“Sony’s new PlayStation 3 video game has gone from top dog to underdog in record time,” Mike Snider reports for USA Today.
“Despite the buildup and hype around its arrival in November, the PS3 has been outsold so far — at a rate of almost 2-to-1 — by the Nintendo Wii,” Snider reports. “In February, the Wii was the top-selling console video game system with an estimated 335,000 sold, outpacing the Microsoft Xbox 360 (228,000) and the PS3 (127,000), according to The NPD Group.”
“Nintendo’s $250 Wii, released the same week as the PS3 ($500-$600), has sold about 1.9 million so far, compared with 1.1 million PS3s,” Snider reports.
Snider reports, “Billy Pidgeon of IDC, in Framingham, Mass., expects the Wii to sell more than 16 million systems worldwide this year, compared with 10 million each for the PS3 and 360.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “iCrane” for the heads up.]
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In this day and age, the regular consumer just wants to do more with less. Five to six-hundred dollars for a console is just too much. Sony will snatch up market share once it can produce a less expensive product (while still making a profit).
WIIIIII!!
(weeeeeee!!)
The Wii is a lame gaming box for us adult types, but it’s a excellent electronic babysitter for the youngsters.
The price is good too, it isn’t surprising it’s selling so well.
Apparantly someone is paying attention to the market while Sony and Microsoft battle for the minds (and wallets) of adults in the living room.
If you don’t already know, Sony and M$ expect their devices to replace the personal computer.
I disagree with JadisOne. The Wii is more popular because it’s more fun. The regular consumer does care about price, but he cares more about game play. Nintendo did the smart thing by offering games that have, perhaps, obselete graphincs but are more fun to play.
I know many people that have never owned a video game system that have purchased a Wii simply because it’s fun and easy. The PS3 only appeals to hard-core gamers, and that’s a small market.
WiseGuy, I completely disagree.
Sure, if your idea of adult entertainment is total immersion in mindless violence and gruesome death then the wii might not be your cup of tea. But the Wii has entirely changed gaming in our household into a joyous, family affair. EVERYONE plays the wii – including grandma and my kids aunts, who never before touched a console (and quickly bored of watching the kids kill each other or some epileptic boss. Buying a Wii (with 4 controllers) has been the best gaming investment ever for us!
“The regular consumer does care about price, but he cares more about game play”
I think the “regular consumer” doesn’t know what gameplay is. Remember, a LOT of these are going, as you say, to people who haven’t played games before OR the last game they played was Super Mario Brothers. Since there are few places where you can rent the system and games from (compared to places where you can buy them from), I’d reckon your regular consumer is looking at the price since they’ve only heard (or seen on a tv show) about the gameplay.
Too bad it’s just a crappy toy with junky graphics and kiddie games.
As a 30 something adult, I have absolutely no interest in the Nintendo Wii. Likewise, I have no interest at all in the Xbox 360 either. I actually wouldn’t mind having a PS3, especially since it has a Blu-Ray drive, but only after the price comes down below $400. Once Sony starts cutting the price, I think we’ll see the PS3 rapidly catch up to the others in market share. It’s just too expensive for most people right now.
Hard-core gamers, as I’ve said over and over again, are a kind of evolutionary regression, an outlier on the left side of the Bell curve. That they are a small part of the whole gaming universe is the one obvious fact that Sony and Microsoft can’t get past. Only Nintendo gets it, and to them, I say rock on. There are tons and tons of people who are bored with the mindless blood-and-guts FPS that constitutes the “mature” video game market. “Mature” video games are equivalent to “mature” movies or “mature” literature — trash.
Sony and XBox-style games are far more “kiddie” than Nintendo games. I can’t imagine a game more immature than war games and games about death and darkness. OOO! Zombies! Monsters! Nazis!
Nintendo games have the honesty to admit what they are.
(I’ve been loving playing Gamecube games on my Wii. They’re so much more fun than PS2 games.)
I don’t know about you but I am still happy playing Pitfall on my Atari 2600.
If it’s not “gameplay”, and if its not the whiz-bang graphics, then what is it that get’s consumer to one console versus another. I’ve got a couple of college age friends that play Xbox and Playstation but they own Gamecubes…? And they actually use them and love the games they play on them. When I ask them why they chose GC over something else all I get is a shoulder shrug. For cross-platform experienced player I think maybe its a realization based on actual experience that, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a perfectly good gaming experience, and while high-end graphics are always great, they do not, by themselves, determine how satisfying a gaming experience can be.
From my own experience, and non-scientific survey, it comes down to money versus actual gaming experience.
The only video game worth playing is World of Warcraft.
You can keep your consoles.
Last one I owned was the Sega Genesis
wow, a video game system designed for kids………….nice idea.
Not to burst your bubble, but MDN is run on the side by Apple. It was an experiment when it started. Ever wonder why MDN is still anonymous?
Yeah Ed, I love my digital crack too.
From where I sit:
1.9 mil x 250 = 475 million
1.1 mil x 500 = 550 million
hmmmm…. If I were looking to invest?
The numbers for Wii are impressive, but not runaway great. I’m liking the fact that the underdog is winning, but there’s a way (although just a little ways) to go before I can say, hey! This is frackin’ amazin’!
Each console has something that appeals to a specific segment of the market. There is really nothing about any of the three that dictates only a specific type of game can be made for it. Fun, casual games are NOT the sole realm of the Nintendo Wii and bloody violent games are not the sole realm of the 360 and PS3.
The reason the Wii is selling so well is because a) it’s cheap, b) most people don’t have HD TVs yet, c) it’s NOT HD, d) it’s competitors are double the price, e) it has an innovative/gimmicky new controller.
That’s it. It’s not because the Wii has games that are more fun and less violent. Wii has sports games, so does 360/PS3. Wii also has violent shooters (Red Steel, Call of Duty 3). The Wii is also not as long-term an investment as either the 360 or PS3 because it’s not HD, and isn’t very powerful. In 2-3 years, when more people have HDTVs, and either people are bored with the WiiMote, or Microsoft and Sony have added similar controllers to their platforms, in addition to dropping their prices, the Wii is going to have a really hard time keeping up. Nintendo better have a new HD console to offer in that timeframe, otherwise many Wii early adopters will start to upgrade to a 360 or PS3 as their demands increase and more of them buy HDTVs.
Those of you with a Wii and an HDTV now, don’t even pretend that HD graphics aren’t important. You know very well deep down in the bottom of your heart you wish the Wii was pumping out nice 720p/1080i/1080p graphics that actually took advantage of your TV.
Those of you with an SDTV, get a Wii, because playing a 360 or PS3 on a non-HDTV is a waste of money and would be like watching DVDs on a 14″ black and white TV.
Oh, while I’m at it:
16 mil Wiis (okay, stop chuckling) will earn 4 billion
10 mil PS2s will bring in 5 billion.
I don’t give 2 craps for MSs POS. They can drown in their sea of corn-fed crap. (But they’re number’s’ll be about the same as Sony’s anyway, no matter what I say).
In the end, though, the winners of this round will be the Wii’s game developers.
“I’ve been loving playing Gamecube games on my Wii. They’re so much more fun than PS2 games.”
you’re judging entire console catalogs by their most popular titles….you just can’t do that. It’s like saying you prefer Paramount movies over Warner Brothers.
If you don’t like FPSs, it’s fine with me. Play something else.
I’ll probably buy a Wii sometime, but I shure won’t play any of those cheapo “party” games swarming the system. I don’t need to.
“I know many people that have never owned a video game system that have purchased a Wii simply because it’s fun and easy. The PS3 only appeals to hard-core gamers, and that’s a small market.”
Exactly right. The last game machine I hooked up to my TV was a Pong in 1978. I have no interest in frantically mashing sequences of buttons.
But I bought a Wii, and I love it. I use it every day to play games, check the news, and surf the net on my widescreen TV. The thing is a marvel.
PS3 is being released here in Ireland very soon and I’ve heard it will cost more than €800.
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I play with my Wii
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> all the time. Wario’s Smoothmoves is just plain nuts, but super fun. Raving Rabbids rocks, too. If only they’d bring out Mario Kart for the Wii…
From where I sit:
1.9 mil x 250 = 475 million
1.1 mil x 500 = 550 million
hmmmm…. If I were looking to invest?”
——-
Wrong logic… did you take into account the amount of money each system loses per sale?
Sony announced that it costs about $900 to make each PS3 so each one they sell they are losing on average $300 bucks…
Nintendo on the other hand has said that they make a slight profit from each system sold.
Who do you invest in now?
1.9 mil x 250 = 475 million
1.1 mil x 500 = 550 million
ok fine BUT
each PS3 costs more to sony than they are asking for. I don’t remember how much but Sony loses money each time they sell a PS3, so they have to sell loads of games to get their head out of the water. Meanwhile, Nitendo is laughing its way to the bank with a profit for each Wii sold…