/begin console wars now

"Begun, the console wars have."

Nintendo won the console wars a couple years ago. They set off a nuke and Sony and Microsoft are like two survivors fighting for the last scraps of food.

I'm not even gonna start Maxor127. If you say so.

Anyway the 360 was obsolete when it launched. So was the PS3 and the Wii. The trick of a programmer is to find ways to get better performance out of the console. And they haven't hit the mark yet.

EA makes bloated products, im sure if they optimized there games better they would get more out of it.

You talking the snes or n64 days?

I liked my old sega genesis ^^

say what? uh, I for one don't own a Wii and have no interest in it. the only nintendo thing I have bought since the N64 was a DS for long trips mostly. however I have went from XBOX to XBOX360. I am far more a PC Gamer but the XBOX plain and simple is a gaming console and I do go through spurts of spending time on it when I find a game I like. the Wii - thats an adult toy plain and simple that kids can enjoy to. hardly a nuke.

Umm, have you not seen sales numbers lately? The Wii outsells PS3 and 360 combined most months...

Just because you have no use for it doesnt mean that Nintendo didnt kick M$ and Sony in the balls.

Most people never play on their Wii, it just collects dust under the TV.
I dont know anyone that have a wii that activley plays games on on it, they have one game and thats it

You know the best part about this for me, i'm not even a console gamer, hell the last one i bought was an n64. Yes, i will occasionally play my roomies when they wanna play rockband or something along those lines, but overall im a PC gamer. That being said, i can't stop laughing at people who say that nintendo "won" the console wars. The simple reality is that comparing the wii is like comparing normal run of the mill cell phones with blackberries or iphones. They perform a similar task yes, but they are not at all competing in the same market space. last i checked 60 and 70 year old men/women weren't exactly the type to go out and buy the latest console, yet that was a significant portion of the pie of Wii sales.

I can't remember the guys name, but it was someone high up in MS who basically said it perfectly, the Wii is a novelty. Its like a karaoke machine, not many use it regularly, you only bust it out when you have guests over.

Ok, there is a difference between a "gaming console" and an "entertainment system". PS3 and 360 are the former, a Wii the later. The only time that anyone I know actually plays a Wii is at a party or with a lot of friends, or to play old nintendo games like mega man. The average gamer... (meaning someone who plays games a few days a week) Does NOT do in on a Wii. Any good game that the average 18-35 year old male gamer (which is something like 70% of all "gamers") would play is NOT on a Wii. Wii may have more sales, because the average person who doesn't have any interest in gaming likes the fun, quirky games that the Wii offers. But any person with any kind of interest beyond casual gaming does not use it. This is why any major gaming company doesn't even consider making a lot of games for the Wii. Graphically it's no where near as powerful as the other two. Not bashing the Wii, it is fun to play at party's and what not, but it's not for me... who's more then a casual gamer.

I guess my main argument is that I do not considering "winning" the console war solely based on profit. IMO it's more about the amount of high quality games. That being, a Wii does have a lot of "ground breaking" games due to the interactions with the wii-motes. But, this may no longer be a Wii exclusive thing, as both microsoft and sony have developed and are testing this technology with their respective systems. And, once again IMO, this will remove the the coolness factor of the Wii.

Wii is for some kinda casual gamers i think which is the biggest piece of the big pie..
That's why it is the best selling console and won a lot of people's heart..
But it didn't won mine lol..having my PC and PS3 for gaming
The reason i'm buying a PS3 instead of X360 cause the games i really like is on it like..GT5..GOW3...MGS4...

cheers

Well duh the PS3 will take longer to max out, thought not that long. I highly doubt the xbox is maxed out yet as well.

Give it when Crysis 2 comes out on it, then it will be maxed out Same with PS3, so I guess they will be maxed out at the same time, so ignore what I first said.

In terms of pure console sales & profit from consoles, no one can say Wii didn't win; they've pretty much destroyed Sony & MS.

In terms of gaming power, features, replay factor, graphics & dev backing; Sony & MS are in a totally different universe than Nintendo.

Any god damned person with a spec of brain could of foretold Sony was asking for huge problems going with a programming architecture so complicated that they'd put off so many devs looking for a quick way to cash in on games. Boasting the most powerful console, by far, doesn't mean shit if it takes forever to code games and to harness the full potential.

I don't own any of the 3 latest gen, but I've owned (and still own) the older versions of the 3 (XBOX, SNES/64, slim PS2).

I ain't touching the Wii with a 10 foot pole because there's probably less than 5% of the games I'd play more than 10 minutes. My bro has a 360 and I can borrow whenever. The PS3 costs just way too much, but if the rumors hold true (the Nth time there's a price cut rumored, this time in August), I'll be getting a PS3.

Obviously it's got extremely good games, but Blu Ray is the easy seller here, so scrath 100$ and I'm all your again Sony, for the 3rd gen!

I suggest you following your own advice, the Wii sales are dropping drastically. And it doesn't matter how much hardware you sell, it's the software that counts. And like others have pointed out, no one I know that has a Wii has more then one or two games. And none of them even play it today, not even my 5 year old nephew. He plays his dad's PS3 or Xbox360 now.

Nintendo is going to be in trouble next generation, they have lost their motion control gimmick.

The wii LOL, it's not hd doesn't even play DVDs which I consider on it's way out. Give me a break. Nintendo is only selling because it's cheap. The true gamers us 18 - 40 year old single guys buy and in my case powerful pc system with huge screens with the best graphics you can get. That's where true gaming is at. Playing my ps3 on my samsung LED 52 inch hdtv is the ultimate experience along my 30 inch 2560 x 1600 high res pc gaming monster puts to shame any garbage crapbox or Wii garbage out there!

I have to disagree with you on that kami3k. Wii sales have not been dropping drastically. The only reason this last month it was not the top seller for machines was due to the fact the new DSi came out and eclipsed everything. And its not just software that makes or breaks companies like MS, Sony and Nintendo. There is also a very big market in the peripherals as well. Granted Nintendo hasnt had the support of developers for games that are more oriented to the mature audience, but they are trying to fix that problem and actually have quite a few games out and/or coming out geared towards that.

IMO I don't see Nintendo hurting just because they have "lost" the idea of their current controller. With our current situation in the economy, people can't afford to shell out lots of money anymore for a console that doesn't even come with a game. At least with a Nintendo, you can spend a couple hundred bucks and it comes with a few simple games right out the box that people can enjoy.

As far as I'm concerned, people should be thanking Nintendo because if it wasn't for them, more then likely MS and Sony wouldn't even be coming out with Motion oriented stuff. Nintendo always has been and always will be a massive innovator in the gaming industry hands down.

soldier37, the Wii was never designed to play dvds so if you thought about it for more then 2 seconds the Wii does exactly what it was designed to do in the first place. I am a pc gamer at heart as well, but for what console systems are meant to do, a pc cannot compete. Granted there are certain games that are on the pc only and also games that are cross platform, but again the average person cannot afford to build high end gaming rigs like we can. A person cant expect to build a $500 machine and be able to put out the same performance that a console can. It just won't happen.

No, Wii sales have been dropping and will continue to drop. Everyone that would ever one what pretty much has it already.

"
IMO I don't see Nintendo hurting just because they have "lost" the idea of their current controller. "

Never said anything about now, I said NEXT generation consoles they are screwed.

Also a 500 machine can be just as good as a console, if not better.

I also doubt that the consoles are maxed out. Have you seen some of the latest PS2 games? They look almost as good first gen PS3 games, due to the fact that developers have years of experience with the architecture.

Furthermore, even if Sony's platform was the most powerful from the beginning, it doesn't matter now because there is no way that it is as powerful as the next generation which is supposed to be out in 2011 (according to rumors). So, Sony would have to outsell Microsoft 3 to 1 for the next year a half just to have the same user base, at which time the new console from Microsoft will completely cannibalize the sales of the PS3, because it will be 6 times as powerful as the PS3 is now. Don't believe me? The PS2 had ~36 Mb of ram, the PS3 512 Mb, or 14 times as much. I'm not sure about the actual processing power, but I think it's fair to say that the PS3 will be extremely outdated by 2011, and that Sony had better have a grand-slam with the PS4. I hope they do, because healthy competition is good for us gamers.

@kami3k

Frankly, it doesn't matter to Nintendo if they sell software or not. They were the only company making money off of every console sold right from the start. You think the top execs give a crap about software attachment rate when they a generating a billion dollars in profit off console sales? Sony is STILL losing money on every PS3 sold. Granted, Nintendo is shooting itself in the foot for the next generation by not supporting 3rd parties and not having great games, but they ARE rolling in the dough. They don't care if 70% of gamers are 18-35, because older retired folks usually have deeper pockets then poor college boys, and those are the pockets they are picking. I agree that Sony and Microsoft have better games and better systems, but their business decisions have targeted their products at a much narrower (and poorer) demographic. That's just business. It has nothing to do with gaming.

@soldier37

Nintendo isn't just selling because it's cheap. The Xbox360 is now the cheapest console (Arcade at $199 vs Wii at $250), yet the Wii still is beating it. It's the target demographic that doesn't care about true gaming on a 52inch plasma that's buying it.

Not buying it either by some EA VP representative in Europe. It's not like this statement is coming from Carmack or any respective developer.

If your going by pure console sales, Wii won, hands down. Technically it IS a "same-gen" console as the 360 and PS3 (even if the hardware was outdated before the thing was even launched.) To not call it a gaming console it like not calling a netbook a laptop.

If your going by which console gets the most use, 360 won. It offers superior... well... everything, when compared to the Wii. Sadly the PS3 lost, they have a few things to brag about, most powerful console, built-in blue ray, not being "maxed out" yet; but nothing that relates to actual sales.

By THAT logic I should be comparing sales of the current Eee PC to an Alienware M17x, and thus declare the Eee PC the winner. "It kicked the M17's butt! Cause it sold better, and you know, they're comparable products, same gen and all that."

That netbook vs laptop comparison doesn't exactly help your position. They aren't the same thing, they aren't in the same market. There's always some overlap, but they're really geared towards difference audiences. I would agree that the Wii is a part of this generation of consoles, but I don't believe it fully competes with either 360 or PS3.

Wii/PS3/Xbox/PC

Which do you choose?

I use the Xbox because it was the cheapest console. And I liked Microsoft more than sony. I wanted a Wii, but it seemed like a novelty more than a system.

In all reality, I choose the PC.
The best and biggest game lineup.
The only game that's missing is ChromeHounds and Too Human. (Mechwarrior was a PC game, so why didn't that awesome mech game go for pc?)

And for price comparison by the way...
Came across a neat article on a opposing site a bit back. Using eBay, craigslist, and Newegg.com, could they build something better than a console for less?
The answer, with a few used and new parts, was yes.
Consoles are better in the sense that the components can be pre-chosen and mass produced to be cheap and optimized. The software is also optimized for only one system configuration. This makes better software and cheaper hardware.
However the PC is better because it can harness the raw power of modern technology.

Owning a PC is like just having a next generation console. It costs the compariable as next gens console would be today also... a lot.

yeh, its EA that doesn't know HOW to max out the console. All EA's games don't look that great. NFS series looks like ass, NHL and Madden for example are nothing to write home about. So far their best looking game to date, Skate 2, is not all that great either. It is merely ok. Like was already said.... EA struggles to maintain 30fps while other developers maintain 60fps.

Yet Turn 10 can make Forza 3 look just jaw dropping in looks. It looks sooo good. Mass Effect 1 looked really good and 2 looks even better.

The 360 is not maxed out.... EA is just too stupid to know how to max it our correctly resulting in good graphics.

Exactly my point, their geared for different audiences thus sales will be inflated (or deflated depending on what angle your looking from.) Which is why my first sentence was, "If your going by pure console sales."

Your also correct the Wii doesn't fully compare to the PS3/360; which is why I choose the netbook/laptop comparison as they also don't fully compare, but still do in the sense that their both a portable computer (much like the Wii/PS3/360 are all gaming consoles.)

For everyone who keeps saying that people who buy a Wii don't play it often are sorely misinformed. Although I myself consider myself a pc gamer, I also own a Wii and a Playstation 3, and the ONLY one I play on a regular basis is my Wii (of course, if I could afford a few pc upgrades that would probably change).
Oh and whoever it was that said the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are "gaming consoles" and the Wii is an "entertainment system" have things reversed...a "gaming console" is something that plays games...an "entertainment system" is something that plays games, movies, music, ect...

Agreed. Though the Wii really isn't as fun as it was made out to be. The only games I've had interest in were Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Both were really fun games but didn't keep me entertained for months. Wii Sports was really fun too but is more of a game you want to play with three or four people. I think the main reason for the high Wii sells was just marketing and built up hype. I've wanted to sell my Wii for some time (have had it for under a year) but I was hoping for some great games to be released. Sadly I have only seen one game to look forward to, and that's New Super Mario Bros. which I'll probably just rent and play on my brother's Wii so that I can just sell mine.

You all do realize that the Wii is selling like hotcakes because so many parents are buying it for their spoiled children. Adults, that are into console gaming, are buying the Xbox 360 or PS3 for themselves.

You could also say that Ken and Barbie outsell the Xbox 360 and PS3. People spend a lot on their kids and pets.

That the Wii won the war is contingent on it being in the war in the first place. It's a different machine, with a different audience. Do you really think a lot of people bought the Wii instead of the PS3 or $#itbox 360? Nintendo did a great job of getting a new group of people to buy their product, a group that far outnumbers the hardcore gaming community, so naturally their numbers are very good. But, that doesn't mean it was at a big cost to Microsoft or Sony. They reached people their consoles would not have reached. In the long term, it could be good for all three. This assumes, of course, Microsoft can finally realize that hardware should be more reliable than their software.

Impressive? I don't find any of the current consoles impressive at all. PS2 was impressive but not that bunch of... nothingness.
Before consoles stood for something extraordinary something that PC users could only dream about and now what are the consoles? Just a bunch of ordinary PC components and quite probably overpriced.

XBOX is probably maxed out. It is not something that was not present and unknown on the market before. The Radeon tech inside it is on the market for years now.
PS3 at least has the Cell processor and in my knowledge not many programmers have mastered it yet.

i wouldnt say they "kicked them in the balls" perhaps they kicked sony in the balls , but MS is not nearly as far behind in sales as sony is. Plus the hardware is MUCH mnore powerful thjan the wii's and the 360 gets WAY more games than the wii does. i'd say nintendo only kicked MS in the shin , sure it hurts but 360 is still in the fight.I know they outsell MS by alogn shot still but ingeneral this is more area dependant , where i live i know 2 people that own a wii , and about 15 that own a 360, sayign taht theya re kickign the competion in the balls , just because they have a better gimick and Rp campaign is silly ther is more to measuring a system's worth than just sales figures for the console it's self , what you have to look at is GAME SALES and right now MS is leading in both First party and third party game sales. so yeah you could say that wii is kikcing 360's balls but at teh smae time you'd have to say the 360 is kicking wii in their nut sack at the same time