August console and game sales figures

[Zabka]

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17421

360 price cut helped it a lot. PS3 demand did not hold up. There is speculation that this and Halo3 will force Sony's hand in cutting the price on the PS3 again--with a potential announcement at the Tokyo Game Show which I believe is next week.

[TriPP]

the most amazing thing to me is the ps2 still sales (i guess it's the $129 price) a good bit of systems.

[Zabka]

rumors of it dropping to 99. With a vast library of games, it is the perfect gaming system for younger kids who don't have one.

[Andy]

The Xbox 360 has seen its numbers rise because of the price and then they will rise a little more when Halo 3 is released. I do agree with you Zabka that Sony may be forced to cut the price again since it saw it sales drop in August. I still think the Nintendo Wii will continue to dominate this generation of systems.

[Zabka]

The Wii is clearly kicking ass. The problem is that 3rd party titles don't do very well on the system. People don't get the Wii to play Madden, and would prefer to play it on either their last gen or next gen platform. So this could prove to be cumbersome for other third party developers who have to do massive rewrites instead of simply porting it as easily as between 360 and PS3 in order for it be any good. The first party titles are good though.

[TriPP]

my 60+ yr aunt & uncle got a wii a few months back. they're retired and got it b/c it's fun. they don't do online play and love flailing around with the wii controllers, ha.

the 3 big next gen consoles are all aimed at differ parts of the market, the ps3 and 360 have biggest over lap though (competing for some of the same gamers) and the wii basically has it's part of the market to itself.

[Zabka]

The success of the Wii is startling. Just brilliant. After looking so out of touch with the GC which was derided as a kid's system, the Wii has taken that criticism and turned it on its head. I want to get a Wii because it IS a kid's system. I know people who feel the two joy sticks, four triggers, four buttons and directional pad are too complicated for their casual gaming needs. Most of these people played games as kids---but these games were a joystick and one button..or maybe two. I was turned off to games around the SuperNintendo time when I thought that controller was too cumbersome. The design of the dual shock enabled me to come back to gaming. Lots of controls, but well designed.

Now the Wii comes out with basically motion sensing and one button. Brilliant. I think the motion sensing is too poor to be accurate for most games to be honest. But it is very sensitive for games like bowling. So it's fun, but not perfect. I liken it to indoor golf range video screens--where you play a course indoors while it is projected on a screen you hit into. Those indoor range courses are not very accurate assessors of your swing (fails to register slices and hooks very well in addition to proper distance), but it is fun (just not good for practicing golf). I think the Wii is similarly fun to play, but not sensitive.

[norm]

There are two main reasons why the Wii is outselling both Sony and M$. The first is that it is much cheaper then both systems. The second is that you aren't forced to choose between Blu-ray or HD-DVD. People have been burned in the past by trying to choose one technology over another. With people jumping early to Laser Disc, Betamax, Mini Disc and other types of tech only to see them fall to the wayside has left most folks gun shy. It's not that these other examples were worse then what they lost too, it's just that bad timing, marketing and company policy did them in.

Till the format war is settled Sony won't outsell the 360. Sony has either handicapped itself by going blu-ray only or it has made the smartest decision in a while by doing that. The 360 with all of it's hardware problems went with the older DVD format for games. They have give you an option for a HD-DVD player that you can by separately. But if Sony wins out with blu-ray will M$ come out with a stand alone blu-ray player for it? That could hold people back from buying a 360.

With the prices coming down on both the PS3 and 360, Nintendo needs to keep being innovative with their product. They need to push for more 3rd party makers to support the motion sensing and designing games just for the Wii and to quit making 360 and PS3 games fit on the Wii.

[TriPP]

i don't think the blu-ray versus hd-dvd issue is one of the main reasons why people are buying wii's over 360's or ps3.

[Andy]

the Wii will sell a little more with the release of the Wii Fit Board.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/804/804113p1.html?RSSwhen2007-07-12_014500&RSSid=804113

Plus people will be having a lot more fun playing shooting games when nintendo realeases the Wii gun. Believe me i have played MOH: Vanguard on the Wii and its hard to aim your gun.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/804/804113p1.html?RSSwhen2007-07-12_014500&RSSid=804113

[Zabka]

the problem with most gun games is that you need the game to ride on rails instead of allowing for player movement of the characters. The new time crisis for the PS3 is supposed to ahve a little directional pad on the gun to allow for that, but it doesn't seem very intuitive to run with the joystick and aim your gun at the same time.

Fitboard is another first party game. Which means lots of $$$ for Nintendo (which has now become a larger company than Sony again), but not necessarily a great sign for future game libraries for Wii owners.

I think the Wii seems like a great 2nd console. I can't see it being the primary one for any semi-serious gamer.

[HoboFett]

In My Opinion, the ps3 is still the best console out there.