Wii is amazing in that friends of mine that haven't owned a gaming console since the Atari 2600 or NES are now buying a Wii! Actually, people are buying Wii Sports (and the hardware just happens to be necessary to play it) This is a HUGE point that will play itself out in the future. I?ve been able to find a few additional titles worth some Wii playtime, but most my friends who bought a Wii are asking me what else they can play that?s as fun as Wii sports. A few bought games and were disappointed and others rented with no success. The people that bought the Wii for Tennis, Bowling, etc. are not getting on the Mario bandwagon (even though Mario Galaxy is one of the best polished/looking games for the Wii). Nintendo, if you?re listening, better come out with Wii Sports 2 and it better have online play.

While I agree Wii is in a league of its own, it did lose market share to other consoles simply because it wasn?t on the shelves at Christmas (or any other time for that matter, unless you?re fond of getting in line to get a ticket to get in a line?). Again, I have personal experience of friends picking up a gaming console for the kids for Christmas and while Wii was the first choice, they weren?t going home empty handed. The idea of having TWO gaming consoles in the home to them is about as likely as Marty McFly finding two TV sets in his Mom?s 1955 home in Back to the Future.

However, the Wii is priced right and once people don?t have to wait in line to get one, I think they?re warm up to idea of picking one up, even if they did buy a PS2 or 360 (no one I know walked in to buy a Wii and walked out with a PS3)

Some other points:
-Xbox Live is just awesome. Hearing little kids cuss over the headsets is not, leave the headset off or set it to only hear friends. MS should have included a Hard Drive (HD) in every console though. Between using Xbox Live and have any type of backward compatibility, it?s a must own. Downloadable Movies and shows has some real merit IF they start to price content a little lower and MS stops charging ridiculous amounts of money for their HDs.

-?Home theater enthusiasts? were buying PS3s for Blu Ray when the next cheapest player was $999. PS3 is a loud, noisy, annoying Blu Ray player. Still, it is a good deal for someone who bought their first LCD and wants HD movies and games, but must have PS3 games are still lacking and 360 has been able to share in once Sony-exclusive titles.

-PS3 will come into its own eventually and I will buy one? eventually. I used to love Sony as a kid, and to think I now prefer a Microsoft product over Sony… what kind of world are living in? It?s like the 360 is making for up for having to deal with MS OS, Outlook, Office. Whereas the once-loved Sony has made me suffer through MiniDisc, Memory Stick, Root kit, UMD on my PSP, and their lust for DRM. Don?t even get me started on Blu Ray 1.0-2.0-? vs HD DVD or Sony dropping PS2 backward compatibility on low end PS3s (that?s not going to make any parents angry).

But I digress? and have written almost as much as Rob originally did in his great article. It?s a wonderful time to be a gamer or to get into it! Just have fun with it and remember the consumer wins when fair competition is in play.

I love Mass Effect (exclusive to XBox 360), but I do not enjoy playing online. I have Halo 3, but I have only played it for less than an hour.

I am also hoping that Microsoft comes out with a portable game system. The PSP suffers from a lack of dual analog controllers and the single analog stick is located far too low for my hand. The DS again suffers from a lack of good solid games for my taste. In fact, I bought all of my kids leapsters so that they could actually learn something instead of just wasting time.

Long and short, my dollars are going to continue going exclusively for the Microsoft camp.

A huge user base is not the only matter for game dev.
Remember that programming anything on a Box360 means you'll reach the (also huge) 360 user base, plus the PC user base (around 15% of the overall market).
If you create a game for the Wii and want it to be ported to X360 or PS3 you have to do more than a “simple” code translation due to massive technical diff between theses consoles, most of the “Wii game”, first designed for wii, are not ported on anything else (except NDS).
Lastly you need to remember the production costs for each console, Sony is by far the most expansive, than you have the Xbox, the Wii, the PSP and lastly the DS.

For all these reasons, user base is not the only matters when it comes to decide on what to develope a game.
If i had to choose, today, i'll choose DS or X360. You have to create AAA games to earn money on Wii or PS3, it's less true for the first two consoles mentionned.

(I do apologize for my mistakes; my English is far enough from being perfect.)

Agree the secondary Wii numbers are weak, but then the Wii system itself (according to Nintendo) is actually in the black so doesn't have the cost recovery problem the PS3 enjoys. Still think the big thing was the handheld numbers and just how lucrative DS in particular appears to be.

The problem with Blu-Ray saving the PS3 is it adds too much cost to the system and if the price goal is $200 it will keep Sony from that goal for some time. The PS2 numbers are telling here and somehow they have to get this cost down. Right now the estimate of the subsidy attached to the PS3 is staggering.

I have a hard time thinking that movies on the PS3 will make a sustaining difference, whether it is the Xbox or the PS3 folks just didn?t seem to go in that direction when given a choice and the Blu-Ray decks should drop below the PS3 price shortly.

As far as how Sony reports numbers, I never said I took numbers from the vendors. Nor did I say ?all other numbers were different?. What I said was ?most? of the numbers that are reported are what the vendors sell to channel. This is accurate and true whether we are talking cell phones, PCs, or game systems and that is why I personally prefer NPD numbers. They aren?t the vendor (and so are unlikely to be creative) and they report what folks actually buy.

How about a simple “I disagree, and here is why”? No need for personal attacks, and least Rob has the guts to post his opinion on a site that gets millions of visitors – you have to respect that, even if you think he is wrong.

I am personally on the side of Graham when it comes to the PS3. I think Sony probably had two goals with the unit, use it to push Blu-ray forward (mission accomplished), and secondly to be the top gaming system (still working on that). I don't care how technologically advanced the PS3 is, until there are more games available for it, Xbox will be the king.

The Wii on the other hand, is nothing more than a “fad craze” ala Apple and with a low price-point of course people will eat it up. But like you said, software sales for the Wii are not as good as Nintendo would like you to believe (Microsoft publishes their software sales numbers, Nintendo has been less willing on the other hand). But I do think the Wii has the greatest potential. With a huge user base, developers WILL start creating more games for the system, it's just a matter of time when the Wii might overtake Microsoft here.

Sony has to be in the game for the long run, they have no choice. However with new game consoles coming out every 5-8 years or so, I am not sure the PS3 has the staying power for a phenominal finish.

I love my PS3 personally, I think it's an amazing system and the first party games are the best I have seen graphic-wise. But the Xbox 360 just has way more games to choose from and an online (Xbox Live) marketplace that blows the PS3 away.

This is meant with the best of intentions, so don't shoot the messenger: you might want to let the younger crew review the performance of systems out there; you might also want to research your stories more vigorously.

Sony does indeed report units sold through to the end user – the reason for the disparity is due to their inclusion of Black Friday numbers in their holiday period reporting – not, as you've said, because they report units sold to retailers.

It's clear Nintendo did very well this holiday season; the question is whether or not these users purchased a Wii Sports Machine or whether they'll continue to consume more software. Considering that the Wii has the largest installed base but it still only puts up average numbers for software it's clear that Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy is missing the part where people “buy more stuff”. Perhaps Wii Sports was a little too good – wait for Wii Fit to see the true software moving ability (or lack thereof) of this machine.

You've underestimated the PS3 here; the unit saved Blu-ray – now it's time for Blu-ray to save the PS3. Being the least expensive and most capable player out there, it will continue to find a home with HT enthusiasts… who will begin to explore the gaming aspect. These money-laden geeks, nerds and folks from all walks of life are far more likely to purchase more whiz-bang software than the retirement communities who are currently playing Wii bowling.

Sony's in this for the long haul, Rob. If you can't see past the current quarter I'd refrain from making dire predictions about a console's future.