NOTE: This isn’t about the quality of the brands in discussion, it’s simply about the performance in stores. Which console brand is better is purely subjective (objective in some aspects) and these are just my thoughts.
If you tell someone to name anything videogame related, chances are Mario, Pokémon and Nintendo will be among the first things you hear. But this post isn’t about how popular something is by voting with your mouth, it’s about voting with your wallet.
Playstation is a huge name in gaming. In terms of sales they have two of the 3 best selling consoles of all time, and this generation it’s currently in the lead by a lot and will probably continue to be so until it’s over. Of their other home consoles, 2 of the 3 were the leaders of their respective generation, with only the PS3 being trumped by the Wii. Why do they perform so well? Luck, maybe, but I believe it’s because of these following reasons.
THE NOSTALGIA FACTOR - Nobody does nostalgia like Nintendo, but the Playstation name also has a bit of that charm to it. It was among the first consoles to be capable of running 3D games so when it’s time to look back at those early days of 3D it’s very likely that you think about either the N64 or the Playstation, something that the Xbox was late to the party with. Maybe Xbox’s time with nostalgia is approaching?
THE POWER FACTOR - With the exception of the PS2, the Playstation consoles have been powerful in terms of hardware. Not as powerful as the most expensive PC, but of the consoles. This makes developers come to their platform so they can create their games with as few limitations as possible. This is something that Xbox does as well but not Nintendo, as their focus is more towards low-energy.
THE JAPANESE FACTOR - By Japanese I mean things like JRPG’s, games based on an anime or with a similar artstyle, everything inbetween. As Playstation’s HQ was originally in Japan - now moved to the US - they are very likely close with many Japanese developers and publishers. Since Japanese games are often very distinctive from games developed in America or Europe they have a certain fanbase that is rather large and may not often collide with eachother. Xbox has always been a mostly Western focused console, meaning they don’t really have that fanbase, which allows PS to reign successfully in that area. Sure, Nintendo also sees some success in this regard, but not nearly as much, thanks to the next point.
THE THIRD-PARTY FACTOR - It’s simple. Third-party publishers and developers go where the potential money is, and that’s the place with the biggest installed base. As I’ve said before, Playstation was the leader of 3 of the 4 console generations they’ve been apart of so far, so naturally the third-parties like EA and Activision would flock to PS, and since these guys are now on Playstation, people will buy their console, making it bigger, and so it repeats.
IN CONCLUSION - These are the 4 points I believe contribute the most to how successful a console can be - aside from marketing, price and first-party offerings of course - and Playstation has all of these things, making it probably the best brand of console out there.