Yeah, but nintendo still were the most experienced when sony entered the market. They got blasted by sony, who own the box in most peoples living/bed room.
I saw the Ex Machina E3 special. They covered all three camps. The graphics on the GC and XBox is more than enough to put the PS2 to shame. But I know in the console domain, the Games are more important.
When the nintedno guy was presenting the GameCube, he was describing it as a cuddly piece of equipment. And that is what it is, a toy. Most of the games on it are for children. The Donkey kong racing, star fox (or whatever), luigi something or other. They're all for kids. They showed RS2 and a water skiing game whch I found quite apealing. The graphics in the first three looked ordinary, but in the latter two, they were really nice (although the big spaceship in RS2 had agressive bump mapping, which looked a bit odd.)
The XBox games were more to my liking. Maybe because they were closer to PC games. They showed Halo in four screen splitscreen. I thought that was pretty good.
I think Nintendo aren't fighting in the same arena as MS/Sony. They have their domain of Selling toys. after all that is how they started off. Alos, they didn't add any DVD capabilities, so its not an entertainment machine. Sega got "relegated" because they were in the same domain with inferior marketing and hardware. perhaps not in that order. The Gamecube sale figure will probably repeat that of the N64.
Microsoft will be competing more in the are domain of the PSX/PS2. That is why sony are afraid and are making rogue comments. Like it or not, Microsoft is a marketing machine. They will find a way. After all Mr Gates did make a promise of a PC in every desk in every household, or some other crap like that. He is trying to do it in whatever way possible.
PS2 is failing in many ways. Their expectations of people being happy about the PS2 because they can use it to play their old PSX games is falling apart. All my PS2 owning friends are quite dissapointed, and most are using it as a DVD player and nothing more. Some even want to get rid of theirs, but the recent price drop has them pissed off.
So, the way I see it, there is plenty of room for another console. All Microsoft have to do is make sure they don't make any stupid mistakes and dont try to control the developers like string puppets. It has the potential to go far.
Personally i will Buy an XBox. Just out of curiosity. I dont see my self as a console gamer. Even when I go to arcades, I play some time crisis 2 then I end up playing air hockey. Some nice unadultarated fun...
<font color=red>"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and dispair!"</font color=red>