As am I. Though my guess is he'll just stop replying.

History says that it's not the console specs or techs that determine the success, but the mass-market appeal for S/Ws that it produces, entertaining the consumers. For the last two consecutive gen, it was PS1 and PS2. Xbox was launched a year later than PS2 with better features like even a Hard-drive and superior specs, but it went out to fail miserably. Why? It failed to attract many consumers who were only brand-conscious, whilst PS2 had already established itself with it's decent S/W library, all credited to 3rd party dev-supporters. The Xbox eventually lost hold of 3rd party support and winded up with a LTD of 24 mn gross.

This time, PS3 has come under the scrutiny, involving itself in the format war to hinder Blue-Ray Progress. Altthough it won the war, Blue-Ray has apparently failed to attract the mass for which Sony had to pay the price. But since the media is not meant for HD movies alone, which most of us ignore, it's like the CD-ROM of PS1 allowing higher data storage for games than it's competitors. Although PS3 has failed to attract mass with it's current technology, it can continue to add momentum along with 360 till market saturation is reached. On the other hand, 360's progress was hindered due to the H/W failure rate around 2007. If this hadn't happened, a lot many consumers who were price-value concious would've bought it more, thus accelerating the sales. We need to wait and see which of the 2 consoles, both coming of losses, breath their last this gen.

The Wii has to be ignored, as it's S/W line-up doesn't attract hardcore gamers at all. It's success needs to be discussed out of this context, as it's not capable of delivering what ps3 and 360 are currently doing.This was not the scenario in previous gen, where consoles like GC, PS2 and Xbox were capable of delivering more or less same S/Ws end products.

Yes, cause scientifically, something happening twice means it will always happen. Yep. Solid logic there.

And I believe what Sony did with the PS3 was make it awesome.

N64 lost because of the cartridge format, not because of price point. 

If they had added $50 to the N64 price and included a CD-ROM drive (making it dual cart/CD like the Saturn), the system would've beaten the PSX even with a higher price point IMO. 

Games like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil 2 would've been multiplatform. Combine that with Super Mario 64, GoldenEye, Zelda:OoT, etc. and Sony would've been in trouble. 

The Wii can't be ignored because a lot of the people who buy the Wii are core gamers. It's the dirty little secret MS/Sony fanboys don't want to talk about. 

The truth is a lot of people who were 16-24 during the PSX-era are now into their late 20s/30s, and just like when demographics changed with the SNES-to-Playstation transition, they have shifted again. 

Your priorities change in your late 20s and 30s. You don't have time to spend 40+ hours playing 1-player games anymore. You are more social. One of my friends who plays almost all Wii nowadays, 10 years ago was all about Quake and Final Fantasy. Not anymore. 

The success of things like Guitar Hero and Wii is very much driven by adults. They just want to have fun and have a something they can play with their family/friends/fiance/spouse. 

You do realize that the pS2 had a great numbers of casuals, right? I wouldn't be surprised that of the 145 million maybe 90 - 100 million were casuals. By the logic that you discard the wii, you should also discard the PS2 and PS1 from the previous generations. Didn't they win by mass-appeal?

First you talk about mass-market appeal (where the big majority would be casuals, right?) as the winning factor. And then you say the wii has to be ignored because it mainly attracts casuals, and not hardcore. That makes absolutely no sense.

You can hardly define the mythical 'hardcore' gamer. It's just a matter of opinion. Still you would discard the absolute winner of the current gen, because it does not fit your opinion of a 'real' console. Geez, the wii won. Deal with it.  

The PS360 aren't able to produce what the pc produces. Also irrelevant then? They fall seriously short by what i see on my gaming pc.

And it looks like you're right.

Maybe the truth is Sony really isn't all that "tough" when they face tough competetion. 

Lets be honest, the Saturn was a trainwreck of a machine, mismanaged and poorly marketed. The N64 being cartridge based gave Sony every major third party practically exclusive. 

The Dreamcast was a good system, but by then Sega's brand had been damaged badly and EA and Squaresoft would not give them the time of day. The company was also in massive debt and couldn't afford to keep the system going. 

The GameCube and XBox launched 18 months after the PS2 in Japan and 12+ months after the PS2 in North America + Europe. I mean that generation was over before it even started, you can't give the established market leader that long of a head start. 

The PS3 and PSP are the first time they've faced tough head on competition without a huge (I would say unfair) advantage in third party support and a year+ head start against two companies that are also now very good at marketing (Sony and the new Nintendo). 

We've seen Sony can't dominate at all when they have to fight on more even turf and rely moreso on their 1st party games to sell systems. 

Do I get a cookie? :)

Console power dont allways wins the console war.
what wins the console war is the console that launched frist
and which it has more games and is the cheaper one also..
iam sure if the PS3 launched a year before the 360
it would be wining the war between sony and ms.
i dont even count the wii because its suer base is for young teens and kids

Problem with that line of thinking is a lot of 20-40 year olds own a Wii. 

It's a pop culture phenomenon, it's not on the Oscars, and Colbert Report, and Saturday Night Live because it appeals to kids. 

If kids bought that many Nintendo machines, why did the GameCube not sell 50 million in 2 years? Adults are driving Nintendo's growth.

The Wii is the trendy game machine to own if you're in your late 20s and 30s, not the PS3 or 360. You know people who are older but have an actual life and can't spend 50+ hours playing one game or are tired of FPS no.20309 and want something more tied to the joy they first felt playing games on the NES and Atari when gaming wasn't so pretentious and was far more accessible to everyone.

Wii Fit and Sports are also very popular with women, especially college aged women.