2005-6:
1 _ WTF is that commercial about a new Xbox???? the other one is still young... MS Sucks i'm sure as hell never gonna get a 360 with their 2 year life span policy...WTF is that price???
2 _ bah, I don't care about Wii's bad press, I'll get my nintendo console eventually even if that is the only thing I get all gen
3 _ PS3.... wtf is that price? and wtf would I want blue ray, my DVDs are fine and HDTVs are a fortune.

_Why are games 70€ ???

-> Bought PSP summer 06 as it had more games that appealed to me than DS.

2007:
1 _ X360 sucks it's for 14yold kids.
2 _ nice, wii is doing well... don't care about others, too expensive.
3 _ PS3 not selling? not surprising with that price and those games...

_ Why are there FPS on consoles??? and why are these the lead games for the HD consoles?
_ Oh zelda DS... should I buy one now or wait?
_ I should buy an HDTV

-> Bought a Wii for christmass

2008:
1 _ Ah that 360 bundle is cheap ass... oki i'll take one... Oh 360 is actually ok. What FFXII is comming? What plenty more RPGs??? OH YEAH!!I like 360 now.
2 _ Wii Rocks =) love it
3 _ on nice VGC.... oh PS3 is not doing too good. What are the games....ok...ok... well i guess when FF comes out. oh it's on 360, neat, guess i'll get it there... so errr...

_ oh my gf likes wii fit and the MKWii... i'll buy her a DS as an excuse.
_ Crap I can't even play the DS she's always on it....

-> bought 360 in May (04/08 Core system + Halo3 PGR4 512Mb 2 controlers + GTA4) = 205€
-> bought DS in June
-> bought HDTV in may

2009:
1 _ 360 was a great buy, got lucky to be lured into buying one.
2 _ Nintendo forever
3 _ okay so PS3 has some good games... not any one I want though, it can stop production for all I care (well MSG I like and the GoW series).

oh yeah forgot:

2005:
thought 360 would crash
Though PS3 would lead (80M)
Though Wii would do ok (40M)

Wanted 360 to crash
wanted PS3 to sell bad
Wanted wii to skyrocket

-> yes all nint at the core :p

I didn't really follow sales all those years ago, but I probably assumed the PS3 would be on top and the Wii would be way behind, although a bigger success than the Gamecube.

I presumed the Wii would mirror the DS. It would start slow, simply matching the competition in sales throughout 2007, then start to take off in 2008

If you kinda switch the 360 and PS3 for where they are right now, that's what i expected to happen otherwise

I said that the wii would be huge once the controller was announced, however I thought that the PS3 would be a much closer rival to the 360 than it is now.

PS3=PS2
Wii = Virtual Boy.

Roughly... okay i thought the Wii would do better then the VB, but i thought it'd do worse then the cube... and i had no clue how much the PS3 actually cost.

I had still too many PS2 games to play to care.

@ kowenicki

My 2007 expectations came true.

Regarding 2008 the PS3 was off to a great start (in 2007 I had some discussion with VGChartz staff, who didn't see this coming), but there were some things regarded anticipated events which took longer and some unanticipated events as well.

For one I expected the PS3 to receive a price cut in 2008 on entry pricing, but through the whole year this stayed 399$, of course this has to do with the economic climate (yen vs the dollar) and such. On the other hand the 360 started to sell as lowly as 119 Euro including 19% taxes and various free games included, this I also didn't anticipate.

Then you have some delays on key titles, like Killzone 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. I have also stated for the PS3 to go beyond 360 sales the PS3 needs Japan to achieve this and Final Fantasy is crucial.

I do however understand the extra time needed to finish those titles, unlike with regard to for instance Too Human on the 360. They aim really high in terms of production values.

Around Launch Time

Xbox 360 -

I thought it was early to market. Also thought the early games were average still I took the plunge 18 months after launch with a great bundle package. Console is my personal favourite. So many great games.

PS3 -

Was stunned at the 425 GBP price tag at UK launch. Even my die hard Sony friends stared in disbelief. Perhaps that is partly why the console struggles. Only around 10 percent of my PS2 owning friends went PS3 this gen. Most went for the Wii or 360 or in many cases both.
Consumer loyalty was something Sony stretched beyond breaking point this gen.

Wii -

Was initially scared by the new control format but delighted by the low entry price.
Pretty soon everyone was talking about the "new" console that everyone from your 3 year old kid to their 80 year old gran could enjoy. Was the first next gen console I picked up.

@ kowenicki

I said I expected this, I didn't say it was 100% certain. In the past I also stated that I wouldn't mind Microsoft handing out 360s for free (making money on games and upgrades instead). Of course if that's the case they would even beat the Wii.

I didn't know much about either when they launched. I knew PS3 was expensive but I had no idea it was $600. Wii I knew almost nothing about.

I guess my expectations were the Wii would sell bad because its another Nintendo console, and Gamecube and N64 did pretty lousy. And I would have expected PS3 to be selling best and for more games to be out, the delays for games really hurt the PS3.