I really like this thread, kudos to kenny. I'm not sure if u prefer the wii or any specific console for that matter, but u sound inclined to the notion that the wii has earned the top spot which is fine. I believe you have a strong argument.
There's one problem i think that puts a bit of a dent (not saying u support it) to the argument of the Wii as being the top console. The industry is changing, perhaps how the market leader is defined is changing. If this were any other generation, the wii would be hands down the winner. Why, because up until this generation we defined the console victor as the market leader or the console which lead in sales. Or did we? Honestly i dont think we ever did. This generation we seem to be defining the winner as the console with the most respect, or street cred if you will. But i truly believe we always have. If we truly look back, the perceived winner of each generation was always the more respected, it just happened to coincide that the same console was the best selling. Perhaps because the sales of the consoles heavily influenced who we perceived as better and therefore earning our respect. It was the most measurable statistic we had and still have. We said: "x console is the best, yes, yes it is, look! 65 million for x console sold vs. 40 million for y console." And the other party had to swallow their pride. But that was back when we all still wanted the same thing. Back then, there was hardly any mention of the "hardcore" gamer because we were all in a sense, "hardcore". But we are in the middle of a revolution. I think the biggest event to take place was that the industry has grown larger than it's "install base". This has happened abruptly and at a massive scale. The industry has been gradually and healthily growing since it began but suddenly (it began in the sixth gen but truly took off this gen) the gamer population has been outgrown by the industry itself. Before us the gamers made up the gaming world. Now the gaming world sits at the global scale and the people that have always been here are just a part of this world, not the world itself.
