Which console won the last gen war?

[Galuf]

im too biased for the Xbox....


but wii had TP and playstation..... uh... allowed me to play FF7 & 8.

yeah those are games available for older consoles.

i just say 360 cos it was my primary console

[Formalhaut]

I actually have both a PS3 and an XBOX 360. I brought the PS3. Mr. Carny contributed the XBOX 360. I'd give the edge overall to the PS3. I prefer the PS3 controller marginally over the 360 controller, although both were pretty good. In terms of games, my library has a majority of PS3 games, although Mass Effect, two of the Dragon Age games and Borderlands 2 are my favourites from the XBOX collection. On the other hand, there was Uncharted, Final Fantasy and Tales of Xillia, among others. Some of them probably aren't exclusives, but the entire concept of exclusivity is just strange.

The interface on both needs works. the PS3's 'single row' menu is strange, to say the least. I'm used to it, but it isn't great. The XBOX interface is also odd. On the surface, it looks more lively and interesting, but half of the options are just advertising or asking you to take Gold. I'm not an on-line fan, so that's pretty useless to me.

Honestly, the PS4 main menu is also pretty rubbish as well. Both consoles aren't excelling at making clear menus that you can customise to your liking.

[Galuf]

I actually have both a PS3 and an XBOX 360. I brought the PS3. Mr. Carny contributed the XBOX 360. I'd give the edge overall to the PS3. I prefer the PS3 controller marginally over the 360 controller, although both were pretty good. In terms of games, my library has a majority of PS3 games, although Mass Effect, two of the Dragon Age games and Borderlands 2 are my favourites from the XBOX collection. On the other hand, there was Uncharted, Final Fantasy and Tales of Xillia, among others. Some of them probably aren't exclusives, but the entire concept of exclusivity is just strange.

The interface on both needs works. the PS3's 'single row' menu is strange, to say the least. I'm used to it, but it isn't great. The XBOX interface is also odd. On the surface, it looks more lively and interesting, but half of the options are just advertising or asking you to take Gold. I'm not an on-line fan, so that's pretty useless to me.

Honestly, the PS4 main menu is also pretty rubbish as well. Both consoles aren't excelling at making clear menus that you can customise to your liking.

Im not sure if ps3 did this.
but 360 had 3 different menus during its cycle iirc. im glad of the last one. the other 2 were... i didnt like them.

[Wolf Kanno]

PC, last gen was one of the weakest console generations and I've had more gaming friends turn to PC and now ignoring this current console generation, that I'm starting to wonder if the current crop will even do well as time goes on.

For me personally? The Wii was probably my favorite, if incredibly short-lived, system of last Gen and I certainly have more fond memories of the games I played for it.

[Slothy]

PC, last gen was one of the weakest console generations and I've had more gaming friends turn to PC and now ignoring this current console generation, that I'm starting to wonder if the current crop will even do well as time goes on.

If honestly say if there was one defining trait of this generation it was the breakdown of the imaginary wall that always kept console multiplatform titles off of PC. Aside from console exclusives there's really not much that doesn't get a PC release these days. Even Japanese developers like Squenix are getting into that market these days for more than MMO's and if you'd asked me ten years ago or more I'd wonder if they even knew how to develop for PC.

Mind you, we still have companies completely bitching PC releases like Arkham Origins and AC: Unity, but there's still a fair few good ports out there.

[theundeadhero]

It was less of a war and more of a fight on the playground monkeybars for all the difference it made. Console wars meant more when the actual consoles were significantly different.

[CimminyCricket]

For me the PS3 won due to just having more games that I wanted to play. I sold/traded away my 360 at least twice during the generation. I have had the same PS3 throughout the whole run.

I owned all three systems, but the Wii was the party system, the 360 was the Halo/Misc machine, and the PS3 is where I did all of my serious gaming.


If we included the hand helds (that I've seen mentioned), the 3DS won me just by the sheer volume of great games, but I played the Vita more just due to PS1 Classics and rereleases of Disgaea games.

[Del Murder]

For me personally the most games I liked were on PS3. In terms of overall popularity and success, Wii hands down. In terms of the 'hardcore gamer' cred, probably 360. So it really depends on perspective.

[Mirage]

I don't really consider it a three way war as the Wii went for a totally different audience and it paid off dividends. If you do want to throw it in then yup, it won.

PS3 and 360 went head to head and the 360 won that. I think in sales the PS3 just about outstripped the 360 in the end (mostly due to Japan hating Microsoft) but I still think you can chalk it up as a 360 win. In the console market, brand loyalty is insane. People are absolutely ridiculous about their loyalty to big faceless corporations. If you want an example of that, just wait for the responses I'll get here for saying the 360 won Don't worry everyone, I'm a Sony fanboy if anything, I promise!

A portion of the 360s lead can probably be attributed to the console releasing almost a year ahead of PS3. Year for year, PS3 caught up sooner than at the "end" of the generation (if you count the release of PS4 as the end of it). Also, if you're racing someone, you don't win by being ahead 90% of the time, you need to reach the finish line first to win .

However, I don't think install base is the only relevant metric for a console's success. The total profitability from the console's eco system matters too. If Sony sold more games per console, you could argue that they won in profitability even if they didn't win in install base. That only helps to a certain extent, however. The WiiU also has a lot of games sold per console, but their install base is so low that it's unlikely that they are making anywhere near as much money as even the XB1 from it.

[Wolf Kanno]

To be fair, it's still too early to say who "won" or not, especially since I feel the defining impact is not so much sales as it is overall impact to future game generations. I mean in the Genesis vs. SNES, Sega pretty much won that in terms of sales, but I would argue the library of the SNES had the greater impact and has been remembered far better than what Sega had to offer.

In a similar fashion, while X-Box had Halo and Nintendo had their flagship franchises, I feel it is safe to say the PS2 had the more memorable and impactful gaming library. As usual, the software determines the winner, not the hardware.

[Pheesh]

I'm biased because I never owned a 360, but I'm saying PS3 because there were never any games that made me want to buy a 360. The Last of Us alone tips the scales heavily in the PS3's favour for me.

[Slothy]

I mean in the Genesis vs. SNES, Sega pretty much won that in terms of sales

Huh? I was certain the SNES outsold the Genesis and a quick trip to Wikipedia confirms a sales lead of more than 15 million units.

[Wolf Kanno]

I mean in the Genesis vs. SNES, Sega pretty much won that in terms of sales

Huh? I was certain the SNES outsold the Genesis and a quick trip to Wikipedia confirms a sales lead of more than 15 million units.

Go figure, last time I checked a sales between the two it was Sega who won, course they may have added peripherals sales into the mix like the 32X and what not, so maybe my numbers were wrong.

[Psychotic]

I don't really consider it a three way war as the Wii went for a totally different audience and it paid off dividends. If you do want to throw it in then yup, it won.

PS3 and 360 went head to head and the 360 won that. I think in sales the PS3 just about outstripped the 360 in the end (mostly due to Japan hating Microsoft) but I still think you can chalk it up as a 360 win. In the console market, brand loyalty is insane. People are absolutely ridiculous about their loyalty to big faceless corporations. If you want an example of that, just wait for the responses I'll get here for saying the 360 won Don't worry everyone, I'm a Sony fanboy if anything, I promise!

A portion of the 360s lead can probably be attributed to the console releasing almost a year ahead of PS3. Year for year, PS3 caught up sooner than at the "end" of the generation (if you count the release of PS4 as the end of it). Also, if you're racing someone, you don't win by being ahead 90% of the time, you need to reach the finish line first to win .

I probably didn't explain my point well enough. You are completely right that it matters where you finish, although the difference is actually all but negligible.

I think the response of consumers is a great way to gauge the quality of a product. Not perfect, no, and I'm sure others attribute more weight to other metrics such as the one you mentioned, profitability. I'm a consumer and not a shareholder or accountant of these companies though so I'm more interested in this.

When I say the Xbox 360 ate into the PS3, perhaps a better way is to show these stats from VGChartz (so if anyone has better please feel free to post them)

6th Generation
PS2 (157m sales)
Xbox (25m sales)

7th Generation
PS3 (86m sales)
Xbox 360 (85m sales)

As stated, consoles enjoy real brand loyalty and this is the key part of my argument. The 7th Console Wars or whatever was not an even race to begin with. After they had such a huge headstart based on how the 6th generation went, to finish all but level is poor from Sony and great from Microsoft. I also genuinely think that if the Xbox and PS2's positions were reversed, the 360 would've absolutely stomped the PS3 in terms of, yes, this purely sales perspective. That was my point so I hope I've put that across better.

For point of interest:

8th Generation (as it stands)
PS4 (41m sales)
Xbox One (21m sales)

Microsoft have undone all of their good work from the last generation. I'll throw in a "yes, it's early days yet" disclaimer but so far it ain't looking good. Consumers simply haven't responded to their product in the way that they have to Sony's.

[Mirage]

You could definitely argue that Xbox 360 won because it managed to come from an underdog position and then ending up practically tied with the previous market leader. The surge in popularity is most likely considered a victory for MS. Their paid online service probably also lead to them making more money per console, but then you might also have to count the losses from console replacements following the rrod situation.

In a way, what I take from all these statistics is that whenever a manufacturer hits the nail on its head in one gen, they get overambitious and/or overconfident and smurf up in the next gen . We might see a good next gen from MS, while Sony will be the one to struggle.

The race analogy was meant as a bit of a joke , the so-called "console war" is a bit more complex than a simple race to the finish line.