Last generation: Ps3, 360, Wii - who won?

[XtremelyBaneful]

Okay 2 generations back, I think it is quite clear that the Ps2 was king. It is the best selling system of all time, sitting close to 160.

That's not to say that xbox and gamecube were failures though, they all had stellar games worth owning said console for; halo, fable, forza, mario, zelda, metroid, pokemon, smash, etc.

But I don't think the answer is quite clear cut, or even popularly agreed upon for last generation.

The 360 came out a year early and is hugely popular, and definitely had Xbox make a name for itself. It's got about 84.

The Ps3 on the other hand had a rough 2 years in the beginning. MGS4 made things a little better for it, and then things finally started to even out with the Ps3 slim. It's got 80.

The Wii on the other hand which didn't really even compete with its competitors (lol) in my opinion, has over 100. So to me, even though it was kind of doing its own thing, the Wii was the winner of the last generation.

The 360 was more influential though. I think for the past 10 years in hardcore gaming, people thought Xbox more than PlayStation. Especially with the likes of cod, being the biggest franchise of last gen, was way more popular on 360 than Ps3.

But the Ps3 did eventually catch up to the 360. To date, There's a 4 million difference, but what's a few million when we're talking tens of millions sold, you know? I'd say it is a tie. Although the 360 almost always had way higher attachment rates though.

Ps3 & 360 tied for 2nd place, and Wii came out on top.

What do you say?

 

[Quasimod0]

I'm gonna say Microsoft. With the exclusive early access to CoD stuff, Halo games, and the solid multiplayer experiences. Seems like most of the people I know were big 360 players, over PS3. Now I'm seeing a lot of people go to the PS4 as their main console. I was one of those who made the switch.
Now Sony had some FANTASTIC exclusive games for the PS3, like best of the best games. But they were mainly single player experiences. I just feel like the 360 was the go-to main console for a lot of people. More than the PS3. Seems like the tables have turned now though.

 

[spiderman2]

Sony and it not even close. Sony had great game and a reliable system xbox 360 had none of that and wii was a much worse system then game cube was and then the wii u. Nintendo had no games and the system was basicly a game cube with motion control and I don't care for motion control.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Sony went from undisputed king to fighting for second place with Microsoft.

Now, I'll agree that the PS3 was by far the better console, since the Wii was a supped up Gamecube with motion controls, and the 360 was the console equivalent of a FIAT. But each PS3 cost a thousand dollars to make (with inflation). For that kind of money, it better be the best.

I don't really have any love for the Wii, but it was an incredible financial success. The motion controls while not my cup of tea, was obviously a major breakthrough.

Still, it always felt more like my Mom's Nintendo than my Nintendo.

 

[spiderman2]

Sony went from undisputed king to fighting for second place with Microsoft.

Now, I'll agree that the PS3 was by far the better console, since the Wii was a supped up Gamecube with motion controls, and the 360 was the console equivalent of a FIAT. But each PS3 cost a thousand dollars to make (with inflation). For that kind of money, it better be the best.

I don't really have any love for the Wii, but it was an incredible financial success. The motion controls while not my cup of tea, was obviously a major breakthrough.

Still, it always felt more like my Mom's Nintendo than my Nintendo.

Your mom's Nintendo lol. Yeah motion controls are not my cup of tea and I really only got the system for Zelda and I only have 6 games on it. Wii u I think is much better then the wii has I already have 11 games on it and still have the next Zelda to get and maybe a few other games. I find it kind of funny I thought wii sucked yet it sold great and now I think wii u is good and it is not saling good lol.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I think the Wii U is a terrible system personally. Possibly the worst ever, from the big three.

The name is awful of course. But the system is fundamentally... flawed. Nintendo has always been an introverted company; they lost dominance in the market to Sony simply because they refused to adopt optical disc technology when everyone else was.

But there is so much their competition is doing better, which they really should be emulating. The Wii U is cripplingly underpowered, which is already causing it to lose almost all third party support. It's hard drive is ridiculously small, which limits Nintendo's ability to sell digital content.

Nintendo has really lagged behind with online play. The lack of a dedicated ethernet port just underscores that. The lack of an account system like the Playstation Network also makes buying digital content less appealing, especially since it's not cross platform.

And then there's the rather stupid decision not to put a blu-ray player in it, but a very similar proprietary player. With the Wii, I found the lack of a DVD player mildly annoying, but now it just really irritates me.

Even the software lacks basic things like being able to save files to transfer to another Wii U.

But from a gameplay perspective, the Wii U seems to go directly against what made the Wii so popular. It was a social gaming machine. The Wii U's Gamepad almost seems to be designed for the stereotypical asocial basement dweller gamer (and I concede that I do like it). Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's not something that lends itself to social play, which is what made the Wii so successful.

Or to put it more simply, your parents will not be playing tennis with it.

Your girlfriend will hate this thing.

 

[spiderman2]

I think the Wii U is a terrible system personally. Possibly the worst ever, from the big three.

The name is awful of course. But the system is fundamentally... flawed. Nintendo has always been an introverted company; they lost dominance in the market to Sony simply because they refused to adopt optical disc technology when everyone else was.

But there is so much their competition is doing better, which they really should be emulating. The Wii U is cripplingly underpowered, which is already causing it to lose almost all third party support. It's hard drive is ridiculously small, which limits Nintendo's ability to sell digital content.

Nintendo has really lagged behind with online play. The lack of a dedicated ethernet port just underscores that. The lack of an account system like the Playstation Network also makes buying digital content less appealing, especially since it's not cross platform.

And then there's the rather stupid decision not to put a blu-ray player in it, but a very similar proprietary player. With the Wii, I found the lack of a DVD player mildly annoying, but now it just really irritates me.

Even the software lacks basic things like being able to save files to transfer to another Wii U.

But from a gameplay perspective, the Wii U seems to go directly against what made the Wii so popular. It was a social gaming machine. The Wii U's Gamepad almost seems to be designed for the stereotypical asocial basement dweller gamer (and I concede that I do like it). Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's not something that lends itself to social play, which is what made the Wii so successful.

Or to put it more simply, your parents will not be playing tennis with it.

Your girlfriend will hate this thing.

That is how I felt about the Wii but I love the Wii u though lol

 

[Soapy]

Sony went from undisputed king to fighting for second place with Microsoft.

This is pretty much the long and short of it.

I feel like the 360 was the clear winner last gen. Yes, the Wii sold more, but let's be honest; it only sold as much as it did because motion controls were a fad. Hell, the PS3 might even end up selling more when it's all said and done. However, when you look at where the Xbox brand was in the 6th generation and where it went in the 7th, and compare that to how things went for Playstation... well it's pretty obvious who really won.

Xbox gained the most ground. Xbox by far gained the most mind share. Clearly they won.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

This is pretty much the long and short of it.

I feel like the 360 was the clear winner last gen. Yes, the Wii sold more, but let's be honest; it only sold as much as it did because motion controls were a fad. Hell, the PS3 might even end up selling more when it's all said and done. However, when you look at where the Xbox brand was in the 6th generation and where it went in the 7th, and compare that to how things went for Playstation... well it's pretty obvious who really won.

Xbox gained the most ground. Xbox by far gained the most mind share. Clearly they won.

Like I said in the OP, even though the Ps2 kicked it's ass, the xbox1 had plenty of titles making it worth having, if you wanted it, you know.

And yes the 360 was definitely the most influential console last generation. At least when people thought like real video gaming and not casual audiences.

360 was the most influential still, however, the PS3 was still able to match it more or less in lifetime sales, something the xbox1 couldn't do to the Ps2. And the wii still sold more units overall. I don't think the PS3 will sell more wen it's all said and done; any way you look at it, Nintendo came out on too.

360 basically won in terms of popularity I suppose in one sense by name, but 20 million more people owned wiis anyway so technical still the wii was the most popular.

Also any way you look at it the PS3 didn't win at all lol

 

[LEVITIKUZ]

 

[HauntedKnight]

I'm going with Sony only because the online features were free and there wasn't any exclusives I wanted that I couldn't get on the PS3.

 

[Oscorp]

Well, in that console generation I bought a 360 before I got a PS3. And I've always been a fan of Playstation.

The start of PS3 was just so bad! I mean, I think this new generation of consoles is starting frustratingly slow, but I think the situation for PS3 was even worse. Haze? Lair?

Whereas Xbox started strong with Mass Effect, Gears of War, Halo etc., while also being ahead of PS3 in time.

I eventually sold my 360 and bought a PS3 and I don't regret it at all. I think overall, Sony has much better exclusive games, at least more fitting to my taste. Better games the last years than 360 IMO.

360 however is a much better social gaming experience. It took me a while before I played online on my PS3 (don't ask me why). I always thought "Hey everyone's talking about 360's online experience, but what about PS3? I mean, it's free!". I didn't realise how bare bones the online experience on PS3 is, despite being free. You can't even chat with friends unless you play the same game. I didn't realise how great the online on 360 was until I played online with PS3 haha!

I've played some Wii and while it's a pretty fun "party game" console, I don't really see what's so great about it. Perhaps because I'm not a casual gamer. Those "party games" got boring pretty quickly.

Overall though, I think that the winner when it comes to my personal taste is PS3. I couldn't be more satisfied with the games for that console, and that's what matters the most.

However, I think the more "objective" winner in the generation is Wii. 360 is second, above PS3 for the reasons Soapy pointed out

 

[Tron Bonne]

This is pretty much the long and short of it.

I feel like the 360 was the clear winner last gen. Yes, the Wii sold more, but let's be honest; it only sold as much as it did because motion controls were a fad. Hell, the PS3 might even end up selling more when it's all said and done. However, when you look at where the Xbox brand was in the 6th generation and where it went in the 7th, and compare that to how things went for Playstation... well it's pretty obvious who really won.

Xbox gained the most ground. Xbox by far gained the most mind share. Clearly they won.

I don't think that's plausible. It's have to sell 20-30 million units, and I think that won't happen. It's possible, but at the rate it sells now, those kinds of numbers are behind it. though, I will agree, it may have the most legs of the three in the sense that it will continue being supported and sell small amounts after the other two.

I think if we want to talk pure financially here, Nintendo is the clear winner. The Wii can be dismissed as a fad by core gamers and the internet fandom, but it still sold a very clear amount more than it's competition. It had some of the most incredible software sales, too. Not only that, Nintendo was actually making a profit on each Wii sold, while MS and Sony was not on the 360 and PS3, so it was doubly as successful because of that. No one really seems to want to give it credit for that, I guess because of the perception that it "abandoned" the core audience, but I find it indisputable really.

Going outside the financial aspect, I played the 360 more, so I guess that would be my winner. But eh, I don't feel like either the three was really a loser. People **** on the Wii and all, but I found it to have a good library of titles, and I played plenty on my PS3, too. There was no war to me, just good stuff all around.

 

[Soapy]

I don't think that's plausible. It's have to sell 20-30 million units, and I think that won't happen. It's possible, but at the rate it sells now, those kinds of numbers are behind it. though, I will agree, it may have the most legs of the three in the sense that it will continue being supported and sell small amounts after the other two.

Are you talking about the Wii? I was talking about the 360. Last time I checked both the 360 and PS3 were sitting at 80 million units sold, presumably only a few hundred thousand sales apart. Neck and neck basically.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Maybe I misread what you were saying, but I thought you were saying that the PS3 may sell more than the Wii, which is over 100 million units, I believe. If you're talking about it outselling the 360, though, yeah. I thought it already had globally.

 

[bigdaddy313]

I am sorry the ps3 is 83.4 while xbox360 is 83.2.

http://www.vgchartz.com/#Last Generation

 

[runawayboulder]

PC blows away a lot of what console can offer IMO.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

I need to make something perfectly clear here before we move on.

some of you have said sony is the winner because they came out with most games that were your favorites.

keep in mind this thread isn't supposed to be: what was your favorite console last gen; this is supposed to put bias aside and give your opinion on who was the clear winner of last gen.

my favorite obviously was the Ps3 but to me the clear winner of the last gen was the Wii, with the 360 being very largely influential but the Ps3 still being able to keep up with it in sales.

some of you have stated PC, and to that i have 2 things to say,

1. this thread is obviously for the 7th generation console race
2. how many last generation PC games were milestone titles that also did not come out for consoles?

and some of you mentioned how the Ps3 did beat the 360 in overall sales by a few hundred thousand. like I said in my OP, what's a few million when we're talking tens of millions sold? they're even.

tron bonne, I don't think you misread what he said I think he was just confused. I agree with you and what he was indeed trying to say I believe, was that eventually the Ps3 will have the legs to outdo the Wii's 100+ numbers.

 

[CJ]

While Ps3 is my favorite, without a doubt, 360 was the clear winner of the last generation. It was the more affordable option, had the best online service and sold the most units, I believe.

While the Wii sold quite a bit during it's launch, it quickly burned out, and everyone made the switch to the HD consoles like 360 and Ps3.

 

[hafizbat]

The 360 came out real strong, but the PS3 made a mind-blowing comeback, considering all the odds against winning. By the end of the last generation, the PS3 was not only on par, but head-and-shoulders above the 360.

To sum it up, the Xbox 360 absolutely dominated the first half, but the PS3 kept grinding and stole the victory with a huge comeback in the second half.

The Last of Us was basically the final nail in the coffin for the last generation, and imo Sony's crowning moment. Clear winner to me.

 

[Thundercrack85]

PC blows away a lot of what console can offer IMO.

Which given the price of a good gaming rig... you would hope so.

 

[Thundercrack85]

This is pretty much the long and short of it.

I feel like the 360 was the clear winner last gen. Yes, the Wii sold more, but let's be honest; it only sold as much as it did because motion controls were a fad. Hell, the PS3 might even end up selling more when it's all said and done. However, when you look at where the Xbox brand was in the 6th generation and where it went in the 7th, and compare that to how things went for Playstation... well it's pretty obvious who really won.

Xbox gained the most ground. Xbox by far gained the most mind share. Clearly they won.

That's true, but after the rather lackluster performance of the Gamecube, I would argue that Nintendo reclaimed a lot of lost territory with the Wii. More so than even the Xbox.

Unfortunately they lost all that with the Wii U, which put them back firmly in Gamecube country. Only now the console is the 8th gen equivalent of the Dreamcast in power.

Really, I just think Sony was the loser of this generation. Memories of the PS3 launch still make me cringe.

"Riiiidge racer".

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

While Ps3 is my favorite, without a doubt, 360 was the clear winner of the last generation. It was the more affordable option, had the best online service and sold the most units, I believe.

While the Wii sold quite a bit during it's launch, it quickly burned out, and everyone made the switch to the HD consoles like 360 and Ps3.

incorrect. the 360 is sitting at over 80 sold (same as Ps3, going along with what hafiz below said) and the wii is sitting at over 100 sold.

but yeah the wii did burn out fast since it was so cleary drawing in nothing bu casual gamers and diehard nintendo/smash fans. i'm willing to bet a large portion of wii owners also owned either a Ps3 or a 360.

The 360 came out real strong, but the PS3 made a mind-blowing comeback, considering all the odds against winning. By the end of the last generation, the PS3 was not only on par, but head-and-shoulders above the 360.

To sum it up, the Xbox 360 absolutely dominated the first half, but the PS3 kept grinding and stole the victory with a huge comeback in the second half.

The Last of Us was basically the final nail in the coffin for the last generation, and imo Sony's crowning moment. Clear winner to me.

yeah up until 2008 people never stopped talking smack about the Ps3. no one saw it coming back the way it did. and those that did kinda overestimated, thinking it would eventually outsell the 360 which was never the case except for maybe a few weeks and months.

I wouldn't call tlou the nail in the coffin for the 7th gen though. it is of course an incredible game but it didn't really change things regarding the console wars except reinforce the fact that playstation is the go to gaming platform for the best single player experiences.

That's true, but after the rather lackluster performance of the Gamecube, I would argue that Nintendo reclaimed a lot of lost territory with the Wii. More so than even the Xbox.

Unfortunately they lost all that with the Wii U, which put them back firmly in Gamecube country. Only now the console is the 8th gen equivalent of the Dreamcast in power.

Really, I just think Sony was the loser of this generation. Memories of the PS3 launch still make me cringe.

"Riiiidge racer".

the gamecube and xbox1 performed pretty much on par man, but I wouldn't call either one a failure. refer to my OP.

sony's failure with the PsP should've been their first foreshadowing about the Ps3. they overpriced it and it didnt perform as well as they expected. then they came out with the Ps3 for over half a grand expecting everything to be okay and... yeah. they repeated their mistake for the 3rd time with the PsPgo.

the ps vita was also expensive at launch but it was the same price point as the 3ds at the time I think, and then quickly the 3ds got a price cut before the vita launch which kinda screwed it. am i on point with that?

and if what you're saying about the wii u is right, that means eventually seeing smash go multiplatform... and i'm all for it t:

and i don't know why people rip on ridge racer so much. it is actually a very fun game. ridge racer v was I think my first Ps2 game and I had a great time playing it. ridge racer 7 looked pretty good too. too bad they kinda let it go.

 

[Thundercrack85]

The Xbox definitely wasn't a failure. But the fact that Nintendo had less sales than Microsoft, a total newcomer to the business with a bunch of untested games, was pretty damn bad. Meanwhile Sony was burying everyone alive because of one little acronym. DVD.

Again, Nintendo's refusal to adopt mainstream technology really took its toll. Now, I'm not saying that the Gamecube being able to play DVD's would have made all the difference in the world; but when half the people buying the PS2 say their biggest factor in buying it is the DVD player... maybe Nintendo should have followed suit. Not to mention all the developers having a hard time working with Nintendo's proprietary format.

The Dreamcast comparison only works in terms of power. Nintendo, despite doing poorly now, is still sitting on a very big pile of Wii and DS money. SEGA on the other hand was on its last leg when it came out with the Dreamcast. It also did some things that really undermined investor and consumer confidence (the whole Sega CD / 32X debacle).

The Ridge Race line is more a reference to the awkward press conference than the game itself. Like Giant Enemy Crab.

 

[LEVITIKUZ]

In the beginning, I would say Nintendo won. When the Wii came out, everyone wanted one. The Wii was big. Hell if it wasn't for the Wii, Playstation wouldn't have done their Wii copycat Move and Xbox wouldn't have done Kinect. Both were responses to the Wii.

I do think in the middle, the Wii lost some steam. I had the Wii first and after Super Mario Galaxy or Brawl (don't remember which), I rarely played it. I got a 360. I do think overall the Xbox 360 won. Not saying Playstation was bad, they ended strong but when you look at the whole thing, Xbox was always doing well. Not as good as Wii at some points but when PS3 came out, people didn't buy it a lot. It was like $500 I believe at it's launch meanwhile the Wii was $250.

Overall I think Wii had the biggest impact because how Xbox and PS tried to copy it but Xbox was good throughout it's run and never lost steam.