the whole thing that that period embodies was the rise of the "me too" market as more companies (many outside the video game industry) rushed CD based systems to market, once they realized there was money to be made in the game industry.

i mean, you had the genesis, super NES, plenty of people still playing NES, TG16, 3DO, neo geo, jaguar, CDi, saturn, PSX, game boy, game gear, etc. all on the market almost all at once. x_x

all the CD based systems were trying to be set top boxes, when A) the tech wasn't really all that in a lot of cases, and B) standards for CD-based movies/etc. didn't really exist in the US. video CD's and such have been sucessful overseas, but never here. until DVD was adopted as the standard for 5" disc-shaped movies, nothing worked until the PS2.

too many products rushed to market trying to be too many things to too few people - games weren't adopted as 'adult fare' widely yet, but the pricetag on many of these consoles was well out of reach of any kid.