Clearing Up Holiday Sales Rumours 86
Gamespot's regular 'Rumor Control' column tackles some confusion around who had the most holiday sales among the three new consoles. A CNBC broadcast prompted GamesIndustry.biz to proclaim the 360 the winner, with some 2 Million in sales. The Wii followed closely behind with 1.8 Million, and the PS3 followed that number with 750,000. The catch here is that, while it's possible a viewer could have assumed this was official NPD data, it wasn't. From the article: "The segment is an interview with Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with IT market intelligence firm IDC. In it, a graphic appears on screen showing estimated console sales in North America for November through December 25, 2006. The numbers match up with the figures being attributed to the NPD, but CNBC attributes IDC as its source on them. The confusion likely comes from a blurb of text that appears at the bottom of the screen shortly after the graphic is taken down. It notes that the 'NDP Group' (sic) pegged the Wii as selling more than twice the number of PS3s for the month of November, which is true, but also something that was announced last month." The numbers may prove to be true, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer to see who actually came out ahead last month.
Why does everyone want a winner? (Score:3, Insightful)
The gaming market is absolutely huge, with over 10 billion+ in sales per year. There is plenty of money to go around, and for the first time 3 legitimate consoles who will all take a good portion.
The compeition of this generation of 360/Wii/PS3 will spark a ton of innovation for the next set of consoles.
Re:Numbers skewed from shortages (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the only answer anyone can give you is "sometime in 2007" because no one really knows
In the small circle of people I know I'm the only person who actually owns a Wii and I know several people who are actively searching for one. When Nintendo ships another 500,000 to 1,000,000 units I would expect that most people who were looking for a Wii to own one but I'm not postivie about that; with (essentially) 2 Million systems sold in 6 weeks, and there still being a pretty massive shortage I think it is selling at a rate that no one expected. Traditionally, January and February are very slow months for game system sales (with around 1 Million sales of all hardware combined per month) so I would anticipate that within the next 6 to 8 weeks the Wii should be seen on store shelves
Re:Not surprising (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if the PS3 comes in last, don't expect Sony to throw in the towel in regards to gaming. Just as a drop in marketshare hasn't ruined Nintendo's brand, the playstation brand is still important, and Sony is likey to take another stab at it when the next next-gen rolls around. We can only hope that if the PS3 falls below Sony's expectations that they learn some lessons from it, and make a more desirable system the next time around.
Re:I'm sick of Japanese consoles...there I said it (Score:4, Insightful)
The NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation, and PS2 all had a lot of western developed games (and Japaneese games) which didn't have senseless/cutesy story lines.
Before the Xbox, where could us Western console gamers go for realistic eyes and hair? Where could we go for a game originally written in English (without some strange translation)? Where could we go for an RPG that wasn't on rails? Where could we go for a game whose main character was a clear heterosexual?
For realistic hair and eyes, I'll tell you when we actually get them; considering realistic Skin, Hair and Eyes are still difficult on pre-rendered movies (because humans are very good at telling the difference between computer generated and real people) I expect that it will be a couple of generations. If you're talking about where you could get them from an Artistic perspective I think you should look into a couple of games Link [gamespot.com], and Link [gamespot.com],Link [gamespot.com]. Many Japaneese companies have been on the forefront of 'realistic' graphics.
RPGs that "aren't on rails" are mostly an American (typically PC) genre and have never been (particularly) popular
I, for one, am glad that an American company is finally back in the game.
There is nothing wrong with an American (or Japaneese) company being very successful in the industry
Blindly following that company simply because they are American (or Japaneese) is foolish because they will (likely) take your support for granted and you will (probably) become angry with the company.