Well, I was thinking about sales and gaming company decisions and the fact that is´s not going to well for MS at the beginning of this generation. Then it struck me, it just might be the "third major console curse" that has fallen upon MS?? I am only talking about sales, in terms of quality in games, that is a whole other matter and the console I mention were all great in that regard.

Looking at the major game companies since the end of the 80´s: Nintendo, Sega, Sony and MS

Nintendo: Nes was hugely successful, and was followed up by the popular SNES, which in turn was followed by the not as popular N64 (I won´t count the misstep of Virtual Boy, Nintendo deserves better). Also, the cartridge format was bashed in media and from alot of fans.

Sega: The moderately succesful Master System was followed by the huge Mega Drive, only to be followed by the failure that was Sega Saturn and the imminent downfall of Sega. The early release of Saturn and obvious desperation from Sega pissed of both fans and developers.

Sony: With Playstation they took over the market, and with PS2 they only expanded upon their market cap. Although PS3 has sold extremely well by any measure, it represented a major downturn of the PS brand and sold about half of its predecessor. The pricing of the PS3 pissed of everyone in the beginning.

Microsoft: The original XBox was a decent entry into the market and with 360 they more than trippled the number of units sold. Now with X1, we see how it is already falling behind 360 in monthly sales and probably in total sales soon. Almost everything with the original concept seemed to piss of everyone.

So, is there a third major console curse and if so, why?

Arrogance, thats the cause. by the time every company was about to release their third console they had their heads so far up their asses that they started believing their own shit. they thought people would buy their console no matter what (sony actually said this). and they want to start dictating what happens in the market. and each in every time one of the competition comes along and knocks them down straight on their assses.

Over confidence, pride and detachment from gamers.

Why not?

I think people try to find trends when there aren't any in order to pose themselves as having some significant insight into matters.

The N64 sold 32M and the Genesis 40M. For me, that's enough to say that this whole thing is just lollipop sucking.

And every manufacturer has also made mistakes with at least one other generation.

This says nothing.

Yep, pretty much the third the recipe for doom.. Thanks Nintendo had Gameboy and 1st parties to hold itself... Sony were still good financialy in the beggining of 7th gen, but that and other mistakes costed severely... Sega dropped hard and gone to oblivion in the fourth iteration... What will be MS cushion for the curse?

Genesis is Sega 2nd console... and N64 altough doing 32M is way bellow Snes and lost the hegemony of the market to be outsold 3:1.

JFC REALLY!? RROD. 1 BILLION DOLLARS.

And the original XBox? MS had to drop the price in Europe to peanuts in no time. 

Now tell me, seriously, if all these details matter nothing to you; are you only looking at final sales? Because if so then PS3 has NO RIGHT to be part of these discussions.

Am I making myself clear enough for y'all?

 I know Genesis is Sega's 2nd console. My point is that you people are using whatever criteria suits you to prove your worthless point.