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Wii Outsells 360, PS3 Worldwide
Wowzer writes "Despite confusing consoles produced, shipped or sold reports, the Nintendo Wii is now the best-selling system worldwide. Its sales exceed that of the Xbox 360 despite Microsoft's console having a year-long head start. And it's way ahead of the PS3. From the article: 'Sales figures from each console's launch date through the end of July (and the end of August in Japan) were added up, with the Wii just barely edging out the 360: 9 million for the Wii, 8.9 million for the 360, and 3.7 million for the PlayStation 3.'"
Is anyone actually surprised here?
"Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!"
One thing that has shocked me about the Wii is how it can still be perpetually out of stock 10 months after being released. At this point Nintendo doesn't have any excuse, they need to ramp production up and they need to do it 6 months ago. I have a co-worker who is looking to get one and he's actually being told to stand in line outside of the store on shipment day still, and this was after calling just about every retailer in the area looking for one. Even weirder is when you look online and all of the available consoles are marked up over the retail price. That is crazy for a console that has been out on the market for as long as the Wii has.
I read the internet for the articles.
You're missing the point. The Xbox 360 has had a significant advantage time-wise over both the PS3 and the Wii. Nintendo, in about 10 months, has caught the 360 which has been on the market a full year longer. Not only that, but just do a comparison at your local store. When was the last time you saw a Wii sitting on a shelf anywhere? Sales of the Wii show no signs of letting up any time soon. So in short, Nintendo is murdering their competition.
I know my opinion isn't really worth any more than the next guy's opinion, but I do own all three 7th-gen consoles so I suppose that gives me a bit more "hands on" experience with them...by far, out of the three my 360 gets the most playtime. To me, it has the most comfortable controller, the best overall "feel", and, again, in my opinion, the best games.
Many games on the 360 eventually came out or simultaneously came out for the PS3...just for grins, if I bought the game for one console, I would rent it for the other...you know, just to compare the two. In all honesty, I would rather play those multi-system games on the 360. It's not just the controller (although that does have something to do with it) but it's just how it "feels"...I can't really describe it any better than that. Not to mention graphically with multi-system releases, I find the 360 looks SLIGHTLY better than it's PS3 counterpart.
That said, all three consoles are fantastic fun and I highly recommend people get all three if they can afford it...the Wii60 combo is the best bet if you can't afford all three, but the PS3 is no slouch either. While it does lack a good selection of exclusives for the moment, that will change down the line (and I liked Lair, so there!) Ratchet and Clank, Metal Gear, God of War 3, etc.
That said, the 360 has it's own lineup of exclusives coming for it (some also coming to PC)...Fable 2, GoW 2, Mass Effect, Too Human, etc.
The Wii has some awesome games coming to it as well...Mario Galaxy, the new Mario Kart and Smash Bros, etc.
If I HAD to choose a favourite this gen for me, it would definately be the 360...but in all honesty, all three of them are worth your hard earned dollars.
Play as many games on as many different systems as you can.
Living With a Nerd
When I heard the idea - an overclocked Gamecube with a novelty control system involving waving one's hands around - I thought Nintendo were doomed. One U-Force was bad enough.
When I heard details of the novelty control system, I thought it ridiculous for about two minutes, then began thinking it through a little. Several words came through my mind... 'bat, racket, gunsight... fucking lightsaber...' - I thought Nintendo might have something big on their hands, especially given what the DS was doing by then.
When I heard about the name, I though Nintendo were doomed.
When I was queueing outside the store on a damn cold night playing wireless Mario Kart with the other fanboys (all of us there to get our hands on Twilight Princess) and we saw the demo installation through the big window, and we saw how many passers-by were stopping to see what all the fuss was about and seeing the guys inside bowling... I thought Nintendo might have something very big.
When I saw how many of my utterly non-gamer relatives simply would not put down Wii Tennis... wow.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Your post nicely sums up much of what I originally wanted to say, except for one nitpick.
As much as Sony and its supporters want to say the console race is a marathon, it isn't. Currently Sony has a console priced out of the range of the mass market and their sales numbers just aren't improving. At their current installed base and the cost of developing for the PS3 no sane developer is going to touch it. Most of what's coming out seems to be games already in progress where the developer has decided to write it off as a loss and/or port it to 360 as well to recoup some of the development costs. That or Sony has given them enough money to basically pay for the game to be developed for them. Unless sales figures change quickly the PS3 will be living off of ports of 360 games or what they can pay to have developed. I honestly don't see the PS3 beating the 360 outside of Japan where it's already in the lead.
From what I recall, the 360 is possibly still ahead of the Wii in North America (given the Japanese sales numbers it pretty much has to be). It may be a few more months to a year before Nintendo completely captures all of the markets not accounting their supply limitations during the holiday season and the release of Halo 3, which makes it possibly even longer. I really can imagine at least the 360 and Wii both being viable platforms for nearly the entire lifetime of this generation of consoles. The only real competition between these two is game sales where their market shares intersect. The PS3 and 360 however are in a much more direct competition, and currently the 360 is outselling the PS3 worldwide.
Giving up a mod point to post, but...
... If the Wii is ever going to get a grip on the core segment of the console market, they have to do it within the next year.
I would say that right now, Nintendo is #1 over all, but only #2 with respect to hard core gamers.
I've said this before. I'll say it again. Fuck the 'hardcore' gamers. Let them have their 'superior' games on other platforms. I've been playing video games since Pong, I've finished more games than most of these 'hardcore' gamers have played. I've beaten the original Super Mario Brothers on a single life without warping. I've finished Battletoads. I've finished Einhander. I've finished Perfect Dark on Perfect Agent difficulty. I'm as experienced as they come in terms of video games.
You know what? Increasingly, I think that 'hardcore' gamer just means "a gamer who wants better graphics, more channels of audio, and the same old gameplay." What games are so damn hardcore on the XBox 360? Halo 3? Gears of War? What makes them so damn hardcore? I've played first person shooters, I've played 3rd person shooters. I want something *new*. I'm perfectly happy with my Wii Sports and Wii Play as far as providing something new to try. I've enjoyed Metroid Prime 3, but that's primarily because Super Metroid is my all-time favorite game -- it doesn't bring anything *that* new to the table over MP or Echoes, just some extra polish and enhanced controls.
You know what the nicest thing about the Wii is? I can actually play games like Wii Sports or Raving Rabbids with non-gamer friends when they come over, and they can do well at them. In FPS, RTS, or fighting games, it's not even entertaining to play against my friends, because I just wipe the floor with them. While that might appeal to some people, I'm not in it for bragging rights, I'm in it for a challenge. It's also not entertaining to play against asshat 14-year-olds online.
So fuck the hardcore demographic. They're going to have to accept the fact that they have become a niche audience, and accept what games come their way. Who knows? Maybe hardcore gamers will one day be like movie buffs, known for being familiar with lots of obscure but great games. As it is now, a movie fan analogous to what we think of as a hardcore gamer would watch nothing but Michael Bay films and gush about how awesome they are, and how everyone else sucks for enjoying The Life Aquatic.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Actually I did account for it with PS3s, I just did not know the numbers, and recently I heard the 360s did not sell at a loss, however that may be a recent development. So, to alleviate concern using the links you provided the hardware numbers change too:
360: $2,042,500,000 (if all Pro) | $1,379,500,000 (if all Core)
Note: If it's true 360s no longer sell at a loss, this number is higher, as before true value is probably in between. This also does not include recent elite sales either, which may farther skew the numbers either up or down. Plus repair costs, which once more we do not have numbers for.
PS3: $714,655,000 (if all sold at $500, the cheapest offered)
Note: And Sony drops back, at more then a 50% loss per unit. Guess they are banking on that 80GB and games to pull them out of the hole. Which is still a possibility even at their current consoles out there. At least they aren't going bankrupt.
Wii: $2,250,000,000 Note: No change.
How interesting, the lost revenue due to subsidizing the hardware is:
360: $1,112,500,000
PS3: $1,135,345,000
This has no real bearing since 360 has sold practically 3:1 with PS3, I just find it amusing at his point.
New Conclusion: 360 is still winning, but not by a lot. It'll be neck and neck for a bit. I'll give Wii the likelihood of pulling ahead in the immediate future, don't know if they can keep it though in the long run, gonna probably come down to games.
"Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!"
No. I do, however, think that Halo's main success reason is not that it's a fun game (and I don't deny this - it clearly is a fun game; in fact, I used to play its predecessors, the Marathon games, when I was in the target audience age group), but that it appeals to people who want to compete. It appeals to adolescent boys' urge to measure their strength against their peers. I think many people play games like Halo mainly to prove their skills.
I believe games like Halo are mainly played to improve the rank in the leaderboard, not do have fun. Otherwise, why would people care so much aber Gamerscores and Achievements and what not?