Mr Khan said: This serendipity continued into the PS2 generation, where Sony's only real threat was the Dreamcast due to production delays in the GameCube and the Xbox's general late arrival. Microsoft can be excused to an extent because of their first round entry, but Nintendo really dropped the ball on getting the GameCube out on time and with proper support (stories from the era reveal that they were very slow and uncaring about getting dev kits out to third parties, for instance). Plus there's the whole "purple lunchbox" thing (though at least Nintendo of America got us out of the "StarCube.") If Sega had been in the position to fight back against the PS2 more aggressively, if Nintendo had been more aggressive about fixing the mistakes of the N64 era (or had just jumped ahead to make the Wii early somehow), or if Microsoft had been smoother about entering the arena, there you go. Of course Sony took stupid pills in 2005 and 2006, and to a lesser extent 2007, to give Nintendo and Microsoft (more Microsoft for the direct market competition) a leg up, but even later in the gen as Sony righted the ship, the contest remained competitive. Now we're back to seeing Sony's competitors do dumb things and Sony... not do dumb things. There's no magic there. What if Microsoft had made priority one for the Xbox One to be as developer-friendly as possible, reconfiguring the design phase? What if Nintendo had launched a true Wii successor that built on the promises of the Wii, instead of a half-assed retreat into the core market that we got? |
That's a very disingenuous and naive opinion. The successes and failures of each of the console makers are half merit and half luck. At least in most cases. To lead the generation out of the gate and not make the same mistakes as their competitors requires a ton of wherewithal, especially when you consider that the mentaility behind the system is unlike any of its predecessors.
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