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I think all console makers will have at least one great flop in their existence. It is kind of like a test in a way? If they are a great company, it won't matter, they?ll be able to recover and go on to make greater systems in the future. If they are piss-poor, it'll ruin them.
Sega's big flop was the Saturn. The Dreamcast couldn't help after they made such a poor system before it... they had way too much stigma on them and it really killed them. Pitty too, the Dreamcast was such a powerful console and has so much more untapped potential. Sega got out of the console market and still makes some pretty good games for the console market.
Nintendo's big flop was the Virtualboy. Kickass concept, stupid fucking system. It gave people headaches and nauseas, it was hard for many people to see. Plus when you have real way to play it other than standing up (gamers like to sit our fat asses down god damn it!) it was doomed to failure. Nintendo recovered from this fiasco easily and stiller mains one of the big three.
Microsoft?s big flop was Windows Millennium? wait. It?s big flop is probably going to be the Xbox 360, at least in foreign markets. It just has not caught on in place outside of the US, especially in Japan. It?s not to say that the 360 is a bad system? it fucking rocks for the most part as long as you have a HDTV, otherwise it?s going to suffer on older screens on some games especially (King Kong anyone?)
Sony is the only big company to not fuck up as of yet hardware-wise. PS1/PS2 have been huge in all markets, even with the PS1 being inferior to the N64 in everyway (minus the cd vs. cartridge thing, which ultimately let PS1 win imo). I don?t know if the PS3 will have success or if it?ll be Sony?s big mistake. If it is, and if they are a good enough company to handle it, then it won?t matter.
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