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No it's not. For the US, NPD has been reporting that the Wii has been selling in the upper 300,000s to low 400,000s each month consistently since the beginning of the year. The PS2 has been selling in the 200,000s during the same time period. In Japan, the Wii's outselling the PS2 by an even more dramatic margin.

Looking at the graphs on VGChartz (which although not perfect is in the ballpark), you can see that the Wii has vastly outperformed the PS2's first year of sales.

How so? If YOU look at the sales charts, you'll see that the XBox 360 is very close to being outsold by the Wii. I'm guessing by September that the Wii will be well ahead of the xbox360, and that by the end of the Christmas season, the XBox will be left in their dust. Seems to me like Nintendo has the right way to run your business, which is providing and entertaining product that almost everybody can afford and that is actually reliable. Also, having it work right out of the box is a nice plus. Having to buy a game on top of the system for XBox360 and PS3 makes them even less appealing.

Sony is not dead or dying or even fatally wounded. The PS3 is not selling as bad as some make it out to be. Take a look at some charts.
The PS3 is selling about the same as the X360 if you align the launch dates.
The PS2 (how many years old is that now? Seven?) is selling the same as the X360 each week. In other words, if you think thtat MS is about to knock Sony out of the market, you must be speaking from the far future or coming from a different dimension or something. The PS3 is not a disaster. It's not the success Sony wanted it to be, but if you think the X360 is doing great, then the PS3 is right behind it.

Sony is not dead or dying or even fatally wounded. The PS3 is not selling as bad as some make it out to be. Take a look at some charts.
The PS3 is selling about the same as the X360 if you align the launch dates.
The PS2 (how many years old is that now? Seven?) is selling the same as the X360 each week. In other words, if you think thtat MS is about to knock Sony out of the market, you must be speaking from the far future or coming from a different dimension or something. The PS3 is not a disaster. It's not the success Sony wanted it to be, but if you think the X360 is doing great, then the PS3 is right behind it.

The 360 is selling to the EXACT same people who bought the first Xbox.

Virtually no one in Japan.

A fairly small number of people in Europe, mostly in the UK.

I agree with everything you said, but I still feel it is a little early to count the PS3 out. If you look at the sales based from start date, the PS3 is doing the same numbers as the XB360. Only the Wii is killing... This Xmas/early spring will really tell the tale. http://www.vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1 =All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&align= 1 I'm still liking the XB360 as I've enjoyed my original XBOX so very much. I plan on getting one after the die shrink and when it is cheaper...

Fast Forward to now and the DS is projected to sell over 100 million in 2007 alone.

I am curious about Iwata's comments when the DS launched that the DS was not a replacement for the Gameboy and that a new gameboy would come eventually

This is pretty surprising, as a game developer; it's not surprising that heads are rolling due to the billion-dollar design mistake, but I'm surpried that M$ axed their most recognizable spokesman for the system.

But I would be far, far more surprised to see Microsoft axe the XBox 360. The fact is, they're just now effectively killing their primary competition, the Playstation 3. Granted, they're not doing so in Japan very effectively, but in America (which is where the lion's share of the money is to be had), they're far ahead of the PS3: they had a year's head-start and the larger stable of games that comes with that; they're already ahead of the PS3 by almost every measurement, and this is just BEFORE they release Halo 3, which will be not only their system-defining game, but will be a frickin' cultural event in America.

The other ace up their sleeve is development, as someone else pointed out. Many people are pointing out that, even though the PS3 is more powerful, most games look better on the XBox 360 than on the PS3. The reason is that a great majority of games are being made for both systems (Sony's loss of exclusives is another nail in their coffin for this generation); and the XBox 360 is easier to develop for (partly because their development kits, like their system, was ready a year before Sony's, but also because their development pipeline is just much, MUCH better). So effectively, every game is made for the 360 first, and then a PS3 port is made as quickly as possible... the PS3's greater power is not being utilized, because it's not a cost-effective way to develop the games.

Finally, they're making great inroads into Japan by working with companies like Capcom - a smart investment, which may lead to the NEXT generation of the XBox finally becoming successful over there; and which, more importantly, will lead to the excellent Japanese developers making more games for the 360, and making more Sony exclusives become present on both platforms (even the Metal Gear Solid 4 developers considered this).

I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, I'm just pointing out the many things that are going well for them, the fact that Sony is quickly falling distantly behind them, and that they would be stupid to quit just when they're about to control a great portion of the hardcore AND mainstream gaming market.

Here's an informative chart on system sales in North America, aligning the launches of the 3 current consoles and graphing their relative sales over a period of weeks. (Note that since I AM a Nintendo fanboy, I'm gratified to see that the Wii is, even in America, flying off the shelves at a greater pace than either of the other consoles.)

Not that I like either console (I'm a PC gamer with an eye on the Wii), but some of your counterpoints don't really compare.

The Xbox division has lost billions. Not just the 360. Both consoles lost/are losing money. The Playstation brand on the other hand is making lots of money on the PS2 right now. Remember, the PS2 is still outselling the 360.

You can't really compare overpriced by design and defective by design. Granted the defective thing might be a little exaggerated, but just because both are design issues, doesn't mean they'll cause the same problems, or even the same type of problems, or even problems at all.

As to sales, worldwide the PS3 is doing about as well as the 360. if you align the launch dates.

Bluray is also doing slightly better than HD-DVD so that argument is out. But even then, most Bluray players sold are the PS3, which is a game console, which probably has a higher rate of non-bluray player usage than a stand-alone bluray player. So it skews the disks per player sold.

Lastly, don't discount tech demos. That's what Wii Sports is. It's bundled in the US, but it is sold separately in Japan, and it's still selling fast. Some times what looks like a tech demo is what people want.

VGCharts is fun. Unfortunately I think they're missing all of the european PS2 data, so you have to go country by country.

But here's some fun ones:
Japan PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - Note that the Wii is tracking like the PS2. The next chart demonstrates how bad the PS3 is doing in glorious Nippon.
Japan PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - I left the Wii in instead of the PS2 because the lines are really close. You'll note it's at this point the PS3 is doing worse than the GAMECUBE.
US PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - This looks familiar...
US PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - So does this! Worse than the gamecube again!

So, that leaves Europe. Where, well, everything is dominating the PS2, because VGChartz doesn't have the data.

See, here. The Wii is still spanking the PS3. Everything is beating the PS2 though.

PS3 sales are tracking PS2 sales in no country on earth, except maybe europe. It's a fantasy.

VGCharts is fun. Unfortunately I think they're missing all of the european PS2 data, so you have to go country by country.

But here's some fun ones:
Japan PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - Note that the Wii is tracking like the PS2. The next chart demonstrates how bad the PS3 is doing in glorious Nippon.
Japan PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - I left the Wii in instead of the PS2 because the lines are really close. You'll note it's at this point the PS3 is doing worse than the GAMECUBE.
US PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - This looks familiar...
US PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - So does this! Worse than the gamecube again!

So, that leaves Europe. Where, well, everything is dominating the PS2, because VGChartz doesn't have the data.

See, here. The Wii is still spanking the PS3. Everything is beating the PS2 though.

PS3 sales are tracking PS2 sales in no country on earth, except maybe europe. It's a fantasy.

VGCharts is fun. Unfortunately I think they're missing all of the european PS2 data, so you have to go country by country.

But here's some fun ones:
Japan PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - Note that the Wii is tracking like the PS2. The next chart demonstrates how bad the PS3 is doing in glorious Nippon.
Japan PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - I left the Wii in instead of the PS2 because the lines are really close. You'll note it's at this point the PS3 is doing worse than the GAMECUBE.
US PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - This looks familiar...
US PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - So does this! Worse than the gamecube again!

So, that leaves Europe. Where, well, everything is dominating the PS2, because VGChartz doesn't have the data.

See, here. The Wii is still spanking the PS3. Everything is beating the PS2 though.

PS3 sales are tracking PS2 sales in no country on earth, except maybe europe. It's a fantasy.

VGCharts is fun. Unfortunately I think they're missing all of the european PS2 data, so you have to go country by country.

But here's some fun ones:
Japan PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - Note that the Wii is tracking like the PS2. The next chart demonstrates how bad the PS3 is doing in glorious Nippon.
Japan PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - I left the Wii in instead of the PS2 because the lines are really close. You'll note it's at this point the PS3 is doing worse than the GAMECUBE.
US PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - This looks familiar...
US PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - So does this! Worse than the gamecube again!

So, that leaves Europe. Where, well, everything is dominating the PS2, because VGChartz doesn't have the data.

See, here. The Wii is still spanking the PS3. Everything is beating the PS2 though.

PS3 sales are tracking PS2 sales in no country on earth, except maybe europe. It's a fantasy.

VGCharts is fun. Unfortunately I think they're missing all of the european PS2 data, so you have to go country by country.

But here's some fun ones:
Japan PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - Note that the Wii is tracking like the PS2. The next chart demonstrates how bad the PS3 is doing in glorious Nippon.
Japan PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - I left the Wii in instead of the PS2 because the lines are really close. You'll note it's at this point the PS3 is doing worse than the GAMECUBE.
US PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - This looks familiar...
US PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - So does this! Worse than the gamecube again!

So, that leaves Europe. Where, well, everything is dominating the PS2, because VGChartz doesn't have the data.

See, here. The Wii is still spanking the PS3. Everything is beating the PS2 though.

PS3 sales are tracking PS2 sales in no country on earth, except maybe europe. It's a fantasy.

Some fun links:
PS2, PS3, and Wii Japan, America. and All Other combined

It is worth nothing in the other you have to mentally align the launch (for the big jump) to see the Wii slightly winning, and unfortunatly there is not PS2 to compare.

The PS3 sales are tracking PS2 world wide sales, only if you look here, you see the PS2 worldwide sales were Japan for a while (delayed US release). If we assume trends continue like last year, the toal Japan PS2 base is 22m (still growing quicker than PS3), putting the projected PS3 sales just ahead of GC, not matching PS2.

Some fun links:
PS2, PS3, and Wii Japan, America. and All Other combined

It is worth nothing in the other you have to mentally align the launch (for the big jump) to see the Wii slightly winning, and unfortunatly there is not PS2 to compare.

The PS3 sales are tracking PS2 world wide sales, only if you look here, you see the PS2 worldwide sales were Japan for a while (delayed US release). If we assume trends continue like last year, the toal Japan PS2 base is 22m (still growing quicker than PS3), putting the projected PS3 sales just ahead of GC, not matching PS2.

Some fun links:
PS2, PS3, and Wii Japan, America. and All Other combined

It is worth nothing in the other you have to mentally align the launch (for the big jump) to see the Wii slightly winning, and unfortunatly there is not PS2 to compare.

The PS3 sales are tracking PS2 world wide sales, only if you look here, you see the PS2 worldwide sales were Japan for a while (delayed US release). If we assume trends continue like last year, the toal Japan PS2 base is 22m (still growing quicker than PS3), putting the projected PS3 sales just ahead of GC, not matching PS2.

http://vgchartz.com/ and more precisely. 'nouf said. Take your facts from the fact list, please. PS3 has only outsold Xbox360 once on momentum (europe). This is world-wide, though if you look at american sales (because your stats weren't from amazon.co.jp or uk)... well I'll let you judge.

http://vgchartz.com/ and more precisely. 'nouf said. Take your facts from the fact list, please. PS3 has only outsold Xbox360 once on momentum (europe). This is world-wide, though if you look at american sales (because your stats weren't from amazon.co.jp or uk)... well I'll let you judge.

http://vgchartz.com/ and more precisely. 'nouf said. Take your facts from the fact list, please. PS3 has only outsold Xbox360 once on momentum (europe). This is world-wide, though if you look at american sales (because your stats weren't from amazon.co.jp or uk)... well I'll let you judge.

If you would like to compare the next gen game machines relative to each other look at the following: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=X360&reg1=Al l&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=Wii&reg3=All&align=1. In case you are not interested the PS3 and Xbox360 actually match up in sales while the Nintendo Wii is 2.5 times higher.

Looks like the Wii is killing the market but I would be very interested in how does this translate to game sales after all if you sell a lot of consoles then providing you make a profit and Nintendo does then this is good for the console manufacturer. What really makes profits for the console manufacturer are games, merchandising and add-ons and plenty of sales, however most games successes have been in the order of only a few million. With regard to the casual gamer who seem to be the predominate ones who purchase the Wii are they people who only pay for a few party games or do they eventually convert to a more dedicated gamer? The PS3 and Xbox360 gamers are more dedicated and will most likely purchase a variety of games. For most game producers this knowledge is absolutely vital if they are to profit from their games if not then they will not produce games for a console they can not make a profit on their game sales.

I think it's somewhat unfair that Sony should magically be able to catch up to Microsoft despite the year lead.

Assuming that Sony had a better launch and sold out much like the Wii, people would probably spin things the other way and say that Microsoft is doomed because Sony is set to outpace them. If the sales trends continue, they'll be about even, the only difference is that Sony would be about a year behind Microsoft. If we were both running a race and I had an hour head start over you it doesn't necessarily make the most sense to compare our heads up relationship so early on in the race. If you're running only as fast as I am, I'll only finish the race an hour ahead of you, but if you're running at a different speed, the end results can change significantly. This early on it makes far more sense to compare the rate.

Even if the PS3 continues on a lackluster course, Sony won't be out of the console business anytime soon.

The other difference between Sony and Nintendo is that Sony can carry a losing division for years. Sony can do what Microsoft is still doing, selling a losing console at a significant loss just to stay in the market. The history of the PS3 looks remarkably familiar.

It is vary likely that if the PS3 hadn't been following the most successful console ever made, it'd not be considered a failure at all.

Artificial demand? Looking at the numbers I think that the problem is just that they can't get them out the door fast enough. They've almost sold as many as the 360 which had a yeas lead over them. In fact on closer inspection you can see that the 360 gets a boost due to the launches of the Wii and PS3. Without that effect (essentialy help fro Nintendo and Sony) they would have already sold more.

Artificial demand? Looking at the numbers I think that the problem is just that they can't get them out the door fast enough. They've almost sold as many as the 360 which had a yeas lead over them. In fact on closer inspection you can see that the 360 gets a boost due to the launches of the Wii and PS3. Without that effect (essentialy help fro Nintendo and Sony) they would have already sold more.

Ok, let's take your suggestion then - don't align the launches, which should play out what is happening currently. The result looks like this.

Now what does that say? The PS3, despite its price disadvantage, is maintaining approximate parity with the X360 - the gap isn't widening or narrowing particularly. The Wii is kicking some serious butt. And the PS3 definitely has upward momentum at the moment, given the price drop.

If you do the same thing for the previous generation, you get this. What's interesting to note there is that neither GameCube nor Xbox closed the gap at any point to the PS2, which had the first-mover advantage (actually DreamCast, RIP, did but let's not talk about that sad end). Which suggests that this round will play out very differently.

Ok, let's take your suggestion then - don't align the launches, which should play out what is happening currently. The result looks like this.

Now what does that say? The PS3, despite its price disadvantage, is maintaining approximate parity with the X360 - the gap isn't widening or narrowing particularly. The Wii is kicking some serious butt. And the PS3 definitely has upward momentum at the moment, given the price drop.

If you do the same thing for the previous generation, you get this. What's interesting to note there is that neither GameCube nor Xbox closed the gap at any point to the PS2, which had the first-mover advantage (actually DreamCast, RIP, did but let's not talk about that sad end). Which suggests that this round will play out very differently.

Match those against the Wii, and it's clear who's winning so far.

Sony's strategy of losing money on the console and making it up in game licensing only works if they're on top so that they can get a lot of third party games. If they don't have enough consoles out there, fewer games will be sold and they'll end up with a net loss.

Can I also add - damn, I like playing with this charting tool - that if the GC is considered an "also-ran" of the previous generation, then so would the Xbox.

History suggests it might not be doing too badly, actually. (yes it is all relative, but it's interesting given the PS1 is widely considered a successful console too)

When you consider that the GameCube had a price advantage in the previous generation, and the PS3 is at a price disadvantage... hmm.

And back in the context of the current generation, it looks like it's tracking the X360. (That chart also makes it crystal clear how much the Wii is kicking ass.)

PS3 worldwide sales are so far following the sales trends of the GameCube, with the PS3 getting a small boost from the EU launch. It also follows pretty close to the worldwide XBox sales, which only had a large market share in the US and ignored everywhere else. For US numbers only, the PS3 is selling slightly below the GameCube--the also-ran of the last generation in terms of market penetration.

The PS3 is competing against a console with a year's head start to break 10m units, and another console that has a wicked upwards surge and will probably break 10m units within the next few months. Sony has a lot of work to do to avoid becoming the also-ran of this generation. With the number of exclusives moving multiplatform, it may already be too late to retake momentum.

PS3 worldwide sales are so far following the sales trends of the GameCube, with the PS3 getting a small boost from the EU launch. It also follows pretty close to the worldwide XBox sales, which only had a large market share in the US and ignored everywhere else. For US numbers only, the PS3 is selling slightly below the GameCube--the also-ran of the last generation in terms of market penetration.

The PS3 is competing against a console with a year's head start to break 10m units, and another console that has a wicked upwards surge and will probably break 10m units within the next few months. Sony has a lot of work to do to avoid becoming the also-ran of this generation. With the number of exclusives moving multiplatform, it may already be too late to retake momentum.

PS3 worldwide sales are so far following the sales trends of the GameCube, with the PS3 getting a small boost from the EU launch. It also follows pretty close to the worldwide XBox sales, which only had a large market share in the US and ignored everywhere else. For US numbers only, the PS3 is selling slightly below the GameCube--the also-ran of the last generation in terms of market penetration.

The PS3 is competing against a console with a year's head start to break 10m units, and another console that has a wicked upwards surge and will probably break 10m units within the next few months. Sony has a lot of work to do to avoid becoming the also-ran of this generation. With the number of exclusives moving multiplatform, it may already be too late to retake momentum.

I think people really like to rag on the PS3 for not being vary successful, but it seems to me that it's not doing terribly bad. If you look at sales numbers and align the launches of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, the PS3 is more or less on the same track that the Xbox 360 was on.

If you check Amazon you can see that the PS3 moved up to the number one selling item in the video game section. I think it was substantially lower (If I recall correctly it was 28th) before this from what I've been reading on other sites.

With E3 and the possibilities of some big ticket games being shown, It's possible for Sony to pick up even more steam. They've done a lot to shoot themselves in the foot, but I think they can still make a decent showing this round. Right now it's outpacing the Gamecube and the original Xbox, both of which were wonderful systems with great exclusives. I think Sony is given a lot more crap than they deserve.

The minidisk was first introduced in 1992 and had to compeat against pre-recorded music on tape cassettes and CD's. The minidisk was initially more expensive although technically superior since you could record on it over and over again compared to the cassette as well as storing more music than a standard CD, still the player and recorder were much more expensive and this made adoption by the public very slow. The MP3 player did not get introduced till 1997 which was 5 years later and it still took a few more years to kill off cassettes. It may be possible that music pay for down load-will kill the CD but that has not happened yet.

> UMD sucks

In what way does UMB suck? Just because it is a proprietary format and as I stated in my original post it will most likely never get used outside of the PSP but from an engineering perspective it is quite a practical format. Ask your self what media would you use on a hand portable device to put games or movies on keeping in mind that when the PSP came out a 2GB or more flash card was not cheap (if you could get one).

If you want to complain about proprietary formats look at all the game makers, none of their formats are open and they are limited to their own devices. Actually Sony's PSP and PS3 are probably more open than all other other game consoles since you can put Linux on the PS3 and even use third party flash cards. You can even do home-brew on the PSP although to be fair I don't think Sony expected that but in a rather strange way it has helped them.

I am not sure what you mean the PSP never took off. If you mean that the Nintendo DS is about 44M to the PSP's 22M http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=DS&reg1=All& cons2=PSP&reg2=All&cons3=GC&reg3=All then then relative to the DS the PSP is a failure, however numbers don't tell the full story. There is a huge home brew market for the PSP and hundreds of UMD games which normally means that software houses are supporting it which is a very good indication that Sony is making a profit. Since the PSP is almost twice the price of a DS the overall retail sales are on par.

The PSP is targeted at the mid teen to adult, while the DS targets children up to adults although you would need to see the statistics and those would be very difficult to get. All I can say that the PSP has more of an adult audience than the DS since it can do so much more than just play games. In addition the PSP can use the PS3 as a media server and that alone makes it a high end multimedia device.

Nintendo has had incredible luck with their portables (marketing??, public perception?? and games??). A good example is the original gameboy (monochrome display) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy which dominated the market for years even when other technically superior full colour hand-held devices appeared in the market and failed. It was not till a few years later that Nintendo came out with the colour gameboy. For the Sony PSP to even approach half the sales of the DS is not what I would call a failure.

Now if you want failure take a look at the Xbox vs the Gamecube. Both sold approx 11M to 10M respectively however Microsoft lost over US$5 billion while Nintendo made a profit. From my own personal perspective I don't have anything against Nintendo (I have a Gamecube, N64, SNES and NES) or Sony (PS1, PS2 and now a PS3). I could not give a fig for Microsoft (this is Slashdot anyway) although I do have a Microsoft wireless mouse which is very good.

If you align the launches of the next gen systems, the PS3 is doing just as well as the xbox360. http://www.vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1 =All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&align= 1 Wii is this gen's PS2 from the looks of it...

You're right on many counts. The PS3 is certainly:

Blu-ray player
Upscaling DVD player
HDMI out

I'm pretty sure when I want a Blu-ray player, I'll buy a PS3. Right now, I don't, so to me the PS3 is an exceptionally expensive game console, that plays about the same as the Xbox 360, but has fewer decent games. And it looks like the vast majority of people feel this way about it as well - there just isn't the demand for Blu-ray / HDDVD, which is crippling the PS3 sales.

I mean look at this: http://www.vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1 =All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&weekly =1 the only thing "really rolling" is the steep decline the PS3's sales are taking.

http://www.vgchartz.com/ Wii is currently outselling PS3 6:1

2 things that should be pointed out for the north americas 1. Both PS3 and Xbox 360 are selling at about the same rate. Wii is selling slighty more then both combined on a weekly basis. Wii is absolutely going to crush both as it screams past xbox360 in a few months. http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=All &cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&align=1 2. HD-DVD standalone vs bluray standalone 150,000 to 100,000. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press _release,119772.shtml XB360 addon vs PS3 sold was 1 to 5 for last known data giving it about 310,000 to 1,550,000 Totals: Blu ray ~ 1,650,000 HD-DVD ~ 460,000 Which has resulted in the following disc sales numbers http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/index.cfm Which means Walmart has to sell ALOT of players to catch up to the blu ray install base.

from http://www.vgchartz.com/ last week Japan 10,451 Ps3 vs 7,847 Xbox360 Other 21,883 Ps3 vs 22,838 Xbox360 America 21,292 PS3 vs 41,166 Xbox360 Which of the 2 major regions is it dead in?

Even with their 1 year release headstart, Nintendo is quickly approaching them in systems sold. It's become apparent that you can only sell so many systems to hardcore gamers, and that it's hard to sell expensive systems, even to hardcore gamers. Targetting children and families cannot be done by releasing a single game, or by releasing some peripherals which have motion sensing. It must be something that is the core of your system. Looking at the XBox 360 controller is daunting for people who aren't hardcore gamers, as is the size and look of the entire console. They're going to have a hard time turning things around for their current system. However, if they want to make a start, how about releasing a web browser. It's not like they don't already have one.

(the same coward as above)

And the chart for all three playstations is even more interesting...

Of course, if you shift the market to the world, and add the Wii, the story's a little different. Or, ahem, Japan... different indeed.

Statistics have this wonderful ability to be bent to your purpose should there be enough data points to slice it on.

Of course, if you shift the market to the world, and add the Wii, the story's a little different. Or, ahem, Japan... different indeed.

Statistics have this wonderful ability to be bent to your purpose should there be enough data points to slice it on.

I'll address a couple of comments to my post here.

First off, I'm not sure I entirely agree with the assessment of the NeoGeo. It sold only 1 million units (according to that same Wikipedia article) in your mentioned 14 years. Yet I remember seeing it in Babbages alongside SNES and the like - and to my 10-year-old eyes it was the big cool gaming system that was just too expensive. The 3DO, as mentioned, died a similar death. Both systems, along with the Jaguar, were ahead of their time. The PS3 is not - at least not with the current games available.

Rachel - I compared from launch, yes. And it started out the same, as I said, but at week 21 you can see a very clear drop in the growth rate, almost to the point of completely leveling out. Remember, these aren't weekly sales, these are total sales, so a leveling means they aren't selling anything. The weekly chart perhaps shows this picture a little clearer. As for the Wii, I originally had it in that chart, but pulled it out because it obscured the point. I said the Wii is selling better, that's not in debate, since it's already reasonably priced - what was important was that, despite a good start, the PS3 is falling behind the 360.

Most certainly not. The NeoGeo never saw a price cut and died a horrible death. The Wii on the other hand started at a price people were comfortable with (I think $250 is going to be this generation's $200 mark - $300 is a little high and will probably be next generation) and has sold phenomenally.

The XBOX360 released at what was roughly equivalent to the PS2 and XBOX release points (with inflation, yada yada). All of those systems showed very similar sales in the first year and then dropped in price after hype died down and early adopters all owned one. The PS3, while starting out comparable to the 360, is distinctly losing momentum at this point. It is sitting in a position of having numerous "hardcore" gamers (myself included) who really honestly want one but can't afford it - as has been pointed out, it's the affordability, not the bang-for-the-buck, that's holding people back.