Is Sony the most successful home console maker in history?

Let me put it this way. I don't think highly of my chances of being able to have a meaningful discussion at that level in this forum. So as you adequately put it, I limit my arguments to what i think is appropriate for the level of comprehension of this forum. My life would be a lot easier this way. The contrary would lead to much frustration

Going by sales, certainly. And I've always liked Sony's offerings. But I still put the SNES as my favorite console of all time (my opinion, of course).

"In History" - That phrase makes me cringe when it comes to a medium that has existed for less than half a century.

As if there has been HUUUUUGE competition.

@Juub1990: wrong

Nintendo has made 3 highly successful consoles and all 5 successful handhelds thanks for trying though

@mariokart64fan: And Sony has made 4 successful home consoles. Why do you bring up handhelds?

3 successful home consoles. The PS3 was a financial failure.

True. In 2011 apparently they had lost billions because of it. Wonder if they ever managed to break even.

They probably have gone far beyond even by now. Esp with the PS4.

The PSP Go, PSP and the MOVE. All flops. PS Vita was actually better then these.

@blackace: "The PSP Go, PSP and the MOVE. All flops."

Move is a flop but I'd argue is not a new machine. It was a weak attempt to attract gamers who like Wii's control scheme.

PSP didn't flop. PSPGo is just an extension of PSP.

"PS Vita was actually better then these."

This is a joke. PSP destroys Vita.

They're far too new on the scene to be called the best in history - perhaps the best in the last 20 years...

As far as consoles sold? Yup.

Brand recognition: Yup.

Games and actual enjoy-ability: That part is subjective.

PS Vita is a much better handheld then PSP. The PSP had a lot of crap on it as well. Sure it might have sold better then the PSVita, but it wasn't that great. PSP Go was an all digital PSP. Sony pulled that crap of shelves in less then a year. Complete flop. MOVE was a new device. You needed the camera and MOVE controllers. Whatever the case, it still flopped worse then Kinect.

I meant the PS3 alone, Did the PS3 managed to recoup its own losses?

I'd argue Nintendo is still the most well-known video game brand.

@blackace: "Before it launched, PSP had sold 51 million by January 2009. After PSP Go launched in October 2009, PSP sales increased to 82 million by 2013. That's an increase of 60% and 31 million units."

You tell him/her @jags85:

Sorry, but I think you made a mistake. It wasn't Sony who was promising console gamers that their machine will have the power of 3 PS4s with the POWAH OF THE CLOUD. It was actually MS. You don't have to thank me for correcting you, It was my pleasure.

I think I must've accidentally deleted that post.

It depends. Everyone has heard of Nintendo as much as they've heard of the Playstation brand. However, nobody is really clamoring for Nintendo consoles they way people used to in the 90s.

The sad fact is that Nintendo is still trying to market to kids. Kid's don't bug their parents for Nintendo consoles nor is it even the topic of school conversations anymore. Kid's have phones and ipads to talk about now. The older gamers all talk about PS4 and X1 these days. Nintendo is no longer the 'go-to' brand nowadays

What's even more impressive is Sony beat Nintendo's console sales with two less consoles on the market.

The fact is the Playstation brand is the spiritual successor to the SNES. It took over as the leading platform for core gamers ever since.

Gonna be interesting to see how well the Switch sells.

Between them and Nintendo, it's a toss up.

Seems now though that Sony has totally given up on the gaming aspect. Hopefully they can bring back their TV and other divisions.

@Juub1990: I would say that depends on the generation. I would say gamers born before 1995 yeah Nintendo is the bigger brand but if your a gamer born after 1995 then Sony might be the bigger brand.

If we're just talking about sales, yeah, Sony has been gobbling up market share since the PS1 launched.

But in terms of games production they are way, way behind IMO. Yeah, Nintendo has like a ~20 year head start but the sheer volume of groundbreaking/iconic/innovative/whatever-the-hell games they have produced dwarfs pretty much every company. Well, maybe Sega can give them a run for their money, though that might be the dormant Sega fanboy saying that within me. lol

Shit just look at all the Zelda clones, Mario clones, Pokemon clones spawned from each respective release. They created the kart racing genre. They're the first company to really nail the transition to early 3D gaming. I'm sure there is more I am missing.

I know, it's all subject, blah blah, but just consider how much wide spread recognition characters like Mario (and the entirety of the Mushroom Kingdom) and Zelda have. Plus they've made impacts in other areas like the d-pad, rumble, analog stick, shoulder buttons, decent 3-D camera control, portable gaming, touchscreen gaming, motion controls, 4 controller ports...like it or not these things were made much more popular and some are industry standards because of Nintendo. True, they probably weren't the first to bring them to market but they certainly had a hand in their widespread use/implementation. And before you poo poo motion controls just consider how much the Wii expanded the overall gaming consumer base, for better or worse. Moar money in the industry=moar better.

Sony has done a lot in terms of helping gaming as a hobby/pass time to mature. Just like the Wii, the PS1 expanded the consumer base thus contributing to industry growth. With that growth came older gamers and more games to suit their tastes. I also think Sony was crucial in helping push forward hardware design. Had they not released the PSP, Nintendo would have probably been content with very marginal upgrades to their handhelds. Competition breeds innovation so thank goodness Sony pushed the envelope with technology. If I'm not mistaken MS also began making hardware because they were in fear of Sony owning the living room/home entertainment space. Oh and I can't forget dual-analog (was Sony first to do this? IDK) and the adoption of new optical media format.

So yeah, Sony and Nintendo have been instrumental in the growth of our beloved hobby. We owe them both a debt of gratitude.

I realize I haven't mentioned MS. They've had an impact as well (HDD being standard in console, pushing tech forward, online multiplayer....I'm sure they can be credited for popularizing other things) but not quite as much as Sony and Ninty. Without them, console gaming would either fucking blow, be far behind where it is now or not even exist all together and we'd all be playing PC games instead (which might not be a bad thing but, ya know).

The console market was smaller back in the days when Nintendo dominated. After the Atari crash, Nintendo had to rebuild the console market from scratch into a multi-billion dollar industry.

While true, some credit should also go Sony's way as far as expanding the console market. Building the machine around third party, being third party friendly, and their marketing around the older games. The Playstation branding during the PS1 to PS2 was pretty legit from a marketing standpoint. I get the counter argument was that Sega was also in position to capitalize on the stuff Sony did, but part of that is getting your shit together, and Sega's shit was a lot of things, but together? not so much.

Sega is a whole other story. Just when they started dominating Nintendo, Sega started making a series of terrible business decisions, allowing Sony to capitalize on their mistakes and destroy Sega. This can pretty much be summed-up by this single mic-drop moment right here:

Well, there's really not a point to turn themselves over to the adult audience, so it's the kids (or let's be honest, the casuals) that kind of relate to Nintendo best here.

I remember that feeling when they routed Ninty in the arcades, and were close to doing the same in the home console space. They took on Sony in all the wrong ways. Sony grew big time off of this.

Also, Ninty made a huge mistake turning Sony's deal down. Just imagine what a Nintendo Playstation would have been like today.

Sega was the console market leader when they launched the Saturn, and thus made themselves the primary target of Sony's onslaught. Ninty made a smart move to wait it out before launching the N64, while capturing the 16-bit market with the SNES in the mean time.

The original Nintendo PlayStation prototype was discovered in late 2015:

Super NES CD-ROM

Its hardware is underwhelming though, weaker than the Sega CD. If Sony and Nintendo went through with the project, I don't see it doing very well against the Turbo CD or Sega CD. The cancellation was a blessing in disguise for Sony. After they went their own way, Sony discovered Sega's Virtua Fighter in the arcades, which is what inspired them to redesign the PlayStation as a 3D powerhouse, ironically.