I decided to throw down some history first:
(excluding first and second gen consoles, as none of us were hardcore into Magnavox Odysseys or the Atari):
Third-gen (1983–1992): NES released first and it dominated (non-competition agreements for devs + strong game lineup including Mario, Zelda, and Metriod) over the Cassette Vision, Sega Master System, and Atari 7800. The Sega Master System actually had more success in Europe but didn't fare too well in the US, much like the Atari 7800, which failed because it was unable to compete when so many devs had been snatched up within the non-competition agreements from Nintendo and its following success.
Winner: NES (released first)
Loser: Atari 7800 (released last)
Fourth-gen (1987–1996): SNES released last (behind the TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, and the Neo Geo), but it still dominated because of its already-strong presence in the marketplace with the NES and arguably superior hardware/game lineups. The Turbografx-16 was really more of an 8-bit system and tried to tweak everything so it was on-par with the competition, but ultimately it was still an 8-bit system and jumped the gun too early. The Neo Geo was too expensive ($650) and didn't gain much momentum. Sega tried to gain some stance in the marketplace by introducing Sonic, but later shot themselves in the foot by discontinuing the Genesis/Mega Drive to focus on the Sega Saturn (the demand for Genesis games was a lot greater than it was for Saturn games).
Winner: SNES (released last)
Loser: Turbografx-16 (released first)
Fifth-gen (1993–2006): 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was released first, but had a $700 price tag that nuked it right off the bat. The Sega 32X failed because it was doomed to become obsolete soon behind its Sega Saturn, but this failed too because it wasn't able to create the same impact that it had with the Genesis. The Atari Jaguar was the first 64-bit to come onto the stage, but was unable to gain third-party support and had all sorts of hardware problems -- it tanked hard. Sony released the Playstation, which generated tons of support -- enabling it to gain some market dominance. Nintendo tried to tide everyone over in the meantime with the Virtual Boy, which was a gimmick-attempt to create a 3D virtual-reality type of system, but the crappy red graphics and the eye strain turned the it into a huge flop with an extremely small game library. Nintendo eventually released the N64 but did so a year after the PS1, and while it was successful (amazing game lineup), it still used expensive cartridge systems and was unable to meet the success of the PS1 (only selling about a third as much).
Winners: Playstation (released 4th) -- with the N64 following in second place (released 5th/last)
Losers: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (released first), Atari Jaguar (released second), Sega Saturn (released third), Virtual Boy (released before the N64)
Sixth-gen (1998–2005): Sega lashed out first with the 128-bit Dreamcast. While it helped make up for the Saturn and 32X failures, the upcoming PS2 was hyped to hell and had a much more aggressive marketing campaign. Tons of PS1 users were eager to upgrade to the PS2, which also came with DVD support. Devs were hesitant to jump on-board the Sega train and waited to see how the PS2 would fare against it first. With the XBox and Gamecube on the horizon, the Dreamcast was considered by many to be an investment in something that would become soon-obsolete. The PS2 delivered great game lineups (FFX, MGS2, GTA, Tekken Tag Tournament, etc) and was backwards-compatible with the PS1. Enter XBox -- enter Halo. The XBox had huge financial backing from Microsoft but it was still unable to pierce the armor of the PS2 despite having a strong fanbase and XBox Live. The Gamecube was released last and struggled because it didn't offer anything new and had trouble competing with the more "mature" game titles since Nintendo was seen as more family-friendly. Lack of third-party support was also a huge problem, since everyone had basically flocked to the PS2 and XBox.
Winner: PS2 (released second)
Loser: Dreamcast (released first)
Seventh-gen (2005–): Microsoft wrought forth the XBox 360, which had a great start due to XBox Live and strong game titles like Halo 3 -- but it had a slew of hardware problems (e.g. the Red Ring of Death), which was arguably due to releasing things too early in an attempt to gain marketshare. Sony's PS3 had Blu-Ray support (analogous to how the PS2 had early DVD support), but this caused all sorts of hardware problems in manufacturing. Blu-Ray wasn't in high demand and the price tag of the PS3 was way too high for many, hurting sales pretty hard. Finally, the Wii tried to expand the target audience to include casual, hardcore, and new gamers altogether by introducing a totally new way to play games rather than focusing on beasting the competition on performance metrics. It wound up proving to be really successful for Nintendo, which had previously suffered from poor Gamecube sales figures. The Wii also profited on each console sale, whereas Sony and Microsoft sold the hardware at a loss with the hope of recouping the costs through game sales. Everyone else tried jumping on the motion-gimmick-bandwagon (Sony Move, Microsoft Kinect) to capitalize on the Wii's success, pitting Sony and Microsoft against each other.
Winner: Nintendo Wii (released last)
Loser: Sony PS3 (released second)
(excluding first and second gen consoles, as none of us were hardcore into Magnavox Odysseys or the Atari):
Third-gen (1983–1992): NES released first and it dominated (non-competition agreements for devs + strong game lineup including Mario, Zelda, and Metriod) over the Cassette Vision, Sega Master System, and Atari 7800. The Sega Master System actually had more success in Europe but didn't fare too well in the US, much like the Atari 7800, which failed because it was unable to compete when so many devs had been snatched up within the non-competition agreements from Nintendo and its following success.
Winner: NES (released first)
Loser: Atari 7800 (released last)
Fourth-gen (1987–1996): SNES released last (behind the TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, and the Neo Geo), but it still dominated because of its already-strong presence in the marketplace with the NES and arguably superior hardware/game lineups. The Turbografx-16 was really more of an 8-bit system and tried to tweak everything so it was on-par with the competition, but ultimately it was still an 8-bit system and jumped the gun too early. The Neo Geo was too expensive ($650) and didn't gain much momentum. Sega tried to gain some stance in the marketplace by introducing Sonic, but later shot themselves in the foot by discontinuing the Genesis/Mega Drive to focus on the Sega Saturn (the demand for Genesis games was a lot greater than it was for Saturn games).
Winner: SNES (released last)
Loser: Turbografx-16 (released first)
Fifth-gen (1993–2006): 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was released first, but had a $700 price tag that nuked it right off the bat. The Sega 32X failed because it was doomed to become obsolete soon behind its Sega Saturn, but this failed too because it wasn't able to create the same impact that it had with the Genesis. The Atari Jaguar was the first 64-bit to come onto the stage, but was unable to gain third-party support and had all sorts of hardware problems -- it tanked hard. Sony released the Playstation, which generated tons of support -- enabling it to gain some market dominance. Nintendo tried to tide everyone over in the meantime with the Virtual Boy, which was a gimmick-attempt to create a 3D virtual-reality type of system, but the crappy red graphics and the eye strain turned the it into a huge flop with an extremely small game library. Nintendo eventually released the N64 but did so a year after the PS1, and while it was successful (amazing game lineup), it still used expensive cartridge systems and was unable to meet the success of the PS1 (only selling about a third as much).
Winners: Playstation (released 4th) -- with the N64 following in second place (released 5th/last)
Losers: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (released first), Atari Jaguar (released second), Sega Saturn (released third), Virtual Boy (released before the N64)
Sixth-gen (1998–2005): Sega lashed out first with the 128-bit Dreamcast. While it helped make up for the Saturn and 32X failures, the upcoming PS2 was hyped to hell and had a much more aggressive marketing campaign. Tons of PS1 users were eager to upgrade to the PS2, which also came with DVD support. Devs were hesitant to jump on-board the Sega train and waited to see how the PS2 would fare against it first. With the XBox and Gamecube on the horizon, the Dreamcast was considered by many to be an investment in something that would become soon-obsolete. The PS2 delivered great game lineups (FFX, MGS2, GTA, Tekken Tag Tournament, etc) and was backwards-compatible with the PS1. Enter XBox -- enter Halo. The XBox had huge financial backing from Microsoft but it was still unable to pierce the armor of the PS2 despite having a strong fanbase and XBox Live. The Gamecube was released last and struggled because it didn't offer anything new and had trouble competing with the more "mature" game titles since Nintendo was seen as more family-friendly. Lack of third-party support was also a huge problem, since everyone had basically flocked to the PS2 and XBox.
Winner: PS2 (released second)
Loser: Dreamcast (released first)
Seventh-gen (2005–): Microsoft wrought forth the XBox 360, which had a great start due to XBox Live and strong game titles like Halo 3 -- but it had a slew of hardware problems (e.g. the Red Ring of Death), which was arguably due to releasing things too early in an attempt to gain marketshare. Sony's PS3 had Blu-Ray support (analogous to how the PS2 had early DVD support), but this caused all sorts of hardware problems in manufacturing. Blu-Ray wasn't in high demand and the price tag of the PS3 was way too high for many, hurting sales pretty hard. Finally, the Wii tried to expand the target audience to include casual, hardcore, and new gamers altogether by introducing a totally new way to play games rather than focusing on beasting the competition on performance metrics. It wound up proving to be really successful for Nintendo, which had previously suffered from poor Gamecube sales figures. The Wii also profited on each console sale, whereas Sony and Microsoft sold the hardware at a loss with the hope of recouping the costs through game sales. Everyone else tried jumping on the motion-gimmick-bandwagon (Sony Move, Microsoft Kinect) to capitalize on the Wii's success, pitting Sony and Microsoft against each other.
Winner: Nintendo Wii (released last)
Loser: Sony PS3 (released second)
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