I was having a discussion with some mates a while back about why the PS line has been so successful and one of them came up with a theory that some of it may have something to do with how easily illegal copies of the games could be acquired. I never really noticed this but when you think about it, it makes a little sense.
In asia for example, with their blatant disregard for intellectual property meant that games are sold on the street for as little as $2AUD. My cousins in (sorry, better not say the actual place but let's just say south-east asia) for example have both the PS1 and PS2 but do not own any legitimate copies of any games but have well over 200 games for each system and it seems this is far from uncommon over there. Nobody uses a nintendo there mainly because it is more difficult/inconvenient to make copies of nintendo games (i.e. cartridge and then a slightly smaller disc). So even though the games weren't doing so well, the console itself did very well as that itself would be very difficult to copy.
16/11/2006
Melbourne, Victoria