Do these sales numbers surprise you? [Sony Still Dominant?!?]

[Hawk]

blykmik said:

...but you may be setting yourself up for failure. You may have to end up contradicting yourselves. With all the money that Nintendo is making, it may make sense for them to come out with a "HD Wii"... There's no way they'd discontinue the current Wii. So, what do you do at that point? Stop counting Wii sales and put the HD Wii in 3rd place... or all by itself as an uncontested winner?

I posted this thread to see what some of you would say... Honestly, I thought the MS people might be the most offended... (they're the upstart... this is only their second try...They're improving, even if they're behind in getting into your living room). But I don't think a company's past performance in the market can be discounted. Looking at the total sales of the PS1 and PS2 compared to any other consoles are pretty staggering. I have NO IDEA if that type of success is anywhere near possible... I suppose if they continued to sell at this same rate for 9 more years, then yeah. And it does appear that the Wii SHOULD be able to surpass Nintendo's best historical effort.

 

Discussion is welcome right? I just wanted to put out my opinions on a couple things you said.

First, your theory an HD Wii may be coming out earlier than the normal generational gap. I don't think there is any reason to think that actually. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility, but I've never subscribed to the constant arguements several people have said "HD will be the determinant in console purchases here, anytime now,....anytime now....I promise, eventually". Wii has been against two HD consoles the entire time. And plenty of us HD TV owners, still bought a Wii even though we had an HD TV first. I just don't personally think there is a reason to think a new version of Wii will come out very soon, simply because it's the least powerful console.

You are absolutely right that it's pretty staggering to look at the total sales of the PS1 and PS2. They are definitely king in home consoles. I think you are downplaying the Wii though, in saying it SHOULD pass Nintendo best historical efforts. The Wii has sold more at the 16 month mark than ANY console in history has, INCLUDING portable systems. I don't personally know, or have the most faith in it keeping up the sales rate. It would be amazing to keep it up. But....the Wii, very well could outsell both the PS1 and PS2 lifetime sales in it's lifetime.

Though, that doesn't take away from Sony having done amazing with the PS1 and PS2, or from them doing pretty good right now.