Success is a relative concept, success is an absolute concept and success is whatever criteria you want to use to define somethings success.

So the questions are:

• How do you define whether or not a current generation console is successful?
• Is there a generally accepted definition of success which can be used?

Some people define success by:

• How much enjoyment their console(s) bring to them, successful delivery of services.
• How much enjoyment a console brings to others, sales of games/consoles.
• How much money the console manufacturer makes.
• How far a console manufacturer has overcome adversity or improved/fallen between generations.

Some people define the success of consoles relative to each other using many of the above concepts and others. For example, using Metacritic and sales numbers to compare consoles relatively based on the enjoyment they bring to people.

People using different metrics of success can call something a failure or success relative to the values and criteria they use. If you asked someone the time and he told you the weather report because he didn't like the time it is right now, its not a useful conversation, and you're just talking over each other. Does the same apply here? If someone called a console a failure in terms of creating profit for the console manufacturer, does it make sense to answer that the console has produced many games which you enjoy or is it better to merely accept that by that metric the console is a failure?

It changes for me everytime so that the PS3 seems successful

I believe it is a combination of everything you said

For me a game is successful if it makes me smile and I have fun. Very few games actually do that. Nintendo's game's do it the most.

if a console makes it all the way through the cycle then it is a success to the customer, who didn't have to another system just because a certain company stopped manufacturing.

if a console bleeds money every quarter for every year it's been out, then it's safe to call it a failure to the company.

So how would you define the success of the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii?

The PS2's library. Other than that PS1, GBA, Genesis, Dreamcast, and SNES. The only contemporary console that is in their league so far imo is the DS. The Wii could be too with the VC but I don't think Wii series games are. The PS3 has a bit of work to do to catch up to the earlier PS systems but I think that if you are comparing the three consoles it comes closest to matching the standards with games like Uncharted, Folklore, MGS 4, and Kenshin! Next would be the Wii with Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess, then the 360 as many of its games haven't held up to expectations from last gen let alone the standards I set above.

Yes, i think it's about "mission" for a console. Everyone would like to dominate the market, but not everyone plans to. For instance, i believe the original Xbox performed exactly like Microsoft wished it to, and thus was a success, despite losing Microsoft $5 billion and getting a measly 15% marketshare. Their goal for the Xbox was to gain a foothold in the market, gain name-brand recognition, which they succeeded. Indeed, beating the industry veteran Nintendo (albiet narrowly) might mean they surpassed expectations. They built, in the short-term, a brand that was stronger than Nintendo

Now, if Microsoft's mission for the 360 was industry dominance, then they have failed. If their mission was just to beat Sony, it has succeeded (although they may have tied beating Sony into industry dominance, counting out Nintendo as everyone else did). With the PS3, Sony set out to continue being the industry leader, which has failed. Nintendo set out to totally shake up the industry and put themselves back at the helm, and they have mostly succeeded (the stubborness of 3rd parties holds them out from total success in that regard, i think)

For the record: i would consider only the Master System and the Genesis to be the only other consoles that weren't the top-sellers in their generation, but were "successful." Possibly also the Neo Geo

The Dreamcast was the best ever console with a shortened lifespan followed by the Saturn. For the time it was on the market, the games it delivered were awesome and Shenmue stands among the greatest of all videogame epics as a work of art imo. While no new jrpg series in the past decade has been able to match Skies of Arcadia.

Good thread.

No 1 has no relevance. It's far too subjective and personal and is not meaningful to discuss.

Success is measured by a combo of no. 2-4. (not the "enjoyment" part of no 2. though, since that's too subjective, but the sales part)

No. 2 is by far the most important factor. It's the easiest way to measure and compare success, and all fanboys understand that big sales are better than small sales.

No. 3 is semi-important. In the eyes of the common man and from a fanboy perspective profit for a business corporation is far less relevant than the number of consoles sold, but in the real world profit is of course a huge thing. So overall even on discussion boards we have to factor this in a lil bit.

No. 4 is mini-important. A factor harder to judge and reach concensus about, but of course the Xbox going from 25 mill in one gen to 60 mill in the next gen has to be considered a bigger success than Playstation going from 130 mill to 60 mill.