New Media Technologies Blog - Entry #6 Wii to Displace Xbox 360 by End of 2008 and Sony PSPhone!?

Wii to displace Xbox 360.

Well I knew that Wii was leading in terms of overall console sales as the numbers that were released right around the first year's release of the Nintendo Wii put it right up or in some polls, just over the sales of Xbox 360 units which had been already on the market for at least two years. But, I never expected to see numbers such as this above article is suggesting for 2008 sales. If the polls are true than this literally puts Nintendo back on top in the console market since it's reign in the 80's and 90's, and this is not to mention the Nintendo DS currently leading the way in the handheld market, in which Nintendo has always had a significant lead over competitors.

Now it's not that the Xbox 360 or PS2 are inferior systems to the Wii, not in the least, but one does have to recognize that the video game markets are changing quite radically. Instead of games always being about the best, high quality HDD graphics the Wii focuses more on getting regular gamers and an entire new demographic of casual gamers and even non-gamers interested in playing games on the system. And the fact that it is half the price as one of the other graphic powerhouse consoles. It's funny to go back to video game journal/magazine articles written during the period before the Wii and DS systems were launched and reading some of the criticism that they received early on. Most articles, especially the "Game Informer" reviewers which is a magazine that gets pushed on the majority of the video game magazine reading markets through the empire of GameStop, (which now owns it's only other major competitor EBGames) harped on the ideas of the Wii and DS being gimmicks and that the real future in video gaming lied in graphics and raw processing power. Think back to Darth Vader's dialogue in Empire as he stated, "IF YOU ONLY KNEW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE!" This is what I think of every time the editors and reviewers spoke of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Truth is though, no one could truely anticipate that the Wii and DS would take off as much as it has, but now numbers have spoken and this gimmick, fad controller design and gameplay seems to be here to stay afterall. Now I like Nintendo, but I don't know if I'd consider myself to have a favorite console of the three that are out now as I also have a great deal of respect for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live's model with things like online gameplay for most games and a "GamerScore". But you have to admit, something about Shigeru Miyamoto's philosophy (Shigeru Miyamoto: Lead Video Game Designer for Nintendo, and the creator of Super Mario Bros. Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and many, many more series) that video games should first and foremost be "FUN". Word is, though Miyamoto is always smiling for the cameras, being a game designer working under Miyamoto is quite the trial because if Miyamoto test plays the game they are designing and deems it not to be fun, they have to go back to the drawing board. The entire model and concept behind the Wii remote system and the DS touchscreen system is centered around this very simple concept of "FUN", rather than graphics and making "HDD rendering impossibilities" possible.

It'll be interesting to see where things go from here on out in terms of these two different philosophies. But wow, 30.2 million Wii's sold by the end of 2008 with the system being out a little more than 2-3 years by that time is incredble.

But, I wouldn't count Sony out just yet either, especially with news of their Sony Ericsson model PSP phone rumor going around. Personally with the success of smart phone technologies such as Apple's iPhone I think Sonly could pull it off unlike Nokia's NGAGE.

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