Mar 1, 2007

The Console Wars (The Unique One)


Nintendo Aka: The Unique One - Nintendo has been a prominent force in gaming since the late 80’s. They have created many of the most well known characters in the video game industry such as Mario, Bowser, Link and Samus. But unfortunately Nintendo’s last two consoles have both fallen in to Sony’s very big scary dark shadow, but this year it looks like that’s all about to change.

The Wii was released nearly 4 months ago and there is still people lining up outside stores trying to get one and it doesn't seems to be because they are in short supply, but instead because they are in such high demand. Everyone has been surprised by just how well the Wii is selling, even Nintendo has gone on record saying that they are shocked at how popular Wii has become.

Despite Wii’s huge sells Nintendo still has a few hurtles to jump. Nintendo has lost much of it’s third- party support during the life cycle of the GameCube due to it’s less than stellar sells and it is hurting the Wii now. Many third-party developers did not expect the Wii to sell well due to it’s weaker graphics so what few games they have made for Wii so far have only been ports or games with very little effort and money put in to them such as the abysmal Far Cry: Vengeance. But that is slowly changing with some huge companies showing more interest in Wii like EA who this year has at least to Wii exclusive titles SSX: Blur and My Sims and there is a good chance that there are more on the way.

The bottom line is that games have been played in the same way for many years now and many gamers including my self are ready for a change bigger than just a shiny new coat of paint.Wii is truly a new way to play.

My belief is that by 2009 Wii and Xbox 360 will be too close in sales to name a clear winner. As for PS3 unless there is a huge change in Sony’s strategy there will be Ps3’s piled on store shelves collecting dust (oh wait that has already happened).

My personal console preference:

Wii=Awesome

Xbox 360=very good

PS3=empty wallet and a big door door stop