this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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[–] scott_the_sloth@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago

Why is Microsoft so bad at everything

[–] lime@feddit.nu 68 points 1 week ago (16 children)

oh great, ai generated pixel art.

[–] gilokee@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

really? How can you tell? :(

[–] lime@feddit.nu 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

the buttons on the switch and ps2, the asymmetry of the ps1 and switch, the logo on the ps4, and the lack of pixellation and strange proportions of the 360 and ps3. also the fact that only some of them have controllers depicted.

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And by far the most obvious: many of the Pixels are not square, or misaligned with the grid pattern, and they also have wildly different sizes on some of the consoles

[–] minamoog@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] gilokee@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

but it's purple

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[–] Pistcow@lemmy.world 50 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The reason for the high sales of the PS2 was because it was a cheap DVD player at being nearly half the price of a stand alone DVD player.

Funny by the time I worked at Target when they discontinued selling VHS and a customer was arguing with me about why did we stop selling VHS and I replied, "Dude, buy a DVD player, there's one on that shelf for $35, its cheaper than a toaster now." My manager standing next to me wasnt too happy but the customer reluctantly bought the cheap ass-DVD player.

[–] itsamelemmy@piefed.zip 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The ps3 was also one of the cheapest blu-ray players at the time. But I'm pretty sure the 2 launched for 3 or 4 hundred, not 500 or 600 like the ps3 so that probably put a damper on sales. I know I waited for the 40gig $400 ps3 version that gen, and the ps3 price is what made me buy a 360 initially instead.

[–] greybeard@feddit.online 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There was also a pretty aggressive format war between BluRay and HDDVD that tempered demand for a little while. I bought a launch PS3 as well, in part because of BluRay.

I also think it was a time where not everyone had an HD TV, nor did most people see a huge difference between DVD and BluRay, so there just wasn't quite the demand compared to VHS vs DVD. Aside from the graphical stepup to DVD, it also didn't need to be rewinded and didn't take up nearly as much space. I think those two were big selling features, that the DVD to BluRay transition just didn't have.

[–] itsamelemmy@piefed.zip 5 points 1 week ago

All true. I also remembered that I actually bought 2 ps2 as I bought my girlfriend's mom one for a dvd player for Christmas I think. The vhs to dvd was definitely a bigger jump than to blu-ray.

[–] Buffy@libretechni.ca 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How was your manager not happy with this? You not only talked them into a purchase but a purchase into an ecosystem that would likely generate future revenue for the company. There is nothing but positives here?

[–] Pistcow@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I think because it was the way I said dude?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RL1Vcn8yX1g

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[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

As someone who moved on from consoles between the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo, the PS2 is the only modern console I've ever owned, and it was 90% for the DVD player.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 35 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Looks like the data is a little out of date, seems the PS5 has outsold the 360 now. Also why are handhelds missing?

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[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm actually shocked how low 360/ps3 are.

I felt like everyone I know has at least owned one, and they where more consoles where actually used as Netflix boxes back then out of necessity due to lack of good smart TVs or set top boxes.

Plus they had an extra 5 years of being around, not to count the fact most early adopters bought another twice, especially with the 360 due to RROD.

[–] PineRune@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

I think the big difference is the older generation of gaming didn't have to compete with every kid having a tablet they could just play games on.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think the Wii stole the momentum. PS3 and 360 were just crazy expensive compared to the Wii and the prev gen of consoles. And unlike PS2 those two consoles lacked a lot of games for kids. So for parents it was an easy decision to just get a Wii. Not to mention if you already had a PS2 you had a large library of games at your disposal and the machine was modable, it’s why it still sold very well in the end of the console’s lifetime especially in middle income regions, like it sold super well in South America. So many PS2 owners weren’t going to convert to PS3, just way too expensive and can’t play pirated games.

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[–] pirate2377@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm actually surprised that the PS5 is right behind Xbox 360 and PS3

[–] xeekei@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It's actually a good option now when PC gaming is suffering of price crisis after price crisis.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not sure this pricing crisis will not have an impact on consoles, too

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[–] oce@jlai.lu 15 points 1 week ago

I didn't know Xbox was so low compared to Playstation, no wonder there's rumor Microsoft will drop console making.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Switch being #2 behind PS2 is impressive given it has had a shorter lifespan. PS2 was on the market for 13 years. Switch has only been 9.

[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Switch has a good chance of overtaking PS2 before the end of its lifespan. The Switch is still selling and still getting game releases.

[–] rljkeimig@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I think the PS2 being so well sold is more impressive because the price adjusted for inflation is closer to $560, or $299 in the year 2000.

I think part of it was the idea that it could also be a DVD player so you wouldn't need two devices that helped sell it if I recall correctly.

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Strange, I distinctly remember it being a big deal that the Wii outsold the PS2 at some point.

[–] jedibob5@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The Wii might've had higher sales at its peak, but PS2 had a lot of longevity.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Never heard of that. Maybe it was for a specific year or region.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I figured the 2004 release as the PS2 slim turned the tables again, but that was still before the Wii came out in 2006. It's possible that story only counted the original PS2 and this chart counts both, though.

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[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

More accurate image:

I don’t quite agree with the Gameboy and Gameboy Color being combined though.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago

Has there been any console pair besides Gameboy and Gameboy color that had games released that would work on both but behave differently on each? Some carts were black and white, some worked only on GBC, but some (like most of all of the pokemon games) would still be black and white on the original but had unique color palettes on GBC.

Looks like the technical term is "Color-enhanced Game Boy Game Pak".

The color-enhanced Game Boy Game Pak (also known as class B, dual mode, or black cartridges) improved the gameplay experience on the Game Boy Color and subsequent systems while maintaining compatibility with older monochrome devices.

These cartridges can use the full color capabilities of the Game Boy Color and subsequent systems, displaying up to 56 colors simultaneously out of a palette of 32,768 while remaining compatible with the original Game Boy where they were presented in four shades of gray. However, this compatibility comes at the expense of not being able to utilize the handheld's increased processing speed and memory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Game_Pak

Compare that to GBA, which had GBA games but could also play Gameboy and Gameboy Color games. But there were no GBA games that could run on Gameboy or Gameboy Color. That weird middle ground might be why they count them together.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I'd be interested to see how sales of the steam deck compare. Sure, it's a pc not a console, but the whole thing is to bring pc gaming to console gamers so I'm interested in the comparison.

EDIT: based on a quick search, 4 million as of this time last year. I did not find anything more up to date than that. Looking that up made me realize that it would be nice if this chart had a date on it since two of the consoles in the chart are still in production.

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[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Genuinely surprised that nothing old-school made the list: NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, A2600, etc.

[–] Infrapink@thebrainbin.org 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The NES was the best selling of those, at ~60 million. The PS1 completely changed the curve.

It's funny. People remember the PS3 as a failure because it's the worst-selling PlayStation, but it still crushed NES numbers

[–] paultimate14@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

And it still outsold the 360 in the end

[–] defuse959@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

Microsoft really shit the bed. And then continued to do so. This makes me happy.

[–] TeamTeddy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

As of last year, I've used all the bestselling consoles on here. They're all pretty good.

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