Xbox 360, Playstation 3 And Nintendo Wii Battle For Hearts, Minds And Sales

With the 2007 holiday season breathing down their necks the big three producers of video game consoles are gearing up for a battle. They are fighting for the hearts and minds of those who play video games, and the winner will be determined by annual sales numbers of their video game consoles. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are doing battle for dominance of the video game industry with their Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii products, and the competition has never been fiercer than it is today.

At the end of August, 2007 it was Nintendo Wii that people were buying the most when they chose a video game console. 404 thousand units were purchased compared to 272 thousand Xbox 360 units and 131 thousand Playstation 3 units. Wii has been selling more than the other two combined each month for the past 10 months according to the NDP Group, the top company for providing information about the sales and trends of industries worldwide.

But Sony and Microsoft have plans that are being unveiled as I speak. They realize that they must really be on their game this year if they are expecting to do well against Nintendo Wii during the holiday season. Sony is expected to release a less expensive version of Playstation 3 and Microsoft has recently released a colorful Halo 3 version of Xbox 360 at a reduced price.

Sales of the Playstation 3 video game consoles have been modest at best since its release. This is due to a number of factors including an expensive initial sales price of 500 to 600 dollars per unit, and a lack of any video games that have achieved cultural phenomenon status like Halo 3 did with Xbox 360. Nintendo Wii has been outselling both of them mainly because of its affordable price of 250 dollars, and the technically advanced Wii remote with the motion sensor feature.

The Playstation 3 console did pretty well last year during the holiday season with 491 thousand video game consoles sold in December, 2006, according to the NDP Group statistics. About 1.4 million Playstation 2 consoles were also sold during that same month, which shows how popular its predecessor was prior to its release. Sales of both Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 began to decline soon after that though, with only 82 thousand Playstation 3 units sold during April of 2007 and only 194 thousand Playstation 2 units sold. However, the number of sales has increased in recent months with 139 thousand Playstation 3 consoles sold in July of 2007 and 131 thousand sold in August, and 279 thousand and 202 thousand for Playstation 2 during those months.

Sony is expected to introduce a 399 dollar 40GB Playstation 3 video game console around November 16 according to insiders of the video game industry. This move by Sony, which is in response to the lower priced version of Xbox 360 that was recently released by Microsoft will be just in time for the holiday season.

There has been much speculation lately about whether or not Sony will be releasing their lower priced Playstation 3, but real evidence was recently provided for this theory when they filed for a system model number with the FCC.

Sony is hoping to get back in the race against Microsoft and their Xbox 360 video game console which recently released a Halo 3 version modeled after their popular video game of the same name. Nintendo Wii is still out in front of these two products and running strong as we head into the 2007 holiday season.

Nintendo Wii has been far ahead in sales over Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 since its release last year at this time. In December of 2006 there were 604 thousand of these video game consoles purchased. 436 thousand were then purchased in January, 2007. Sales are still going strong lately with 425 thousand sold in July and 404 thousand in August.

One of the reasons that Nintendo Wii is selling a lot more video game consoles than Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is because it is very popular in countries other than the United States such as Japan. Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 sales are not very good in Japan. Nintendo Wii is much cheaper, and the price difference can be a very important factor for the average hard working citizen.

As the 2007 holiday season approaches there is a battle brewing over who will rule the video game industry. While Nintendo Wii has been victorious since its release almost a year ago selling more than the other two competitors combined every month, it is about to encounter a revitalized competition.

Microsoft and Sony have regrouped and they are both back in the fight with new versions of Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. With no new product to offer, it will be interesting to see if Nintendo Wii will be able to stay on top of sales for video game consoles this holiday season. Microsoft and Sony are going into the season with newer, cheaper and revitalized versions of their video game consoles. Most importantly, they are both companies that have been known to achieve and even surpass the business goals that they set out to accomplish, and they should never be underestimated.

Michael P. Connelly is an Author, Artist and award-winning Filmmaker who writes on a variety of topics that effect people in their every day lives.

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Posted by manung36, Sunday, December 30, 2007 12:02 PM

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