You're forgetting how expensive consoles got in the late 90's.
Remember the PS1 when it was still basically new? It was way more expensive than what we paid for out brand new XB1S consoles
Like 3 times the price.
I think we were a bit spoilt for some years what with Sony and M$ competing with home consoles, but over here M$ was always better value across all gens.
Nintendo is never cheap over here. Vita never got dirt cheap here it just quietly died and vanished.