There were upper-middle-class kids that were able to get the latest console.
...and then there were the kids who actually had a f_cking
neo-geo at home.
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When I was like 8 y/o I was taken by my friend to his neighbour next door to play games
He had an NES and was running Captain Tsubasa 2
I proudly flexed my CT2 knowledge by inputting an 18-character password (in hiragana, from memory!) to play a tough match against Hyuga/Bassam (if you were familiar with CT)
After having a nice session, and once we were about to leave, I noticed that nice NEO GEO sitting atop a cupboard
...among other consoles
"So, why the heck were we playing NES all this time?", a young me muttered to himself
Jetackuu said: »
Only a moron buys a console based on how it looks.
MS probably thought the same, that's why they couldn't make money in Japan. Some people actually care about how our room looks and feels as a whole and would be picky with furnitures inside it.
Aesthetic design is definitley a factor in deciding what gadget you wanna buy.
I never had any real incentive to buy any Xbox release, and the bulky design helped make the perspective of a purchase even less appealing. On the other hand, I'm thankful that most PS releases ranged from nice to ok.