Yahoo Games have taken the opportunity to list which console launches were the best, and which were genuinely the worst. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo latest home console, Wii U, was listed as one of the worst console launches of all-time along with the Phillips CDi and the Panasonic 3DO. However, the Wii, the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo were listed as the best console launches of all-time. Here’s the list.
Best console launches:
- NES
- SNES
- Dreamcast
- Xbox
- Wii
Worst console launches:
- Intellivison
- Phillips CDi
- 3DO
- Playstation 3
- Wii U
seems fair enough
Nah. the Wii U has followed the same exact trajectory as the PS3. The fact that it’s in our minds right now doesn’t make it worse. And Dreamcast? What the hell? Fantastic console, no question, but that thing crashed and burned from beginning to end.
Actually the DreamCast did really well at launch:
“The Dreamcast was released in November 1998 in Japan; on September 9, 1999 in North America and on October 14, 1999 in Europe and November 30, 1999 in Australia. Despite problems with the Japanese launch,[8] the system’s launch in the United States was successful. A record 300,000 units had been pre-ordered in the U.S. alone[8] and Sega sold 500,000 consoles in just two weeks (including a record 225,132 sold during the first 24 hours). In fact, due to brisk sales and hardware shortages, Sega was unable to fulfill all of the advance orders. Sega confirmed that it made $98.4 million on combined hardware and software sales with Dreamcast following the September 9, 1999 launch.[17] Four days after its launch in the U.S., Sega stated that 372,000 units were sold bringing in $132 million in sales.[8]
Launch titles such as Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, Hydro Thunder, Marvel vs. Capcom, The House of the Dead 2, and NFL 2K helped Dreamcast succeed in the first year.[18] Sega Sports titles helped fill the void left by a lack of Electronic Arts sports games on the system.[19] Dreamcast sales grew 156.5% from July 23, 2000 to September 30, 2000 putting Sega ahead of the Nintendo 64 in that period.[20] However, the launch of Sony’s PlayStation 2 that year marked the beginning of the end for the Dreamcast.[21]” – Wikipedia.com/dreamcast
Fair enough. I was only aware of how it went in Japan and Australia.
This information about the Dreamcast is quite surprising, especially considering I didn’t see any advertisement around it’s prime. When my friend brought his dreamcast over, though, it was instantly one of my favorite consoles (I couldn’t put Sonic adventures one and two down). Sadly, the console was short lived and PS2’s specifications ended Sega’s great legacy of consoles.
I was satisfied at launch with Soul Caliber & Power Stone. Later I picked up Sonic, NFL 2k, & H.O.T.D.
It had good selection of games when it launched in west. From Sonic Adventure to Soul Calibur, but i think theres also some nostalgia raising its value on it.
agreed.
“Wii U has followed the same exact trajectory as the PS3” Who fed you that malarkey?
Our empire dominating as always on lists that matters…
No Atari Jaguar?
I was also expecting to see the Virtual Boy up there
Wii should probably be first and no Playstation or PS2 in the top 5?
The Wii U launch figures were actually pretty good, I wouldn’t say that the launch was even a disaster, more of not capitalising on decent launch figures than anything else.
Granted I admit, Nintendo has made some big flops but the Virtual boy was the flop to end all flops, it was a good idea but the technology at the time wasn’t able to successfully create a 3D on-the-go experience
Isnt the list based on games? I would’ve put Wii U in the top 5 for launch games. I’m not interested in the fact that some were previously released games, but what a start? Batman Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, ZombiU, Darskiders 2, NSMBU, Nintendoland et al
I believe it was more based on the commercial success of a launch, and none of those under the “worst” category had anything even loosely fitting the definition of successful.
If that’s true then wiiu has to be in the good launchs list.
Wii U had a great first week but after that it went down, and hard. Nintendo was to early to launch the console. If they had waited til the first quarter of the year or something Rayman would still be exclusive, the drought of games never happened and it would have sold better, than it does now, or at least the same amount on a shorter period. I’m convinced of that.
Wii U still has no good games.
Dreamcast should’ve been #1 or #2. It had a NA launch date that could be hyped to the moon…and was. There’s pretty much no way you could forget the date DC launched.
I think wii u should be replaced with 3ds it had a waaaayyyy worse category of games when it launced.
They’re probably factoring in bouncing back from a salty launch as well. The 3DS really bounced back from a launch that didn’t really have titles to warrant the price out the gate.
The 3DS went into rampaging beast mode awhile after the launch whereas the Wii U has had victories here and there.
Wii U is still in that period though.
this is about console launches not portable launches portable would be the fact that you can play on the go virtual boy was designed that way but wasnt as portable as they really make it out to be and the 3ds and ds are portable as well but if i was comparing bad launches i would say the ds over the 3ds cuz the ds really didnt have that much to enjoy that wasnt a remake
Including “st” after any adjective will likely make it incorrect. As far as the “worst” console launches are. I have no qualms with what they are trying to say, but the 5 worst should be ones that nobody has ever heard of, unless this is supposed to be the 5 worst console launches out of the consoles that we heard of.
If they think that the Wii U is one of the worst console launches, they clearly don’t know much about video game consoles. Where’s the Virtual Boy? And under the best launches, where’s the Playstation 2? And wasn’t the Game Boy rather successful? Among others…
Handhelds weren’t included
Do you seriously think the Virtual Boy is a handheld?
Believe it or not it was marketed as such.
Hey, where’s Apple Pippin?
3DO?
Haven’t heard of it? Consider yourself lucky…
Never heard of it. Realize how bad it was :p
The wiiU sold great at launch and had
quite a decent launch lineup.
It was the drought and lackluster sales that came after.
There was no drought, nothing that is not normal for the post release first year. That’s just a bandwagon buzzword
I’m not sure how they are gauging the success of a launch, but it just goes to show that launches mean little in the long run.
The PS3 launch was definitely bad. Admit it.
Uh, yeah it was bad. Who said it wasn’t?
In fact, I mentioned nothing about any specific console. Why bring up the PS3 specifically?
No atari jaguar? no gamecube? man, that list is a total lie. It’s still fun that the Wii U is right after the PS3. It means that even the ps3 still had worse sales, lol.
So, they list the Wii U a console that still hasn’t yet hit it’s peak and the PS3 a console that I find to be fantastic! Rather than the PS3 it should have been the Vita the official handheld for ports and the Virtual Boy in place of the Wii U.
…just saying >_>
This is based on the consoles launches. Both the PS3 and Wii U had (or in the Wii U’s case, is still in the middle of) a very rocky start.
WiiU launch wasnt by any means bad, it had good selection of games when it came out, from NsmbU to Sonic racing transformed to Cod BO2 to Zombiu to AC3 to Tekken Tag 2 etc. there were some good games the day it came out. However it was the following months up until Pikmin 3 release date which were pain and dry with no games, but the launch date wasnt bad at any means. It could have been better yes! but it doesnt belong to worst console launches imo.
philips CDi.. OHMAGEERWD
that thing was so terrible that it didn’t just have one of the most terrible launches it actually was one of the worst consoles of all time.. and still is…
and nintendo helped create that abomination
scratch that… THE most terrible console of all time.. if you don’t count the numerous low budget consoles that are making their way westwards out of china these days.. i’m not counting those..
i’m only counting serious and planned efforts at releasing a game console to the world market
Seems like it’s more “5 best and worst performing consoles” rather than just launches, except for the PS3. I’ve decided Yahoo Games is dumb at making lists.
Euh NO, because then why would the Dreamcast and Xbox be in the best performing list.
I’ve decided lizalfos is dumb at making comments.
Yeah fair enough, actually. But even it’s not by overall performance, the list still doesn’t really make sense. The Wii U launched pretty well, Virtual Boy isn’t on there, etc etc.
I suggest that Yahoo makes bad lists AND I make bad comments =P
Although once you move from relevant discussion to personal insult, you become kind of a moron troll, so I guess Andy is dumb at making comments, too.
Why isn’t the 360 on worst console launch? People were getting red rings on day one!
they’re looking at sales i think
Turbografx anyone? Atari 5200? … Neo Geo CD? Hmmmmm…
Turbographx had a decent launch. N64 and Jaguar had awful launches. Wii U had a pretty decent one.
I was thinking of the TurboExpress..
I didn’t think the portable launch was bad, just suffered the same things the Lynx and the Gamegear suffered from, low battery life and kind of expensive for games in the 80s.
Um, wasn’t the Wii U launch really good though? It was post launch that it started to tank.
depends on what timespan you define as “launch”
Holidays 2012. It was in January when it started to go down in sales.
According to Lord Regginator, the launch window is about 3-4 months…
Ah. Well they still sold over 3 million consoles in that time, not really bad imo.
Indeed it isn’t…
It was decent despite only having Nintendoland and NSMBU…
well the lack of games was probably one of the key factor in the wii u making that list because, truth be told, it really didn’t have many compelling games at launch
Y U NO swap Gamecube with XBOX ?
Wii U really? I’d replace that with 3DS
Now if this were a “Terrible first four years, go bankrupt” list, PS3 would take the cake.
This list confuse me more than an iceazema comment.
LoL the Weak U have to be 1# in worst console launch ever
Clearly you are someone with an age of less than 13 years old…
grow up
the wiiu needs to be higher in that list for worst launches. almost the entire launch was consisting of multiplats that have been out for months.
Many of the ports had been out for years and were already getting dusty so it was kind of meaninglless to buy Mass Effect 3 when you could get the trilogy on X360 and the same goes for Darksiders, it feels like something is missing when you can only buy parts of whats on other consoles. Nintendo should have added more power to the console, skipped the holiday ports and release it in the summer with the same price tag when N games were released.
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The Xbox was better than the Wii??? Doubtful.
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bought a ps3 when it was relesead…forgot I even had it then about two years later better games were released ….realized I still had it….played it…..sad story
Atari 5200 should be in there, that thing was a disaster..
Where in the world is the Sega Saturn on the worst list
um it isn’t?
“Gee,, sure is boring around here! I wonder what Ganon is up to?”
The gaming drought was worse than the launch tittles.
I like how the WiiU had what’s considered one of the worst launch lineups but still did better than PS3 and 360 during each of their first months
Reblogged this on Dacrigon.
Wii u is on there but not Saturn, 32x or ngage!
Yawho?
Virtual Boy is not on the list, but Wii U is? What a joke. Biased morons.
it’s based off consoles, not handhelds…
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