Kotaku: The console wars are over and nobody really won.

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

I think we have a lot of millennials here and millennials see the console world as it was when we were growing up. There really isn't much of a prize for winning the console wars. The reality is Sony and Microsoft were fighting for a piece of the same 180 million or so customers and a market where the only real growth is coming from microtransactions and charging people more for games and hardware.

The walled gardens millennials grew up with instead of bolstering the companies are now limiting them. Granted failure pushed them there but Microsoft realized this and kicked the walls down. Sony fanboys might mock them today but as time goes on expect Sony to do the same. It's not that they'll abandon home consoles it's just that there's limited growth to be had there. I don't think Sony can acquire much from Xbox customer base. Many will go straight to PC, many will stay with whatever Xbox becomes, and a decent portion of them probably already own PlayStation consoles anyway.

That last part is me 100%.

Console wars make sense when you're in middle school and the parents can only get you one console + games.

As an adult, if you've got decent disposable income....you buy both consoles and enjoy what each offers. My wife is a PS5 diehard and hates Xbox. I like aspects of both consoles, so we own both. People act like it's an "either/or" proposition.

 

[Fatboi1]

wii had a strong gimmick.

Grandmas bought the Wii. My mom still has a wii hooked up to her tv in the basement

But the waggle was only good for one generation, grandmas ain’t gone buy another wii.

Without another hit gimmick nintendo had to kill an entire market for switch to be successful.

Through a console wars lens 150 million switch sales are very impressive.

But when you consider they went from a 250 million console market to a 150 console market it starts to look a bit less impressive

Nintendo was the first to drop out the console wars. An entire 100 million console market, just gone

The reality is, the market has shrunk and is shrinking for all 3 of the platform holders. Industry discourse is just stuck on comparing them with each other instead of themselves. The video games media industry was built on and is sustained by console warz. The rest of the world has moved on.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Truth ain’t exciting when you can keep fighting the war

 

[Legal]

Bruhs are still going through it

This thread is pure comedy.

The multiple plot twists.

The spamming of the Michael Jackson gif while still antagonizing brehs over shyt they swore was over.

The usage of "CAC tweets" while calling a white guy not much older than you "Uncle Phil"

This shyt really brought out top tier Arcadium fukkery.

 

[horizon]

Maybe nobody won but Microsoft definitely lost

 

[The Mad Titan]

@The Mad Titan Why did the Wii U fail?

1st I want to say nintendo needs to bring back nintendo land with the switch 2... It won't happen but that was a FIRE progression of wii sports and gave us a sneak peak into what was on Nintendo's mind even then with the amusement park take. Nintendo Land could be the Fuzion Frenzy of the nintendo series.


But back on topic...it was 1st and foremost because of the lack of 3rd party support after launch and into the release of the new XB/PS, It was confusing to the average person, and the average person were the main people buying the wii. It for sure wasn't because of the lack of exclusives, it has more than enough of those... infact we getting a "definitive remaster" to one of the best wii u exclusive games ever next month


But just like every system that has failed before and since, the common ground is the lack of 3rd party support. You can have banging 1st and 3rd party exclusives, like the gamecube and wii u, or you have a amazing launch titles and exclusives like the dreamcast or you can have the fan favorites and arcade perfect games like the Saturn did but with but no 3rd party games for months.


The one console that has always had strong 3rd party support from start to finish is ironically also the most popular consoles, and the one generation that the console(PS3) had the worst 3rd party support is also the generation that the xbox had the best 3rd party support and people remember fondly. And this applies to handhelds too. Which is why part of the reason why nintendo was always dominant that space.


I will say this though, I think indies, GAAS and mobile games have kinda taken over that role that strong 3rd party support did. The tale end of the wii u shop and currently the switch is kinda proof of this... The amount of people that buy random knock off indie games from the online store is crazy.
I thought 3rd party would be stronger than ever on the wii u because it had a ton of 3rd party support early... but it basically fell off once the ps4 and xb1 dropped.


oh lets not forget how expensive another gamepad (100 bucks) was once they were available because you couldn't buy it at launch meaning you always had one person with the cool pad controller and everyone else with reg ole controllers


Anyway

TLDR Lack of 3rd party support, Marketing/confusion, Console price point which people figured was just going to be and people still enjoying the wii for what it was.