From a purely marketing-oreinted standpoint...
Microsoft:
+ Achievements, plain and simple; there's no better way to boost sales of software than to give the user added incentive to play the game
+ Advertising in America; they pretty much have nailed what it takes to get long-time gamers to jump to 360
- Price point; $400 for the high-end model is $100 more than standard, and $200 more than ideal
- Public relations; the RROD issues have given MS a very negative position with would-be new purchasers
Nintendo:
+ Use of bundled software to huge effect; Wii Sports is the best pack-in ever devised in terms of selling a system
+ First-party franchise support; Mario, Metroid, and Zelda (the three biggest Nintendo IPs) have all had stellar incarnations on the Wii
- Supply constraints; the lack of foresight into the effectiveness of their campaign has led to a massive difference between supply and demand
- Corporate relations; Nintendo cannot shake their image as top producer of games for their own console, and this leads to wariness in third-party developers
Sony:
+ All-purpose "next-gen" entertainment center; the PS3 is easily the most full-featured TV-based electronic device ever produced, bordering on PC-like functionality
+ Supply scare tactics; while questionable in ethics, it cannot be denied that Sony's frequent scaling back of PS3 capabilities and eliminating older more functional models has had some effect on their success in the marketplace
- Price point; if $400 is too much, then $500 is even moreso, and a distant cry from the target range of $200 to $300
- Public relations; Sony got off on the wrong foot early in the lifespan of the PS3 with a disasterous E3 2006 presentation, and has yet to fully recover from it
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
