First ~year had Melee, Rogue Leader, Monkey Ball, REmake, RE: Zero, Eternal Darkness, Mario Sunshine, Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, plus good multiplatform games that suited the console with TimeSplitters 2, Nightfire, and Turok: Evolution.
Was that less than the PS2? Sure, but it was honestly a lot more than Xbox offered which rode on Halo hype for a long time.
Market demographics always seemed a much bigger issue (gamecube was for kids), that and the audience they ended up with for N64 of shooter fans and people wanting maximum graphics broke for Xbox.