I'm not an Xbox 360 fanboy, as I don't have the system and don't intend to have one for a long while, but the Dreamcast fanboys keep spreading stupid rumors like the Dreamcast had the best launch lineup and that the PS2 sucked worse than any other. Sure, fanboys are not to be trusted, but they spread this stuff to the non-fanboys, who then shout these things as "facts." I'm not a fanboy of any kind as I want to enjoy my consoles rather than bash the ones I don't have.

Now this isn't a perfect fact that the Xbox 360 had the better launch, but it's as close as we can get outside of arguing for the next 1,000 years about it. Whether you like it or not, good games are good games and the number behind the title isn't that big of a factor. This uses the GameRankings average ratings that have been given to these games to ensure that the wild rantings of a lunatic don't affect this as much as possible. The launch lists themselves came from wikipedia's launch game page, which lists the games available on day one of the launch to avoid the argument about the launch window. 

Without further ado, here's the findings of my experiment:

Dreamcast Launch List

Airforce Delta - 64.9%
Blue Stinger - 71.1%
Expendable - 61.0%
Flag to Flag - 63.9%
House of the Dead 2 - 77.9%
Hydro Thunder - 80.3%
Monaco Grand Prix - 69.5%
Mortal Kombat Gold - 55.2%
NFL 2K - 91.6%
NFL Blitz 2000 - 80.1%
Pen Pen Tri-Icelon - 63.7%
Power Stone - 84.0%
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - 83.5%
Sonic Adventure - 87.1%
Soul Calibur - 96.7%
TNN Motorsports Hardcore Heat - 59.5%
Tokyo Xtreme Racer - 71.3%
TrickStyle - 71.8%

Total Games: 18 Avg. Rating: 74.1%

By all means a pretty good launch. Most games are in the 60% to 70% area with a handful that are better. Only eight of the games are above the average with the other ten below. How many are right around that average (+3%)? Three, TrickStyle, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, and Blue Stinger. That means the launch is most either far above the average or below it, no consistency. Soul Calibur was the highlight with the rest complimenting it nicely. Now onto the Xbox 360 launch:

Xbox 360 Launch Lineup

Amped 3 - 75.4%
Call of Duty 2 - 90.6%
Condemned: Criminal Origins - 83.5%
FIFA '06: Road to FIFA World Cup - 64.5%
GUN - 77.7%
Kameo: Elements of Power - 81.6%
Madden NFL 06 - 77.7%
NBA 2K6 - 81.3%
NBA Live 06 - 63.5%
Need for Speed Most Wanted - 84.4%
NHL 2K6 - 75.7%
Perfect Dark Zero - 84.9%
Peter Jackson's King Kong - 82.8%
Project Gotham Racing 3 - 89.2%
Quake 4 - 75.1%
Ridge Racer 6 - 76.9%
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 - 72.4%
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - 77.4%

Total Games: 18 Avg. Rating: 78.6%

Breakdown
60% or lower: 0
60.1% - 70%: 2
70.1% - 80%: 8
80.1% - 90%: 7
90.1% - 100%: 1

Woah, it's 4.5% higher than the Dreamcast launch. Why? Consistency. How does the launch handle the consistency test (+3%)? Seven games are right around the average, much higher than the Dreamcast's results. The reason? Most of the games here were at least good games with eight again beating the average rating of the launch. The highlights of this launch were Call of Duty 2 and Project Gotham Racing 3 with a handful of solid 80%+ titles right behind.

Now we move onto the PlayStation 2 launch lineup, which is routinely bashed as a crappy launch lineup. Now, I may be somewhat of a PS2 fanboy, but no more than to try to correct the wrong spoken of the console and it's lineup. Here's the proof that the PS2 launch lineup, while large in size, had plenty of good to great games:

PlayStation 2 Launch Lineup

Armored Core 2 - 74.1%
Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore - 86.4%
Dynasty Warriors 2 - 71.2%
ESPN International Track & Field - 71.3%
ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding - 71.4%
Eternal Ring - 58.0%
Evergrace - 52.0%
FantaVision - 71.5%
Gungriffon Blaze - 72.3%
Kessen - 76.9%
Madden NFL 2001 - 89.4%
Midnight Club: Street Racing - 76.7%
MotoGP - 77.7%
NHL 2001 - 81.9%
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery - 56.8%
Q-Ball: Billiards Master - 66.5%
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 - 77.8%
Ridge Racer V - 79.5%
Silent Scope - 67.3%
Smuggler's Run - 79.0%
SSX - 91.5%
Street Fighter EX3 - 69.1%
Summoner - 70.9%
Swing Away Golf - 75.2%
Tekken Tag Tournament - 85.5%
TimeSplitters - 83.2%
Unreal Tournament - 76.8%
Wild Wild Racing - 68.7%
X-Squad - 64.5%

Total Games: 29 Avg. Rating: 73.9%

Breakdown
60% or lower: 3
60.1% - 70%: 5
70.1% - 80%: 15
80.1% - 90%: 5
90.1% - 100%: 1

While there's nearly twice as many games as the other two launches, that doesn't mean that the list is all crap. In fact, it's only .2% below the Dreamcast average. So I guess by association, the Dreamcast launch was crap if it's not much better than the PlayStation 2 launch? Not really. Despite the shortage of consoles at launch, which wasn't a new thing for consoles at the time, there were still plenty of good games to play. How does the consistency test hold up? There are 11 games that fall within the +3% range, which comes with the increase in titles. The highlight of this launch was SSX, which happened to be a new title from the newly formed EA Sports Big. The 80% games cover many genres with FPS's in TimeSplitters, fighters in DOA2: Hardcore and Tekken Tag Tournament, and sports in NHL and Madden 2001. The upper 70% games were also impressive with the likes of racers like Ridge Racer V, Midnight Club, Smuggler's Run, MotoGP, an FPS in Unreal Tournament, arcade/fantasy sports games like Swing Away Golf and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2, and the strategy game Kessen.People complain about the lack of original titles in the Xbox 360 despite the good games there while there's several new games here, with 16 new game here, and 7 were above the 75% range.

Just as kind of a curiosity in leveling the sizes between the three, I took the top 18 from the PS2 launch to see how it stacked up to the others. The games below a 71.3% (Dynasty Warriors 2) were cut from the list. Here's the results:

PlayStation 2 Top 18 Launch Lineup

Armored Core 2 - 74.1%
Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore - 86.4%
ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding - 71.4%
FantaVision - 71.5%
Gungriffon Blaze - 72.3%
Kessen - 76.9%
Madden NFL 2001 - 89.4%
Midnight Club: Street Racing - 76.7%
MotoGP - 77.7%
NHL 2001 - 81.9%
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 - 77.8%
Ridge Racer V - 79.5%
Smuggler's Run - 79.0%
SSX - 91.5%
Swing Away Golf - 75.2%
Tekken Tag Tournament - 85.5%
TimeSplitters - 83.2%
Unreal Tournament - 76.8%

Excluded Games

Evergrace - 52.0%
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery - 56.8%
Eternal Ring - 58.0%
X-Squad - 64.5%
Q-Ball: Billiards Master - 66.5%
Silent Scope - 67.3%
Wild Wild Racing - 68.7%
Street Fighter EX3 - 69.1%
Summoner - 70.9%
Dynasty Warriors 2 - 71.2%
ESPN International Track & Field - 71.3%

Top 18 Game Avg. Rating: 79.3%

Not surprising that taking the top 18 games of the PS2 launch would yield a better average rating, but this basically says that the PS2 had a better set of 18 games at its launch then the Dreamcast and Xbox 360 did. It's just interesting to see these results.

My conclusion is that gamers seem to have short memories where they feel it suits them best and nostalgia rules all. The truth is that no launch can really be better than anyother because it's all a matter of opinions. What one person finds an amazing launch another will scoff at it, but as long as you can respect that person's opinions and be able to understand how they can like those games, it should be fine. The problem is the fanboys that feel that they have to bash what they don't like with undue reason and it only results in their inability to adapt and enjoy all of the games available. I am not a console fanboy, I am a fanboy of good games.