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Curated playlist

Discontinued video game consoles

  • 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.
  • Sega SaturnAt the first E3 in 1995, Sega announced its Saturn console had already shipped.
  • Super Nintendo Entertainment SystemNintendo sent 100 trucks of Super Famicom consoles out at night to dodge the yakuza.
  • Nintendo 64The Nintendo 64 sold out all 300,000 of its first Japanese units on launch day, June 23, 1996.
  • DreamcastEvery Dreamcast on Japanese store shelves sold out within a day in 1998. Sega ended it in under three years.
  • Master SystemThe Sega Master System lost in North America but kept selling in Brazil for decades.
  • TurboGrafx-16NEC gave the TurboGrafx-16 a large black case for Americans, yet it struggled and faded in North America.
  • Wii UThe Wii U sold just 13.56 million units, Nintendo's worst-selling home console.
  • Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Nintendo Entertainment System launched into a video game market the press had called dead.
  • Atari 2600The Atari 2600 was built to sell for only two to three years. Its engineers expected rivals to make it obsolete.
  • Amiga CD32The Amiga CD32 game console ended up inside casino slot machines. Italian arcade cabinets used it too.
  • OuyaThe Ouya game console raised a million dollars in eight hours on Kickstarter.

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