Baki
Member
Just to be quick:
Nintendo has never been in the same position as MS, even when its hardware sales were lot great, bc they have an unrivalled collection of IPs, which they know how to manage.
MS only got back into gaming (having previously abandoned it bc it was non-core to their business & Gates hated it) because Gates started fretting about the success Sony had with PS1 & Ken K talking up Sony's ability to put simple PCs in living rooms. You have to remember Sony prior to the mid-00s was a powerhouse of a corporation that quite literally had more money than it knew what to do with, which is why it's still a bit of a weird conglomerate in todays corporate world.
In 2000, Sony was valued at $130B and Microsoft was over $300B, so MS certainly felt that Sony was a company in a similar weight class to them. That's not remotely the case today.
Virtual Boy is the only exception. Then the 3DS had a rough start. Everything else was pretty great though.
Rough start but ended up with a great run.