I'm an extremely ignorant Nintendo fanboy; I'll admit that. I can understand how people can choose one console over another, but in the case of Playstation 1 and 2 I just can't comprehend the extent of their popularity. Playstation 1 outsold the Nintendo 64 by more than three to one, and Playstation 2 outsold the Nintendo Gamecube by nearly eight to one. Can someone explain why this happened?
My point of view is that people buy systems for the games that you know or expect to be released. Nintendo already had multiple immensely popular series before the release of the Nintendo 64. The highest selling game of all time (non-bundled) at that point was Super Mario Bros. 3 iirc with 18 million. The three console Zelda games had combined for over 15 million in sales. Now if you played any of those games, wouldn't you be eagerly anticipating the new 3d Mario and Zelda games? Once Goldeneye 007 was released wouldn't the word of mouth on how awesome it was make you want to buy a N64? The N64 ended up selling under 33 million consoles. What was it about Playstation 1 that made it sell 102 million consoles? It had the immense disadvantage of being new to the market so it didn't have loyal customers as Nintendo probably had. Did the Playstation 1 just appeal to a whole new market of people kind of like how the Nintendo Wii appealed to a wider range of customers?
Playstation 2 doesn't confuse me as much because at that point Sony had fans of its predecessor who awaited the new console. However, the huge sales numbers are still a little baffling to me- it has sold 156 million consoles compared to less than 22 million for the Gamecube (I even bought 3 of them myself). Can someone shed some light on how this happened? Was it third party support or something else?
I guess part of mystery to me is also how it seems like everyone had a Nintendo 64. Everywhere I turn I hear about how great Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Goldeneye 007 were. Where are all these fans of Sony hiding? It's just not because I'm on a Zelda fansite either, I hear it out in the real world all the time. Out of all my friends and acquantices, I knew many (double digits) people with a N64 but only two who had a Playstation. The same thing happened with Playstation 2; I knew five people with a Gamecube and we all made fun of the kid who bought the PS2 so that he could play a rugby game. Is this all just a weird coincidence or some conspiracy? I never even met a person who had played a Final Fantasy game until I was 18 (three years ago).
My point of view is that people buy systems for the games that you know or expect to be released. Nintendo already had multiple immensely popular series before the release of the Nintendo 64. The highest selling game of all time (non-bundled) at that point was Super Mario Bros. 3 iirc with 18 million. The three console Zelda games had combined for over 15 million in sales. Now if you played any of those games, wouldn't you be eagerly anticipating the new 3d Mario and Zelda games? Once Goldeneye 007 was released wouldn't the word of mouth on how awesome it was make you want to buy a N64? The N64 ended up selling under 33 million consoles. What was it about Playstation 1 that made it sell 102 million consoles? It had the immense disadvantage of being new to the market so it didn't have loyal customers as Nintendo probably had. Did the Playstation 1 just appeal to a whole new market of people kind of like how the Nintendo Wii appealed to a wider range of customers?
Playstation 2 doesn't confuse me as much because at that point Sony had fans of its predecessor who awaited the new console. However, the huge sales numbers are still a little baffling to me- it has sold 156 million consoles compared to less than 22 million for the Gamecube (I even bought 3 of them myself). Can someone shed some light on how this happened? Was it third party support or something else?
I guess part of mystery to me is also how it seems like everyone had a Nintendo 64. Everywhere I turn I hear about how great Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Goldeneye 007 were. Where are all these fans of Sony hiding? It's just not because I'm on a Zelda fansite either, I hear it out in the real world all the time. Out of all my friends and acquantices, I knew many (double digits) people with a N64 but only two who had a Playstation. The same thing happened with Playstation 2; I knew five people with a Gamecube and we all made fun of the kid who bought the PS2 so that he could play a rugby game. Is this all just a weird coincidence or some conspiracy? I never even met a person who had played a Final Fantasy game until I was 18 (three years ago).
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