3 ms·

While it would have been nice to match the Wii's success again on a console, it's the only time they've managed it, and IMO a lot of that success was viral and

While it would have been nice to match the Wii's success again on a console, it's the only time they've managed it, and IMO a lot of that success was viral and based on Wii Sports. NES (1983) - console - 62 million SNES (1990) - console - 49 million N64 (1996) - console - 33 million GameCube (2001) - console - 22 million Wii U (2012) - console - 13 million The rest of these show that the Wii U is still pretty weak, but now the 10:1 that it looks like if you just compare it with the previous one. In fact, the Wii is the odd one that bucks the trend set by all the others.

selectodude 10y ago
That is one nasty downward slide.
- rockdoe 10y ago
  Well he took out the Wii numbers, wouldn't have looked so much like a slide if he'd left them in. It's also missing their DS business which is owning.
bobajeff 10y ago
The NES also is an outlier since it launched in a cold market (video game crash of 1983). Also, the NES launched slowly across the United States starting with New York. (Contrast to today's international launches) Plus they had several legal troubles brought on by fear of the Japanese rising in economic importance. Also there were several cartridge storages during that generation.
- Narishma 10y ago
  > The NES also is an outlier since it launched in a cold market (video game crash of 1983). It was only cold in the US. The NES launched a few years earlier in Japan where it was very successful.
  - bobajeff 10y ago
    As Japan didn't have Atari it was also a cold market. But that's not really the point. The point is that if the NES was launched with the market conditions that we have today there'd have likely been several times a many consoles sold.
Meekro 10y ago
I think your analysis isn't totally fair because it ignores the public's varying appetite for console gaming. Maybe it's better to consider each console relative to its generation? If you do that, it becomes clear that Nintendo's performance is usually quite solid. The big question now is, will the Switch inherit the absolute dominance of Nintendo's portables, or the somewhat weaker performance of its home consoles? Atari 2600 (1977) - 30 million Atari 5200 (1982) - 1 million NES (1983) - 62 million ==> WINNER: Nintendo Sega Master (1986) - 13 million Sega Genesis (1988) - 31 million SNES (1990) - 49 million ==> WINNER: Nintendo Sega Saturn (1994) - 9 million Playstation (1994) - 102 million N64 (1996) - 33 million ==> WINNER: Sony Dreamcast (1998) - 9 million PS2 (2000) - 155 million Gamecube (2001) - 22 million Xbox (2001) - 24 million ==> WINNER: Sony Xbox360 (2005) - 84 million Wii (2006) - 102 million PS3 (2006) - 84 million ==> WINNER: Nintendo Wii U (2012) - 13 million PS4 (2013) - 53 million XB1 (2013) - 20 million ==> WINNER: Sony
- anonbanker 10y ago
  NES was released in October of 1985. The Famicom was 1983. Genesis was released in 1989. The Mega Drive was '88. SNES was 1991. Super Famicom was 1990. The reason I'm being "pedantic" about this is because you're (unintentionally?) fudging statistics for a narration. For instance, * Atari had very little market penetration in Japan. * Your NES sales figure doesn't include Dendy (which had a substantial hold in USSR). * Xbox sales reflect North American sales, as Japanese sales were dismal. * Xbox 360 sales reflect only North American/European sales, as Japanese sales were comedic. In addition, you should probably include portable/handheld console sales in your lists.

selectodude 10y ago

That is one nasty downward slide.

rockdoe 10y ago
Well he took out the Wii numbers, wouldn't have looked so much like a slide if he'd left them in. It's also missing their DS business which is owning.

bobajeff 10y ago

The NES also is an outlier since it launched in a cold market (video game crash of 1983). Also, the NES launched slowly across the United States starting with New York. (Contrast to today's international launches) Plus they had several legal troubles brought on by fear of the Japanese rising in economic importance. Also there were several cartridge storages during that generation.

Narishma 10y ago
> The NES also is an outlier since it launched in a cold market (video game crash of 1983). It was only cold in the US. The NES launched a few years earlier in Japan where it was very successful.
- bobajeff 10y ago
  As Japan didn't have Atari it was also a cold market. But that's not really the point. The point is that if the NES was launched with the market conditions that we have today there'd have likely been several times a many consoles sold.

Meekro 10y ago

I think your analysis isn't totally fair because it ignores the public's varying appetite for console gaming. Maybe it's better to consider each console relative to its generation? If you do that, it becomes clear that Nintendo's performance is usually quite solid. The big question now is, will the Switch inherit the absolute dominance of Nintendo's portables, or the somewhat weaker performance of its home consoles? Atari 2600 (1977) - 30 million Atari 5200 (1982) - 1 million NES (1983) - 62 million ==> WINNER: Nintendo Sega Master (1986) - 13 million Sega Genesis (1988) - 31 million SNES (1990) - 49 million ==> WINNER: Nintendo Sega Saturn (1994) - 9 million Playstation (1994) - 102 million N64 (1996) - 33 million ==> WINNER: Sony Dreamcast (1998) - 9 million PS2 (2000) - 155 million Gamecube (2001) - 22 million Xbox (2001) - 24 million ==> WINNER: Sony Xbox360 (2005) - 84 million Wii (2006) - 102 million PS3 (2006) - 84 million ==> WINNER: Nintendo Wii U (2012) - 13 million PS4 (2013) - 53 million XB1 (2013) - 20 million ==> WINNER: Sony

anonbanker 10y ago
NES was released in October of 1985. The Famicom was 1983. Genesis was released in 1989. The Mega Drive was '88. SNES was 1991. Super Famicom was 1990. The reason I'm being "pedantic" about this is because you're (unintentionally?) fudging statistics for a narration. For instance, * Atari had very little market penetration in Japan. * Your NES sales figure doesn't include Dendy (which had a substantial hold in USSR). * Xbox sales reflect North American sales, as Japanese sales were dismal. * Xbox 360 sales reflect only North American/European sales, as Japanese sales were comedic. In addition, you should probably include portable/handheld console sales in your lists.