4 ms·
Anemic competition in the '90s (Nintendo and Sega's failed Dreamcast) made Sony dominant, and the PS2 kept them there. Microsoft then spent quite a bit of mone
by neckro23 12y ago
Anemic competition in the '90s (Nintendo and Sega's failed Dreamcast) made Sony dominant, and the PS2 kept them there. Microsoft then spent quite a bit of money taking them on throughout the 2000's, and eventually won (in the US, at least).
Also, consumers don't care about how difficult a console is to code for, they only care about the games. Game publishers don't really care either, they only care about the potential market (which was massive).
- Tloewald 12y agoIn what sense has Microsoft "eventually won"? Sony actually makes money on games, Microsoft more-or-less breaks even. The PS4, so far, is outselling the XBox One, even in the US -- despite Microsoft breaking down and offering a kinect-less cheaper version. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-tops-june-2014-npd-sales-chart-despite-xbox-on/1100-6421187/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-tops-june-2014-npd-sale...
- astrodust 12y agoLast I checked it's no longer the 2000s. Microsoft did achieve dominance in the US market with the 360 in the late 2000s.
- mreiland 12y agocitation please.
- astrodust 12y agoNot hard to find: http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_Seventh_generation http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_Seventh_generation In the US market, the 360 trounced the PS3. A large part of this had to do with the launch cost being more than $100 lower.
- Tloewald 12y agoDoesn't look "dominance" to me aside from the initial launch (where the PS3 was supply-constrained iirc): http://www.geekwire.com/2013/xbox-360-wii-ps3-won-console-generation/ http://www.geekwire.com/2013/xbox-360-wii-ps3-won-console-ge... Really, the winner was Nintendo, which sold a buttload of very cheaply made consoles for close to the same price as far loss-leading higher-powered competitors. Of these companies, only Microsoft was spending profits from other sectors to build its position in the console market.
- slantyyz 12y agoDreamcast Trivia: The Dreamcast OS was a variant of Microsoft's Windows CE.
- Eiriksmal 12y agoI remember articles discussing how Microsoft's experience developing DirectX for the Dreamcast helped them craft even better/more-developer-friendly ones for the XBox. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1998/may98/segagmpr.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1998/may98/segagmp...
- Torgo 12y agoThey didn't end up doing that. There were some games that were built on top of Windows CE, but the OS was integrated into the disc.
- Narishma 12y agoIncorrect. The Dreamcast had no OS. It has a proprietary firmware like all consoles of the time. Game developers had the choice to use a proprietary RTOS, a Windows CE based OS, or no OS at all. If they used an OS, it would ship on the same disc as the game. Very few games actually used Windows CE.