Another year, another battle in the console war

With the festive season straightaway latest us, many wonder which of the seventh-generation video game consoles came out on top for 2007. The Big Three â " the Nintendo Wii, the Microsoft Xbox360 and the Sony Playstation 3 â " gain all partaken in fierce competition, everyone with its own unique selling speck and games.

The short return is that, for now, the winner is the Nintendo Wii. Fascinating the console market by storm since its launch in November 2006, it has seen an unprecedented popularity amongst what is familiar as â casual gamersâ â " those who do not wish to invest chronology and emotion on what they perceive as overtly heterogeneous games. Using inexpensive controllers, down pat as WiiMotes, that take the mobility of their userâ s hands, Wiis were hardly any as demand for the console surged â " making it to the top spot of the Telegraphâ s â Hardest to find Christmas giftsâ list and becoming the most searched for title on eBay. This could have been a conscious achievement by Nintendo to avoid saturating the market, but the company denies this, instead citing inefficiencies with the supply of third-party components.

Itâ s not all plain sailing for the Japanese console giant though. Despite its Wii and Nintendo DS being leaders in the home and handheld gaming market respectively, the majority of games available for Wii have been made in-house. Shunning the bazaar for decidedly family-unfriendly games commensurate Gloriole 3, it remains to be seen if its simple appeal is sustainable in the upcoming year; but for now, the Wii is definitely in the lead.

As for whoâ s in second place, the juryâ s currently out. Analysts were divided over what to expect this Christmas. DFC Intelligence, a video sport and entertainment industry probation firm, predicted in September that the Xbox 360 was potential to finish third this Christmas, with the gap widening over the course of the year, unless it managed to strengthen its weak position in the all-important Japanese market. On the other hand, research group BrandIntel expected the PS3 to fare worse this festive period, citing its high price and comparative lack of games as the main reasons.

With the two consoles appealing to more hardcore-gamers than the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft announced last week that it had sold 4.3 million Xbox 360 machines worldwide in the last quarter of 2007, while Sony announced this week that it sold 1.2 million in the U.S. during the Thanksgiving to Original Year's period. These apples-and-oranges figures make for hard comparison, however itâ s clear that both machines are still in the running.

Sony anticipated its issues by slashing prices on the PS3, and sales must obtain been helped with the news that Warner Bros have decided to blop HD DVD as a format for its home video releases, forging the PS3â s Blu-Ray playing capability a worthier haul than previously. Microsoft meanwhile, benefited emphatically from the release of Halo 3. Since its release in September it has sold 8.5 million copies, which process that nearly half of the 17.7m Xbox 360 owners bought the game. It is currently the top-grossing video game of all time, bringing in $300 million by the end of the first week of release.

Perhaps the biggest winner in the current console war, however, is the game-playing public. Gaming is slowly becoming the leader in entertainment and well on its way to surpassing Hollywood. It might not bring about so this year or all the more this decade, on the contrary thanks to the success of games like Halo, the industry is confident to see significant investment, widening the selection and quality of games for years to come.

29 Nov 2008 18:42:09

Black Friday Web sales jump - Reuters

Reuters Black Friday Web sales jump Reuters - CHICAGO (Reuters) - Online sales jumped on Black Friday as consumers searched for electronics such as the Wii video game console and Apple's iPhone and iPod ... eBay Companies See Black Friday Shoppers Clicking for Great Deals Black Friday online sales - Cyber Monday comes early

more: http://reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE4AS2VU2008112~