Curated playlist
2000s toys
- PlayStation 3Sony lost more than US$240 on every PlayStation 3 it sold at launch.
- PlayStation (console)The PlayStation exists because Nintendo dumped Sony on stage. Sony then decided to build its own console.
- GameCubeNintendo predicted 50 million GameCubes by 2005 but sold 21.74 million. The console was discontinued in February 2007.
- WiiNintendo's Wii ended up in hospitals and nursing homes. It was built as a console for everyone, even grandparents.
- PlayStation 2In Japan's launch period, the PlayStation 2's best-selling title was a DVD of The Matrix, not a game.
- Xbox 360Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in 2005, just 69 days after production began. It sold out everywhere except Japan.
- Super Nintendo Entertainment SystemNintendo sent 100 trucks of Super Famicom consoles out at night to dodge the yakuza.
- Game Boy AdvanceThe Game Boy Advance sold 81,000 units in its first UK week, beating the PlayStation 2's record of 20,000.
- Nintendo 64The Nintendo 64 sold out all 300,000 of its first Japanese units on launch day, June 23, 1996.
- Game Boy ColorThe Game Boy Color began as a shelved color prototype called Project Atlantis.
- Game BoyNintendo's president canceled the Game Boy on the spot in 1988. One engineer kept working on its screen anyway.
- Nintendo DSNintendo called its own Nintendo DS an experimental "third pillar" before launch. It went on to sell 154 million units.
- DreamcastEvery Dreamcast on Japanese store shelves sold out within a day in 1998. Sega ended it in under three years.
- Masters of the Universe"By the power of Grayskull... I have the power!" With those words and a magic sword raised overhead, a young prince turns into the hero He-Man. Masters of the Universe is the American franchise built around that moment, a sword and planet…
- PokémonPokémon Red and Green came in two versions so players would trade. Each version held Pokémon that the other did not.
- Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Nintendo Entertainment System launched into a video game market the press had called dead.
- G.I. Joe: A Real American HeroG.I. Joe: A Real American Hero began in a men's restroom at a charity event.
- Dragon BallDragon Ball's seven orbs were shrunk down from eight Buddhist prayer beads in an old Japanese novel.
- XboxMicrosoft tested the name Xbox as the option it expected to lose. Instead, it scored highest in consumer surveys.
- Power RangersPower Rangers owes its existence to a hotel television in Japan. Haim Saban was on a business trip there in the 1980s. The only thing his hotel set would show was a series about five masked people in spandex suits fighting monsters. He was…
- Hot WheelsHot Wheels began as a 98-cent toy car in 1968, and in 2000 a single pre-production example sold for close to $70,000. The brand is an American franchise of scale model cars. Elliot Handler, a co-founder of Mattel, invented it, and the…