Sony's looking forward to those hundreds of games too, and hoping that consumers keep on buying. Costs incurred in PlayStation2 production meant that the company posted a loss of 68.5 billion yen ($627,518,910) in the first half of the fiscal year, compared to a 64.9 billion yen profit ($594,906,248) in the same period last year. Along with a 57% drop in second-quarter earnings, Sony suddenly looks a little more fallible.

Then again, Sony knew it would lose money on every PlayStation2 it sold, and then make it back on the software. In Japan, Sony has spent that fiscal half-year selling 1.4 million PS2s, and now they can sit back and rake in the dough as owners buy games for the next five years -- until the PS3, already announced by Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi.

In the end, Sony's success, which once seemed a foregone conclusion, is still pretty much a foregone conclusion. But a few surprising missteps mean that there may just be room for some other players at the top of the heap. The time is right for the Dreamcast to fill the gap left by the PS2's high demand and low supply; but are they smart enough to take advantage of it?