$

Don't forget about mighty mighty Atari :P

The big difference is that Sony didn't screw up back then like they did now.

First they release a $600 console, then fail to deliver it's big franchises early in the gen, not justifying the premium for many people. They also delivered a very limited net service in comparison with the competition, in a moment when this becomes a very big thing( Ok PSN covered the ground and now it's a good service, but the damage is done) in gaming. Add all this to the fact that they lost or let slip the 3rd parties support and you have a 1st to 3rd place console after 1 gen.

Not downplaying what MS did, but had Sony managed to make things the rigth way, the X360 would have failed miserably, after the RROD problem.

we cant compare sega to microsoft yet.

you started ur comparisson with the 16 bit era but the war started in the 8 bit era and sega did succesfully bring their audience from 8 to 16 bit. So we have to wait and see if microsoft will be successfull aswell with the xbox 720 or if they also start to crumble there.

And yes microsoft has much much more money than sega to last a dry period

its simple... M$ is only where they are at because of one reason..

$599.99 price tag.

@ Kowenicki, yeah, but if $399 instead of $599, it wouldn't matter. If GT5 came 4 months after MGS4 and GoW3 4 months later, it wouldn't matter. just saying.

Because Microsoft can afford to put 10 billion dollars into the project until profitability. Sega could not.

Sega's management was piss poor and they effectively killed themselves off. Sony had something to do with it by buying exclusives but Sega had plently of good games for the Dreamcast. Also, Sony were very good at hyping up the PS2. I remember the no.1 reason for not getting a Dreamcast was "Why get a Dreamcast when in a few months you can buy a PS2?"

Having said that, I think the majority of the blame has to be placed with Sega and the mistakes they made during the Saturn era and to a lesser extent the Dreamcast era. I think by then the damage had been done.

Microsoft on the other hand can afford to make mistakes and keep making mistakes indefinately. A lot of the guys previously employed by Sega have even moved to MS. But really, one of the main reasons MS have been able to gain such a large marketshare this gen is due to the sheer number of mistakes Sony have made. $599?! second job?! wtf?!

Sega!

Because the PS1 launched when the Saturn launched.