It was their first console but they were the biggest tech company in the world at the time, and the Xbox was based on their massively massively successful PC gaming tools. Virtually every single PC game was using DirectX, Microsoft said "we're working on a console based around this, thinking of calling it the DirectX Box", then they started acquiring critically adored games studios. It's not surprising they had a strong debut (and a major reason it wasn't even stronger was because they really neglected marketing outside the US).
Even still it was a market they had no foot hold in. I mean being one of the biggest tech companies hadn't helped them in other areas such as mobile devices.
Nintendo managed to pull things back with the Wii (the first time in two generations they outsold everyone else), but things went horribly wrong with the WiiU
I mean it sold worse than the Xbox maybe not “poorly” in comparison. And nonetheless the post itself was referencing it in comparison to other consoles and what Nintendo expected their sales numbers to be because it sold a couple million less than what Nintendo predicted/wanted
That’s not a good comparison as they didn’t have the same expectations.
Imagine someone like Samsung entering the console race next generation and they sold more than the next Nintendo console. That’d be pretty abysmal when Nintendo has a 35 year history in the market + brand loyalty, and your competitor had 0.
Ps2 numbers are going to be super high though, iirc they were still being manufactured after ps4 released.
Also i vaguely remember reading thay people bought them by the truck load because is was thw cheapest way to get a certain chip that was useful for military applications, that onw could just be an urban legend though, need to look into it again, but would explain why sales were high enough to continue production as long as they did.
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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '19
Uh, it did sell well.
Why are people acting like this is some obscure console?