Nintendo was always the king.

When gamecube was selling 20k a week?

There is no pattern.

In the SNES -> PSX case it was just bad business with 3rd parties by Nintendo mixed with Sony tossing cash at , major 3rd party IP's and marketing themselves as the cool console that could use CD's.

As far as PS2 -> Wii goes it was a matter of a shift to value innovation over theatrical presentation.  For the record the PS3 is selling at a pace that can be considered relative to the PS2.

The article is very odd though, it doesn't take into account any of the competitions offerings or the impact of Sony on the industry.

On a side note, people saying Nintendo is killing gaming by appealing to casuals, but Sony and Microsoft are saving gaming by taking money out of the industry and never getting it back or surplus. I'm talking about software direction not the companies themselves, although they directly influence software direction.

As much as I love my PS1, PS2 and PS3 I hate the Sony Fanboys more.

Nintendo IMHO will always be the King of Video Games, numbers will never change that.

Those are some interesting numbers, it's funny to think of Sony outselling Nintendo these days.  Course these numbers don't account for handhelds, which you'd think those companies would want to hype up as well. 

Something really interesting, I thought, is that sony is projecting to sell fewer consoles over the course of FY2009 as opposed to FY2008.  I wonder if they are playing it conservatively saying that they think they'll sell only 600k more PS3s over the course of 2009 compared to 2008.

Gotta love the numbers game.

You should count all the Walkmans they sold too.

Walkman lost the crown to iPods long ago.

Not sure if they fit the definition you are looking for but how about:

• Paper Mario (N64, GCN, Wii)
• Fire Emblem (NES, SNES, N64, GCN, Wii)
• Wario (GCN, Wii)
• Mario Strikers (GCN, Wii)
• Advanced Wars (NES, SNES, GCN, Wii)
• Pokémon Stadium (N64, GCN, Wii)

(Lord N beat me to Kirby)

There are also lots of other nintendo IP that seem likely to get a sequel this gen, that are either too young to really consider a series (games like Chibi-Robo), or hasn't been around for a few gens but reviving it would seem to go with Nintendo's current strategy (like Excite Bike/Truck, Kid Icarus, dr. Mario,  Wave Race).

@Pristine20

Game consoles take years to develop, and the PS3 was well into development by the time Stringer took the helm. The console was expected to launch in a year when he became the corporate CEO. Even though it was delayed an additional six months. That is still a short period of time to kill a project that far along in development, and negotiation. Sony had already spent a very hefty sum on the console, and its components. Hell they were already into a manufacturing process by that point.

There comes a time when no matter how bad the idea is you are already so vested into the idea that it is worse to walk away then move forward. Let alone the fact that they had to produce a console. So cutting the PS3 at that late stage would mean a return to the drawing board, and perhaps leaving the industry entirely. Not to mention the political fallout he would have to endure for making a very unpopular decision.

All in all there were better options, but perhaps Sony can come out the other side when it comes to the PS3. I honestly doubt the losses were acceptable from the standpoint of the PS2. However they are a hell of a lot better then having no console, and no Trojan horse for at least one of their technologies. There is a difference between utter failure, and a major failure.

I thought Nintendo always had the game crown