PS4 and Xbox One launches underwhelm, but overperform | 10 Years Ago This Month
November of 2013 was a big one for games, with two major consoles launching opposite one another after years of discourse about the surely imminent demise of the console market.
There were two big factors driving that discourse, with the most obvious one being the advent of mobile gaming, which certainly seemed to be doing a number on the handheld gaming market given the rough launch of the 3DS and the somehow even bleaker life of the PlayStation Vita.
The other big driver was not exactly invisible at the time, but is still a bit more apparent in hindsight. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation was the longest the industry had ever seen. The original Xbox was four years old (and already discontinued) when the Xbox 360 launched. The Xbox 360 was eight years old when the Xbox One arrived.
Motion control gimmicks like Kinect helped Microsoft extend the 360's life, while Sony's growing market share with the PS3 as the generation went on (and lack of interest in burning money to rush a successor to market) helped keep it slightly more patient as well. The PS3 arrived six years after the PS2, and remained the flagship console for seven years until the launch of the PS4.
The industry had never been this deep into a console cycle before, and the one thing we all knew about the console cycle was that enthusiasm and interest flagged toward the end of it.
Add to that the Wii U's unimpressive debut from the year before, and it was no doubt a relief to many when Microsoft and Sony's new systems at least seemed to spark considerable interest at launch.
The PlayStation 4 went first with a November 15 North American debut, and we had coverage and pictures from midnight launch parties in New York, Toronto, and San Francisco.
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