That brief period in 2001 where Sony nearly had the video game market to itself

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

There seems to have been a period in 2001 when Sony had almost all of the video game market. On the 7th gen front, it had the PS2 which was selling like hotcakes, and on the 6th gen front, there was the still-healthy PS1.

Let's look at the non-Sony consoles available in 2001:

-Nintendo 64: It had lost almost all of its steam by 2001. Wikipedia shows only 8 games released for the N64 outside Japan that year, compared to 50+ the year before. Dr. Mario 64, the last first party game, came out April 8.

-Sega Dreamcast: Production ended in March, although games continued to be released throughout the year, albeit at a slowing pace.

-Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox: Launched November 18 and November 15, respectively. So they weren't available for most of the year.

So from March to November 2001, there was only one console on sale that wasn't Sony, and it was near death and only had a few games come out during this period.

Compare to 2000, which had a healthy Dreamcast and N64. Even in the period in 1998-1999 between the Saturn and Dreamcast, the N64 was still very strong, and also compare to 2002, which had the three-way race.

Does anyone remember a near-total Sony dominance during this time frame?

[Aussie2B]

Can't say I observed anything like that at the time. I bought my Dreamcast in 2001, when the model with the Sega Smash Pack pack-in could be had pretty cheap, so I was focusing on that and building up a library for it a bit. I was also still buying N64 and PS1 games, since it was a good time to get them used or on markdown. I didn't have a PS2 and didn't remotely care. I still think the very early selection for the PS2 offered almost nothing worth playing, and considering many were buying it primarily as a DVD player, it seems a lot of people agreed. I didn't get one until 2003 myself. I was also deep into retro collecting at the time, as cheap NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. games were plentiful and could be found even at GameStops. The GBA also came out in 2001, and I got mine in August, so I was excited about that. I got the GameCube not terribly long after its launch too, but it must've been 2002 by the time I got it.

[o.pwuaioc]

Besides the GBA, 2001 was a good year for PC games, with the release of Black & White, Civ 3, Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II LoD expansion pack, Europa Universalis, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Console-wise, though, 2001 was for me at least a Sony year, up until the Xbox actually, which I didn't get until 2003/2004.

[WulfeLuer]

I didn't have a typical gamer experience or perspective going on at that time. I was still obsessively gathering every PS1 RPG that came across my radar, plus I had my SNES then, but my big focus of the time was on CCGs, especially the SWCCG by Decipher and that's where all my money was really going. I couldn't spark an interest in a PS2 then, even with FF X out or nearly out (I'm not sure, '01-'03 was also a big blur for me).

I can't claim that I even noticed that Sony had that dominance. The console war was pretty much a joke to my friends and I then, and we focused on older stuff and passed consoles around or went the house where the Dreamcast was and what have you.

[celerystalker]

I didn't have a typical gamer experience or perspective going on at that time. I was still obsessively gathering every PS1 RPG that came across my radar, plus I had my SNES then, but my big focus of the time was on CCGs, especially the SWCCG by Decipher and that's where all my money was really going. I couldn't spark an interest in a PS2 then, even with FF X out or nearly out (I'm not sure, '01-'03 was also a big blur for me).

I can't claim that I even noticed that Sony had that dominance. The console war was pretty much a joke to my friends and I then, and we focused on older stuff and passed consoles around or went the house where the Dreamcast was and what have you.

Oh, god... I spent a crazy amount of time/money on the Star Wars CCG. I still have most of my cards, save a box ruined in a sewer backup a few years ago and a few of the hard to get Death Star II cards (Jedi Luke, Emperor, etc.) That I had spares of that I traded for video games (Ogre Battle, Ninja Gaiden III, Joe & Mac NES, Wild Arms, Breath of Fire III and IV, Secret of Mana and Ogre Battle strategy guides, and probably something else I'm forgetting).

I was working at FuncoLand during that period as well, so I feel like I have a decent take on both the retail and personal scene at that time. For me, like many others, I was snapping up older games for literally any system if they were cheap enoigh, as you could nail down just about anything for under $100 in those days, and most NES games were less than $5. I still have Funco price lists from back then. I was most into Dreamcast and Saturn at the time, though, and was mopping up on shooters and fighters especially.

At retail, though, Sony was dominant, but that's not what people talked about. It was pre-order hype for Gamecube and Xbox, with folks gearing up for a console war like the 16-bit days were on the horizon. The hardcore RPG folks we hitting the PS1 to get all those big 1999-2001 releases... Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 2, Jade Cocoon, Suikoden II, Tales of DestinyII, Persona 2, Grandia, Wild Arms 2, Rhapsody, Saiyuki, Hoshigami, the Lunars, Legend of Mana, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy VIII, Parasite Eve II... Pokémon fever was still in its first big boom, so while the N64 was dead, people were still looking at Pokémon Snap, Hey You Pikachu, etc., and the GBC and GBA were binging in lots of folks for Poké-stuff, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and the new Super Dodgeball was pretty big...

PS2 did have trouble keeping up with demand at the time, even at $300. I remember tons of people wanting one and asking about a price drop, and me telling them, "I wouldn't expect them to get cheaper until DVD players get cheap as well." I got mine right around launch, but for what could've been considered an odd reason. Most people at the tome were buying Summoner, Tekken Tag, and Madden... but I was a big King's Field fan, and had been drooling over Eternal Ring video footage that was on the Funco VHS hype video that played on loop in the store. Wish I'd kept some of those.

I should start a FuncoLand thread sometime. I still have the employee onboarding/training books, name badges, polo, price newspapers... one of my buddies may still have the neon sign from the window from when we got bought out by Barnes & Noble, and they were getting ready to turn us into a GameStop, and I'm pretty sure another has the glass counter standee with the Funco motto on it, "Friendliness and Honesty are what we strive to perfect." Funny story about how that one became his.

[Greg2600]

I'm sure Nintendo-heads were simply playing their N64's to death, waiting for the Gamecube. There was a LOT of interest in the XBox release as well. So even though the PS2 was somewhat alone, people were still waiting out the summer/fall for the others. The jump Sony got was very crucial though, and I've read some good articles on both the XB and GC roll outs. In both cases, the systems were due earlier but suffered delays, which tilted the battle to Sony. One thing I'd disagree with on is the term "healthy Dreamcast!" I don't think it ever was, to be honest.

[SparTonberry]

I recall it wasn't until like May that stores even advertised the PS2 CONSOLES in ads (games, yes) because of that supply shortage.

And yes, Nintendo had its dominance of the portable market with GBC, and the GBA released in June 2001.

[WulfeLuer]

Oh, god... I spent a crazy amount of time/money on the Star Wars CCG. I still have most of my cards, save a box ruined in a sewer backup a few years ago and a few of the hard to get Death Star II cards (Jedi Luke, Emperor, etc.) That I had spares of that I traded for video games (Ogre Battle, Ninja Gaiden III, Joe & Mac NES, Wild Arms, Breath of Fire III and IV, Secret of Mana and Ogre Battle strategy guides, and probably something else I'm forgetting).

Spares of the Death Star II URs? Harumph. I had the good fortune of pulling Jedi Knight Luke and my brother pulled emps, plus a foil Lord Vader out of Reflections II. I wasn't quite lucid enough to trade cards for games (despite having one helluva online card trading career). I am pleased to report that the Star Wars CCG version of Luer's Loot is intact, but now in the hands of a friend instead. It's a long story.

Anyway, the 'new' console war wasn't on anybody's mind at the time in the (admittedly insular) group I was in.

[lendelin]

I remember it exactly like the OP described. The reason is that I didn't get a Dreamcast until 2003, I got a PS1 very late in 2000, and until then I only had the N64 (besides the NES and SNES). Nintendoland was already a desert when it came to new releases. I was never a handheld console gamer.

I was sitting there with my N64 all those years waiting like a fool for RPGs while I read in magazines about the great RPGs the PS got in 1999 and 2000. I bought even desperately Hybrid Heaven which was truly disappointing. I played it maybe for five hours and never played it since which makes for a fanatstic in-shape box on my shelves til today.

To read Nintendo Power at this time was more torture than fun. For me it was therefore all the PS in 2001 with the great RPGs, the hype was all about the PS2 although lacking great games, and the excitement about the GameCube was limited after the N64 experiences. However, I never ever imagined how much the PS2 would dominate the next couple of years. I thought Nintendo would bounce back bigtime with the GC. That the PS2 would have a marketshare of 80% despite the GC and Xbox was just unimagineable.

The terrible marketshares of the N64 and GC were the reasons why Nintendo decided in 2004 that they could not compete anymore on the same-level hardware grounds with Sony and Microsoft. A policy that they are still following today.

@celerystalker: Please do a Funcoland thread, would be great. 2000 and 2001 were great times to look for current games and older games as well. Funcoland, Software Etc., Toys R Us with LOONG rows of games and sometimes great deals; and it was also the time of a fledgling ebay! I found great deals there before it became so 'professionalized', I bought many NES games back then on which I missed out for really cheap. A sealed Magic of Scheherazade for 5 bucks, a like new complete Mega Man 2 for ten bucks, it was a great time to buy older games.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

I was just 8 years old during this period, my only console at the time was a PS1. I had an N64 from Christmas 1998 to some time in 1999, for some reason the N64 was replaced by the PlayStation. This was about the time the Dreamcast came out but we couldn't afford one at the time. Whatever, I loved my PS1 to death (and got a Dreamcast in '06 anyway)

In 2001, I knew about the PS2 and wanted one. At 8 years old I wasn't exactly knowledgeable about every nuance of the video game industry but I knew that Sony was dominant. The N64 had seemed to fade away and I don't remember seeing much of the Dreamcast by then. Sony had the market almost to themselves because they had done everything right over the past six years. The PlayStation and PS2 weren't just systems for adults and teens, they were systems with something for everyone.

I got my PS2 on June 11, 2002, my mom and her sister got me and my cousin matching PS2s with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (and I'm sure there were a couple other games too). It was my mom's birthday and my cousin's birthday that day.

[Koa Zo]

It's certainly an interesting timeframe to consider.
Personally I didn't notice. I had grown out of buying the latest and greatest, and was a mark-down discount gamer by the late 90's. (with a few exceptions ...Ikaruga, Zero Gunner 2, Rez, and all the other late Dreamcast era shmups)
From 2000-2002 I was just getting my feet wet building up an import library of Saturn games through eBay. Domestically, in 2001 I was also fleshing out my Dreamcast library with $10-20 games from Circuit City.
It was a very exciting time to be a gamer. The internet opened up so much awareness and accessibility to games we'd never heard of or only had glimpses of in magazines.
A couple friends got the PS2 at launch but no games they had interested me. Tekken and football was their interest. The PS2 wasn't on my radar until 2003 or so.