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Nintendo Wins Off Sony & Microsoft’s Confusion

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The big story with video games these days is how Wii is dominating the competition. Sure, the XBox 360 is selling well and has sold over 8 million units, but Wii was launched only a few weeks ago and has sold over 1.2 million units worldwide.

That’s a crazy amount of Wii’s in a short amount of time!

These numbers, compared to the paltry 360,000 PlayStation 3 consoles sold show a very interesting story. With all of the horsepower and all of the hoopla around the PS3 debut, the system just isn’t that appealing to the gaming masses. But wait, you say. What about all of these people dying over PS3s and what about the fact that they’re sold out? Well, the biggest use of PS3s right now is NOT in people’s home – it’s reselling them. EBay is packed with PS3 packages and the game is sold out in the stores for this reason – people are buying the consoles simply to turn around and sell them.

While this is also happening with Wii, there are many more stories about how much fun the Nintendo system is – which means that people are buying the system and playing it, not reselling it. In any event, the recent surge of Wii sales shows the huge confusion that Microsoft and Sony have about video gamers.

Yes, there are gamers out there who will buy the PS3 and the XBox 360 because of the high definition graphics and the ability to watch high definition DVDs. And yes, there are people who will buy XBox 360 because of their enormous game library and who will buy PS3 just because it’s a PS3. But when you listen to what the marketing guys from Microsoft and Sony are saying to try to sell these systems, they’re completely confused.

Recently, one Sony employee said that the PS3 is on track to become so much more than a gaming machine. Well, that’s the problem! We don’t want to buy a video game system to do our daily e-mailing on – we want a video game machine that is a lot of FUN to play! Hell, we’ll even take graphics that aren’t that great if the game is fun! Don’t believe that? Go to any old-school arcade and tell me that you don’t love playing The Simpsons video game from the mid 1990’s. Or sit down with any PS2, GameCube, or XBox and tell me that playing a good Mortal Kombat or Sonic the Hedgehog or Final Fantasy game isn’t sweet.

That’s what gamers want – FUN! You can keep your “home entertainment centers” – we already have a desktop or laptop PC!

XBox 360 Holds Steady as PS3 Falters

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Some information was sent to me by the folks over at Compete.com:

XBox 360 is holding its own in terms of popularity despite the recent launches and abundant press for the other two next-generation gaming systems, according to the Compete.com blog. XBox was not left behind as demand spiked for the newer systems, and both the 360 and the Wii have recently passed PS3.

Interesting information, huh? Click on the link above to check out Compete.com’s numbers analysis.

Which Game System to Get?

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By now you should all know that Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have each introduced their “Next Generation” gaming machines. Microsoft launched the XBox 360 a year ago and has sold over 7.1 million units according to a handy little site called, “NextGen Wars.” Last week Sony introduced their PlayStation 3 while over the weekend Nintendo dropped their Wii system on the United States market.

Each system has their drawing points. The XBox 360 has a library of games that far surpasses the competition, while the PlayStation 3 has a built-in high-definition DVD player and a vast collection of PSOne and PlayStation 2 games that are playable on the new system. The Wii, though, is priced at $250 – less than half of the competition – and sports and extremely simplified controller with high-tech motion sensors.

So do you go for the price of the Nintendo Wii, the power of the PlayStation 3, or the library of the XBox 360? For me, I’m not really sure. I’m a Final Fantasy fan, which means that I should probably focus on getting that PS 3, but I’m not looking to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a game system…which leads me to the Wii. But I also want a system with a large number of titles to choose from – hello XBox 360. Of course the XBox 360 runs us right back into that cost dilemma.

It seems like the Wii is the way to go, and given recent media reports, there is more excitement for the Wii than there is for the PS 3 launch. However, I spent a good deal of money putting together a powerful, high definition TV and surround sound setup in my apartment, so why not get a gaming system that utilizes all of these goodies?

But the thing that will probably keep me from jumping into the console wars and buying a next generation system right now (aside from price) is the fact that I really don’t get around to playing video games too often any more. I began playing Square-Enix’s Kingdom Hearts about a month ago and played it for 2 days before I just didn’t have the time to settle in with it. One of the fraternity guys who I advise was at my apartment the other day and said that he’s playing the new Final Fantasy 12 and that another one of the guys beat it in 65 hours.

Sixty-five hours?! Man…if I had an extra 65 hours in my week, I don’t know what I’d do. Actually, that’s a lie. I’d sleep more!

Getting back on track, though, I don’t think that I’m going to get a new system just yet. I want to see what Black Friday has to offer this year (it sucked in 2004 and was so-so in 2005). If there are great sales on games and accessories for these systems, then I’ll probably look into getting one. If not, then I’ll probably just wait until the new year to even think about getting one of these things!