problem here is that the current gen isnt over yet. cant really make a tally on systems currently being sold. Its very possible that the Wii might sell as well or better than the PS2, which will make those numbers VERY close...plus DS and PSP are still active as well.

The brandname this is really interesting, although Kasz already said everything important with some other guys posting some links about brand familiarity.

Anyway, Playstation as a brand have taken a few massive hits with PSP and PS3. If we put "Playstation" and "Wii" against each other, as how well the name spreads in the public, Wii is the clear winner due to the name being so much easier to pronouonce. Most of the fifth generation PSX got called as Nintendo (for Nintendo being the synonyme for games and Playstation being hard to pronounce, people used the word that meant "gaming device" for them), now that Wii is an easier name, it's spreading much faster in the public, replacing Playstation, than the other way around.

Then, "Wii" has the advantage of being a name that can be put easilly into games, which never was a realistic possibility for "Playstation" and it's only making the brand stronger.

Also, the strength of the brand expands beyond the name into the games that are viewed as a part of it. 360 has been stealing former exclusive IP:s to multiplat from "Playstation", that is making the brand weaker (breaking the bonds in peoples eyes), and that's why M$ has put these games into so important role in their PR (if anyone ever wondered).

Today, Playstation is a strong brand, but it is (or has been) going downhill due to competition.
Currently, there shouldn't be much of a doubt about Wii being stronger brand (and even so in the future).

This goes in cycles.

First, everything was Atari (and it played "tapes" -- even though the systems were cartridge-based (for the most part). This is not surprising as the 2600 still has sold more than Xbox 360 and PS3 and outsold the Xbox, GC, DC Saturn, and Genesis.

Then, everything was Nintendo. For a while it just about really was (the NES era).   It stayed that way, even when the Genesis was more popular.

Then it became Playstation -- because Sony took over video games.

Right now though, I have never heard anyone refer to a Wii as a Playstation (in the generic). Maybe people are becoming more educated.

(As for handhelds, it's a Gameboy or a DS -- and sometimes a DS is called a Gameboy).

Mike from Morgantown

Profit is a different subject all together and has lilttle to do with the OP's thread.  But really what that should tell you is Sony expands and pushes the consoles where Nintendo just updates thier existing console.  It is easy to make profit when you have very little R&D costs.  For example, you have the GB, GBcolor, GBA,. Ds, Dsi ect....  These are not new products, just slightly updated.  Same goes for the Wii.  Aside from the controls the Wii is an updated Game Cube.  In contrast the Playstation has drasticly improved the performance of thier consoles, not only in formats, but processing power as well.

I guess trillions of dollars in profit is not much.  Yes, Nintendo has made more profit, but thats because they charge $250 for a $100 pc. of hardware and $30 controller.

@kjj---your seriously going to try and say the GBA is just a watered down version of teh DS.......riiiiiiighttt


and as far as pushing hardware....the GC was just a little better then the 64....righttttttttt.......


and the snes was just little better then the nes...........rrrrrriiiiiighhhhtttt......


but what do i know i am just a 5 year old right?

I remember around the 64 days 'everything' was still Nintendo called from non gamers, or very rarely casual gamer players. Towards end of 64 days and all the way through ps2 days it was all "gonna play playstation" no matter what the system.

for a couple of months this gen it seemed still just playstation. But now i hear people refer to 'ONLY' the Wii. Hell if I didn't purposely try and find out, I would not know who of my friends even owned a PS3. I think only 4 do. And last gen PS2 owners of my friends were probably 30 or close to everyone. Now they either own just a 360 or most own both 360 and Wii. The few that have a PS3 are immature fanboys, which i didn't know until this generation.

Since most of my friends who play games just buy shooters and sports games the 360 is easily the better choice. And i have 1 friend who reviews games now for his school magazine, so i guess 1 normal legit PS3 owner. But really found it funny how UNLOYAL they all were to their PS brand. When the price was shown, bam they all went out and bought 360's. were waiting for the new playstation before, and hadn't bought a 360. But price is a huge factor to average person, and then throw in once a few buy a 360 then the rest follow because all friends on it. Hell if I owned nothing and was deciding i woudl buy whichever had more friends to play online, and borrow games from.

They like refer to how playstation is the best and all else sucks, the wii is kiddy. Hell one of them stopped over when I was playing MP3 and he wondered what system i was playing. When I said Wii, he was like "holy shit, I thought Wii games all just looked like Wii sports graphics"

off topics

but has anyone else noticed that insted of teh casual market being the least informed this generation is seems to be the "hardcore" crowd

Tell me this is a joke post.

Nintendo don't update their consoles?

Maybe you weren't around for the NES and SNES and N64 and GC and Wii. So the PS1 to PS2 was a bigger leap than N64 to GC???

Low R+D costs?????  WTF!!

No, what I said was the Ds is a watered down version of the Dsi and the GB is a watered down version of the GBcolor which is a water down version of the GBA.

The gap between the nes and snes is not very big.  They did make the GC alot better than the 64 but still got thier ass handed to them.

The snes was 2x's the power of the nes - 8 bit to 16 bit

the GC was 7.76x's more powerful than the 64 - 62.5 mHz to 485 mHz

the Wii is 1.5x's more powerful than the GC - 485 mHz to 729 mHz

The PS2 is 8.8x's more powerful than the ps1 - 33.87 mHz to 299 mHz

The PS3 is 10.7x's more powerful thand the ps2 - 299 mHz to 3.2 gHz

ha yea no kidding, really the PS3 seems the exact same as the PS2, which is the same as PS1.  All just better graphics from previous generation.  same controllers every gen (yea i know slowly adding a dual stick)  but seriously you could play ps1 games on ps3 and basically holding exact same controller.  

not that controllers are everything, but nintendo has gone from the nes one, to the 64 one, to the gamecube one.  Sure they are just all different designs for buttons I guess so no biggy.  But then you can't say that there is no R&D for the DS and the Wii.

A touch screen gaming handheld, and then a (well say waggle to make you happy) gaming system.  But I guess the R&D to make a reliable touch screen handheld and feasable wii controller and all that is miniscule compared to the R&D put into THE CELL.