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So the consensus these days is that no one really 'won' this generation, right?

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Shtof

Shtof

Member
After seeing the Techradar articles, I can't help but think that none of the console makers really came out winning the war, they won a few battles here and lost a few there, but in the end they turned out pretty equal.

Early on you could say MS and Nintendo had a huge lead, but going out of the generation they both seem to have lost their momentum and Sony now seems to have regained theirs and is now the 'big dog' everyone wanna be friends with. However, Nintendo and MS seem to have a lot of loyal fans still, more so than the the 6th generation.

Is this something that people agree on? That there really was no winner in the end?
 
F

FunkyPajamas

Member
I'm not one to jump on the "console wars" bandwagon, but isn't it pretty easy to go by sales to determine a winner? If you're using metacritic/exclusive listwars/gamers' reception then it's just too difficult to declare a "winner".

edit: I see pretty much everybody agrees on sales, good.
 
Sanic

Sanic

Member
The fact that it dragged on for nearly a decade made things more interesting, and allowed everyone time for improvement (or failure).

Edit: in before a bunch of people saying Nintendo's recent failings negate everything they accomplished earlier in the generation. If I had to pick a winner, it would be them.
 
G

gngf123

Member
Nintendo did. The Wii sold the most, made the most money, and sold a good amount of software.

If you count handhelds as well, it wasn't even a close contest.
 
T

Terra

Member
Nintendo won. The Wii's are scattered ALL OVER and still has some fine gems. Not to mention the fine Gamecube-BC.
 
O

opticalmace

Member
If you asked this a few years ago I would say Nintendo without question.

However, the Wii's sales fell off a lot, and their momentum didn't carry over into next-gen. It seems like the PS4 and XB1 will have a much better start, and the PS3 and 360 ended up much closer in sales to the Wii than I would have ever expected back then.

I think you could make a good case for any of the three.
 
M

MasterOfPastures

Banned
Sony recovered admirably, but they still ended as a close third place. This gen was a loss for them, going from 90% during the PS2 days to this. The Xbox went from being a fridge to the most popular development console and the de-facto word for console gaming.
The silver lining for Sony, is that their arrogance and pride made the PS4 into exactly what everyone wanted, while MS fumbled horribly, looking far too ahead regarding media and ownership.
 
F

FunkyPajamas

Member
Derrick01 said:
Did they? They were irrelevant in the industry for the entire generation and once the casuals left, for whatever reason it was, they've been struggling without the help of the rest of the industry and dedicated gamers.
Click to expand...

They paid the ultimate sacrifice to win the war. And they lived long enough to become the villain.
 
WoolyNinja

WoolyNinja

Member
opticalmace said:
If you asked this a few years ago I would say Nintendo without question.

However, the Wii's sales fell off a lot, and their momentum didn't carry over into next-gen. It seems like the PS4 and XB1 will have a much better start, and the PS3 and 360 ended up much closer in sales to the Wii than I would have ever expected back then.

I think you could make a good case for any of the three IMO.
Click to expand...

.
 
R

RE_Player

Member
Nintendo did well but I don't think they won like many of the early responders to the thread. This generation didn't really have a straight out winner like the PS2 generation.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
It's just shifting goal post from partisans. That's all. If their boxes sold as much they would be fine using that metric-ww units sold.
 
P

pretty done

Member
Nintendo won for the same reason they're getting assfucked in this new generation. Hopefully the casuals don't bail them out again. As for 2nd and 3rd, PS360 are so close in sales that it's irrelevant. They both sold extremely well and are in the top five console sales of all time.
 
N

Nibel

Member
Nobody wants to admit that all it took was a glorified Gamecube and a fresh take on motion controls to win the generation

And to be honest, if your head isn't too deep in any company's asshole and you own various systems, then you've won as well; open-minded gamers with the chance to play on all major platforms had many memorable and wonderful games to play
 
G

Gestault

Member
There were no bad systems this gen, as far as I'm concerned. Each was wildly successful in some respect. I can understand a variety of viewpoints to justify a preference for one or the other (tried something new |vs| came up from nothing |vs| overcame initial stumbles), but I don't think there's strong grounds to declare categorically a "winner" that I would take seriously. Even the Wii ended up with a really satisfying library of games, despite its abrupt drop in support and popularity (after its stratospheric boom of success).
 
S

Sorian

Banned
Derrick01 said:
Did they? They were irrelevant in the industry for the entire generation and once the casuals left, for whatever reason it was, they've been struggling without the help of the rest of the industry and dedicated gamers.
Click to expand...

This is it in a nutshell. They won because they had that precision strike on casuals but as casual people do, they've already moved on to the new trend and left nintendo high a dry. The wii won in sales but it probably wasn't worth it in the long run.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Derrick01 said:
They were irrelevant in the industry for the entire generation
Click to expand...

I highly doubt we'd have seen something like Kinect or Move pushed this past gen if not for the Wii's early success, I don't consider that irrelevant - they caused their competitors to react.
 
F

fogboundturtle

Banned
Nintendo won with the most console sold but I bet the software attach rate with the Nintendo Wii was pretty horrible. Sony and MS did much better and this is where the money is not in the hardware but in the software.
 
pants

pants

Member
What's the metric for winning here? If it's numbers it's clearly Nintendo, if we're bringing subjective measures into this Sony any day.
 
G

GulAtiCa

Member
Nintendo won in the end. They may have fallen so much from doing not much at the end, but there is no denial how much they were ahead this generation.
 
F

FunkyPajamas

Member
Sorian said:
This is it in a nutshell. They won because they had that precision strike on casuals but as casual people do, they've already moved on to the new trend and left nintendo high a dry. The wii won in sales but it probably wasn't worth it in the long run.
Click to expand...

It was worth it, definitely. The problem is not what they sacrificed with the Wii to win the casuals, but that they thought a similar strategy would work again with WiiU.
 
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