What ended the video game mascot wars?

[treismac]

... master chief is the reason I got the original xbox and the 360... so I guess I view him as a mascot more then other people that box xboxs for other reasons...

I know for a fact that you're not the only person who is into Master Chief as a character/mascot, VertigoProcess. I have a friend who loves Halo, collects Master Chief figurines, and even mentions him from time to time if something reminds his Halo-obsessed mind of the series. Would you or my friend still buy Halo if Master Chief was dropped from the series, though? I think my friend Kraig would initially resist out of protest, but eventually he'd give in.

[Tupin]

The thing I think ended it was Sega being stupid and having a console without a brand new Sonic game. Seriously, how was it not one of the first things they were going to release for it? Sonic Xtreme was in development hell for years, this would be like if Nintendo never released a Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Kirby/Pokemon game on a new system...