Systems like 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Virtual Boy, N-Gage and some of the many handhelds that tried to go up against the Gameboy and failed and often failed miserably are just that, failures. I don't consider a system like Saturn or Dreamcast to be failures because they sold at least a few million each more for the latter and had many great classic games. This is also true of a lot of other systems as well that may not have been very successful.

Recently, we haven't seen any real failures. Sure the Gamecube wasn't a massive success but it still sold about 25 million and had many classic games and plenty of million sellers. This generation, the PS3 hasn't had the success of their previous two systems but no matter what, it will still sell a lot of systems and already has some great games. So the last two generations, we've had six systems all do well in their own way and even the PSP has done very well even if only half of what the DS has.

It's been a while since the last console really just failed horribly so it got me thinking, if and when will we see another massive failure and by who? I don't think any of the current big three will put out a disaster but who knows. It's hard to see another company try to put their foot in a crowded market but if someone did, that's where I would see the failure coming from.

Any thoughts, ideas, opinions?

I would bet that if there is to be a failure forthcoming in the next generation, its going to be someone who tries to copycat the Wii. Probably not Microsoft or Sony, but some 3rd party who tries to jump in and emulate the Wii in a way that magnifies the Wii's faults with none of its advantages

Mr Khan said: I would bet that if there is to be a failure forthcoming in the next generation, its going to be someone who tries to copycat the Wii. Probably not Microsoft or Sony, but some 3rd party who tries to jump in and emulate the Wii in a way that magnifies the Wii's faults with none of its advantages

Probably, but if that's the case, we've already had our next failures. I've already seen two different knockoffs of the Wii over the holiday season a few months ago. Of course those weren't even intended as a serious entry into video games but rather a cheap way to make a buck trying to either confuse people or for those who might care to notice the difference. Will we see a serious company trying to go full out and make a video game console like the Wii? Maybe but you're right, it would probably fail hard.

The PS3 is the closest thing to a disaster this generation. Hmm, you couldn't pick it yet so I don't think its worth thinking about.

Actually, I class failure are NOT units sold but instead profitability. After all that is the only reason companies enter or leave the industry. By that definition, the GC was about as successful as the PS2 while the Xbox was a complete failure.

The 360 is about breaking even since launch while the PS3 is way down. So I would call the PS3 a failure so far.

PS3 two years on is now selling at a loss of $50 per PS3 system sold. A source on the internet now claimsPS3 now makes a loss of $50 per console.

All the consumers want Sony to cut the price of PS3 by $100. But can Sony afford to make more losses on PS3 hardware? I heard Sony is struggling in all areas of business at the moment.

Hopefully PS3 continues to sell and Sony does not make some drastic decision because a huge price cut on PS3 could well and truly spell the end of Sony in the console business. It would be better just to sell lower numbers than sell higher numbers and a higher loss.

PS3 is expected to be selling at break even or maybe even a small profit per PS3 sold when the PS3 chip set revision is finished by August 2009.

numonex said: ... PS3 is expected to be selling at break even or maybe even a small profit per PS3 sold when the PS3 chip set revision is finished by August 2009.

I take issue with this. No one knows what the real cost reduction will be and what impact that will have on profitability. The market situation could be completely different - the X360 will have reduced costs too so it may have a price cut, or the Wii could do what PS3/X360 already have and cut prices or release new colours if they feel they need to sell more.