True. Back then though, gaming was not "mainstream" yet. Up till Sony put the DVD drive in the PS2 it is arguable that gaming was just that, gaming. When Sony included the DVD drive in the PS2 though, they propelled gaming into the mainstream. It was no longer 'uncool' or 'childish' to have a gaming console, because it plays DVD's and those are totally not childish.
Sega and Nintendo during the 8, 16 and 32-Bit days only had to worry about gamers. Gamers knew they were going to get games. Sony proved they truly have no clue when they launched those UMD movies on the PSP for instance. They showed they were simply throwing it all at their platforms and seeing what stuck. They could do that though thanks to their sheer size. Sega would have gone under if they had attempted something on the scale of the PSP (and the failure it became).