How is Microsoft/Sony going to respond to the astounding Wii sales?

[tuoyo]

MattAAron said:

I think only 1 thing matters: Price.

Each console has their own unique benefit, but I think price is the biggest factor in getting the most console sales

But of course if PS3/360's price were lowered to compete with the Wii, then the Wii's price would get lower too

But we wont see the PS3/360 competing with the price of the Wii ever, because this would mean MS/Sony would lose heaps of money which wouldn't be worth it

Edit: In a hypothetical situation, if you were to take all 3 console, make them all absolutly free, I'm pretty confident the Wii would be last. Obviously they would never be free, but just trying to stretch out my analogy of why I think price is the biggest factor, yet price is something that we won't ever see (atleast enough to have an huge impact on the Wii)

Yes price is a factor but that is something Nintendo took into account when creating Wii (which is why it is not HD), is something Microsoft possibly did not take into account fully and something Sony took into account but were so arrogant that they thought they would destroy the other consoles in sales no matter the price of PS3.  All consoles are now reaping the consequences of their attitude to pricing. 

Bear in mind that if 360 and PS3 were the same price as Wii they won't have had all the high tech additions which I am pretty sure is your reason for saying that if all three were free Wii would be last.  With 360 and PS3 having nothing to offer over last gen and Wii having an amazing new controller the other consoles would probably have been lagging behind (360 certainly would at least, PS3 might have matched sales of Wii due to the Playstation brand name).  If on the other hand Wii was the same price as PS3 it would have been HD and had HD DVD player built in.  There's no way of telling who would have sold more but it could very well have been Wii as it offered something PS3 didn't.