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Nintendo President On Future Of Gaming
Thanks to IGN Cube for their summary of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's keynote speech at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show. Interestingly, Iwata suggested that "...gamers are getting older and tastes are becoming more sophisticated", but didn't necessarily see that as a good thing for industry growth, "because gamers might buy fewer games due to longer play value and a desire to play only software with very high production values." He also remained unconvinced that convergence of functionality for game consoles was the right path, saying: "Although PS2 was a sales success because it had a DVD player function, it troubled me that we had moved to a hardware where the sole function wasn't playing games" and concluded: "It is imperative that a game machine is easy to use for anyone. I don't agree that multi-function hardware is the only answer."
You make some great points in the post. I will make on major dispute, and that's Sony had a strong launch lineup. I was working at EB at the time of the PS2 launch, and there's no way that the software they had at launch was anything but one of the worst launch line-ups in history. Of course, there were about eight times more games than the N64 launch (which is to say 16, as opposed to say, 2), but the only strong titles at launch were SSX and Madden 2001. And that was pushing it.
I remember the lucky few that did own a PS2 within the first few months (and a memory card - lucky bastards) would stand in front of the wall just blankly staring, as if maybe a decent title would suddenly morph from the game wall into vision. The launch, by nearly every definition, was a complete failure. First, there weren't enough games. Then there weren't enough systems. Then there weren't enough memory cards. Compound this with Christmas, greedy retailers (including EB) who sold it for nothing less than a $600 bundle, and greedy Ebayers picking 5 up at a time, and you've got yourself one of the most fuddled up launches in the history of consoles. And let us not even speak of the first party *TITLE* (singular, not plural) at launch (-cough-fantavision-cough).
No, the Xbox and Gamecube launches fared fare better. Consequently, it's a testament to Sony's reputation among adult gamers as well as the surge of software in the spring and summer quarter of the following year. Oh yeah, it didn't hurt that Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, and Grand Theft Auto 3 also came out the following Christmas.