? Always buy their products eventually?

For those saying Nintendo, were were the 50 and 60 million NES/SNES players when N64 came out? And where were the 30million N64 players when gamecube came out? Too early to ask that question about Wii> Wii U though. If we look at handhelds on the other hand, Nintendo definitely have the most loyal. PS1/2/3 all had 80M+ sold. PSP as well, but vita going real slow, but also still too early to tell.


For me handheld loyalty goes to Nintendo. For home consoles it goes to Sony. MS not enough generations to make estimate, as OG Xbox didn't sell that well, and too early to see with X1.

I still can't believe Wii U has 6 millions units sold...

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Mummelmann

I think Nintendo fans are the most extreme. I remember how they pretended the wii was powerful until finally forced to admit it was underpowered hardware. Same is true of wii u. I've been on many forums and there is a complete lack of rational thought sometimes defending Nintendo.

I've not seen quite the same dedication from Sony and Microsoft fans.

I do think its related to underpowered hardware though. This generation Sony fans have the best hardware so its Microsoft fans that are trying to convince themselves the xbone is as good. wii u owners clearly are having to support a incredibly weak piece of hardware just like the wii.

I'm not loyal at all to any one brand but do have favourite consoles. I much preferred the snes to the megadrive, I much preferred the N64 to the ps1 or saturn. Then my loyalties went to the original xbox I thought that was absolutely brilliant for its generation but still had much regard for the gamecube. Then I went to the 360 and for about half of last gen time that was my prefered console but then changed to preferring the ps3 later on. The wii I felt was quite poor last gen overall. This gen Nintendo has again sold very underpowered hardware and I do have a wii u which I enjoy but I believe ps4 will be my chosen console of this generation although don't know for sure.

Basically I'm only loyal to the games I enjoy. The more games I like on one system that will then by my preferred console.

I don't get loyalty to brand to be honest.

So anyway my theory the more crap the console the more the fanbase of that brand go into nutjob territory trying to defend it.

Yes, I think what you describe is indeed rather a case of "vendor lock-in" than of "brand loyalty". As Wikipedia states:

"Brand loyalty is more than simple repurchasing. Customers may repurchase a brand due to situational constraints (such as vendor lock-in), a lack of viable alternatives, or out of convenience. Such loyalty is referred to as "spurious loyalty". True brand loyalty exists when customers have a high relative attitude toward the brand which is then exhibited through repurchase behavior."

I would say I'm currently a fan of Sony, but as for "loyal" fan I dont know. I mean I just spent $1300 on a gaming PC instead of just $400 for a PS4 and I have no plans on the near future to get one either. But when I finally get a current gen console, it will be a PS4 hands down. I like Sony because they put out the most games that are interesting to me, but whenever that changes then I'll just move on. I gues I'm only loyal to quality entertainment

Spiro, Crash, Legend of Dragoon, Gran Turismo, Megaman X 4,5,6, Xenogears, Metal Gear Solid, Rachet & Clank, Jack & Dexter, Sly Cooper, DMC, Kingdom Herats 1,2, GoW, Shadow Of The Colossus, Resistance, Infamous, Uncharted, The Last of Us, LBP, Indies, Third Party, Console with the most games.

Not to say I'm not interested in what the other guys offer. Halo is probably my longest favorite franchse, and I love Zelda.

This. Wii U sales should have reached 20 million thanks to the masterpiece that is 3D World.

Nintendo. Because I don't buy the better hardware just because of Mario, Zelda etc and defend Nintendo for everything what they do and want to change the mind of the people who are against Nintendo even if it is senseless.

I'm going to say Nintendo. I just feel like they're the most loyal mainly because they've been attached to the same franchises for 20 years so it's easy to feel attached to them.