There was no real demand for the GC. It was already too spread out the thing 'gc is for kids' and the smaller capacity media killed third party support. And PS3, unlike GC, is sucessor to a 130 million selling console.

PS3 is the new N64: different and expensive media, uber hardware, late launch.

ok well when is ps3 getting to 99 euros? yea, never.

lol... PS3 will pretty much outsell GC lt sales untill the end of Q1 09... so I have no idea where are you getting all this. It will do IMO at least 2x as much lifetime, but it could also burst as many stated ;)

@WiiStation360&johnsobas: True. But i was looking at the LTD, instead of limited timeframe. Also, i don't think PS3 will have as big chrismas boost as GC did and Wiis supply issues propably are solved after christmas, which still is a question mark about its impact on PS3 sales. Early next year we'll see how it turns out. And by this, i'm not saying that Xbox wouldn't be better comparision in Americas.

@Kulle: Without 360, PS3 would be getting less games and publishers would focus more on Wii. The same goes for 360 of course, but in this context, the comparision was between "a world with 360" and "a world without 360".
It's not a matter of whether PS3 will or will not outsell N64, but it's experiencing similar issues that N64 did. Also the PS3 will be remembered as a similar turning point as N64 is.

@Tremble: Actually the price isn't as relevant as you claim it to be. It's very possible that PS3 won't reach 149 before it's in clearance sale - just like GC didn't reach 50 before clearance. It's only a matter of the price that the manufacturer can sell it and its relation to what consumers are willing to pay for it. Everything else is pretty irrelevant.

Actually the "for kids" thing started in general during the Gamecube. The smaller capasity media didn't kill 3rd party support. M$ paid for GC exlusives going to Xbox, PS2 was so dominant that developing for any other platform was financially pretty stupid. GC  was easy and cheap platform to develope for and it had pretty good 3rd party support right out of the gate, the support was gone due to it selling so badly. And lastly, there was demand for GC, atleast pre-launch, but it went down the drain with the 3rd party support.

Do you really think that the people who bought 360 would not have bought a console or that the most of them would have bought a wii? I think that most of 360 owners would be happier with ps3 than with wii.

This is what we only can guess about. A number of people have bought Wii60 and PS360, these people had bought only the other console and a number of people have bought 360 because it's the cheapest option available. A lot of the 360 owners wouldn't pay the price of PS3 for a console. So, PS3 would have sold more, but not nearly the number of 360:s sold more.

what a IRRELEVANT post.when gamecube launched it was the cheapest console it remained that way for all its lifetime.Ps3 on the other hand has always been the most pricey console.First of all,as mentioned before the ps3 after q1 2009 will have passed gc in terms of console sold.In terms of REVENUE(which in this occasion are the money that consumers willed to pay just for the console) PS3 in just 2 years have more than triple the revenue gamecube generated in 4 years.So i really find it stupid to compare just units sold and call it an even...really lame

aaa yeah you forgot to mention in your "analysis" the biggest advantage ps3 has and that price cut.ps3 has yet to be sold under 400 bucks while gamecube from the beginning was selling for half of that money and for more than 2 years 1/4 of that price.....

.so yeah ps3 is a PHENOMENON(i am a fanboy i know) because it will become the first console ever to sell more than 20 million with a price of 400 bucks...........

so the ps3 is tracking similar to gc in all but others. due to others you could just based off the charts say that it would sell n64 numbers. But due to the fact that it has a super high price point that means it'll continue to sell for longer when that ps3 price comes down.

Also the good 3rd party support due to ps2 domination, despite the low numbers for ps3, adds in another longevity factor.

And finally that this gen will most likely last a year or two longer than previous gens because the wii is dominating and has no reason to rush to the next gen, and ps360 are so expensive that next gen will have to wait longer to be released not only so that the technology/graphics is significantly better than ps360 so as to make a real difference but they need to release not super overpriced systems next time, which means there is no reason to start next gen till their current gen systems get down to probably $180 or less, then they could reasonably release a ~350 dollar new system.

so considering all that ps3 should attain SNES like numbers, maybe slightly more depending on how tough the battle with 360 is. but i see the total hd sales for this gen reaching about 100 million, with at most a 45/55 split either way between 360 and ps3.

What is relevant with the price is, that is it more than people are willing to pay for it, or how many people are willing to pay what it costs. Not the consoles initial price. I do admit that PS3 is doing pretty well considering its price, but in the end it doesn't matter at all.

In two tears PS3 may have generated more revenue than GC did in its lifetime, but in the other hand, PS3 won't generate the profit that GC did.

Sony have created an price deadlock by implementing BD into PS3. When Sony starts selling its BD players at 199, you can expect PS3 going in the 299-349 pricerange. Not earlier.

Whether PS3 will be the first console to sell 20M at more than 400 pricetag, or not, doesn't make it a phenomenon.