It took quite the confluence of events to see Wii in 3rd place (actually statistically tied for 2nd) for the first time ever. I wonder if there will be other confluneces in the next couple of months.

Seems like 360 has stabilised to carry through sales at the 80K level in America's until the holiday rise starts.With the relatively light drop in EMEAA this week 360 could stabilise in the mid 60Ks in EMEAA. Japan and America will more or less cancel each other out between Wii and 360, so it will be down to Europe as to whether Wii < 360 or not in any given week. PS3 isn't going to move from 3rd in America's without a price cut, but it will stay in touch with Wii. Same will be the case in EMEAA, though on some weeks HW boosts can put PS3>Wii. In Japan Wii and PS3 will remain more or less dead even until something happens to change things.

So, on the week GT5 launches Japan and EMEAA HW will get a boost, putting PS3 above Wii in EMEAA, and putting some daylight between PS3 and Wii in Japan. In America's I don't expect much of a boost, so PS3 could be < Wii that week, but not by enough for Wii>PS3 WW. So it will be down to whether Wii>360 in EMEAA that week as to whether Wii has another 3rd placing for the 2nd time ever.

I think now that the "spell" has been broken, it will happen a occasionally. I think next round of PS360 price cuts will see Wii in 3rd on a weekly basis more often, even in the face of a similar Wii cut.

Intersting to see PS3 get a 13% bump in America's. Any particular reason behind that?

Im basing my thoughts on :http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/81288/2010-year-on-year-sales-and-market-share-update-to-july-31st/

And not the current weeks sales.

I would say that given the current system selling software is in decline and the overall sales are in decline I would have to suggest if nothing substantial changes the Wii is past its peak. Thats not to say that the hardware sales are bad, its just to say that the Wii's overall demand at a lower price is less than the demand it had last year when it was $50 more expensive.

The DS was released late 2004/2005 early and its looking to be replaced just after the hardware sales had peaked in late 2010 and early 2011 depending on the markets, thats 6 years. Now if the Wii doesn't pick up and the decline is terminal then I suspect the Wii will be replaced after only 5 years on the market in late 2011 and or early 2012. I don't believe Nintendo are about to sit on their hands and leave the Wii alone on the market (IF) it is continuing to decline when their best profit maximising option is to release fresh, fast selling hardware with good margins to counter the drop.

The ps2 continued selling because it was still a very viable console 6 years after launch with lots of great games still being launched at that time; something the wii wont be because its main supporter will have other fights to play (3ds wii2) and with no 3party to continue support after nintendo leaves there is nothing left for wii but clear remaining stock

WII´S problem is not in america, over there it will sell great especially in the holidays, the big problem is EMEEA a territory that normally didn't sold many  nintendo consoles, this  console generation nintendo hardware  exploded here for 4 years but now its starting to slow very fast something i didn't expect so soon, given that the PS3 is still to expensive here

My predictions were that when PS3 hit a reasonable price point for europe (199 euros) then it would replace WII as top selling console, but its happening sooner, not because PS3 is selling more, but because WII is slowing down

That said, nothing will take this generation from nintendo, they did a great job and are still doing, but the competition is stepping up its game, and still have some cards to play, something nintendo doesnt, all its cards are on the table now, price reduction on all 3 consoles will always benefit the most expensive models. ( that said im waiting for the wii to sell at 150E to buy one)

there is nothing normal about the generation's market leader peaking in its second year.

there is nothing normal about the generation's market leader heading into its fourth holiday with a reasonable question mark about which console will have the largest holiday sales.

there is nothing normal about the generation's market leader being down YoY coming off a price cut.

it's not like the wii has suddenly stopped selling completely but you can't deny the trends...things don't look rosy for the wii.  nintendo has been losing market share pretty quick this year. at the end of last year when the wii was down YoY many wii fans said, "no big deal, look at the performance now.  this wii be wii's biggest year yet!".  

now look where we are...down YoY and soon heading into huge boost from last year's price cut which will just send the wii further down YoY.  tell youself whatever you want but numbers are numbers no matter what you tell yourself.

..hell, call me crazy (and this is a bit out there) but if kinect is a hit (and it seems possible atm) there is a reasonable chance the wii doesn't even end this generation as the market leader which would be really not normal.

great sales for all....wii needs some help though.  Lower than i thot it would be

Defense force of claling others over reacting but in reality they are the ones who are over reacting iz here in full forze! how fun

Haha ok, you realize for that to happen, the Xbox 360 would have to sell 31 million MORE units than Wii from here on out right? You are getting far too excited..

Anyway, it amuses me how people seem to be baffled by the Wii's decline this year when the reasons are fairly obvious if you even pay minor attention to what's going on in the industry and look at Wii's lineup this year. These are the factors that lead to its decline:

- Normal stagnation of console sales during the summer months (again, 360 would be recieving this decline as well, had it not been for a new model release recently)

- Virtual non existant 3rd party support finally starting to take its toll.

- Nintendo focusing resources more towards their next system, the 3DS.

- NO system movers so far this year. The big releases (Galaxy 2, MH3, NMH2, Red Steel 2, and Sin and Punishment, are good games, but certainly not system movers). NSMB Wii was a HUGE system mover as I expected, and still is, but it can only carry the console so long. Gamers got excited when Nintendo seemed to be focuing its lineup more on hardcore gamers, but the trade off is that their sales inevitably slide when they do that.

I actually expected these relatively poor sales (in fact I expected worse) well ahead of time, because I examined the Wii lineup for this year. Once you look at this lineup for the greater part of 2010, it should come as no surprise that Wii sales are stagnant. However, Nintendo seems to be going back to having a greater adundance of system movers this holiday, with Wii Party, Kirby, Epic Mickey, Vitality Sensor, and the big one, Donkey Kong Country. These games ALL have the potential to be system movers, where 99% of the games this year did not.

I wonder if Wii could actually wind up in third this holiday. With Microsoft's Kinect, Reach and continued strong sales of the slim model and Sony's Move and GT5, Nintendo must be praying Donkey Kong is a hardware mover cause it's their only hope right now.

it's not THAAT far fetched.  if 360 looks like it is going to peak this year, wii peaked 2 years ago.  a 31M difference only means the 360 has to stay relevant on the market 2 years longer than the wii which is looking to be possible.

anyways, i really don't see wii party, kirby, epic mickey, or donkey kong.  donkey kong could have if NSMB wii didn't release just last year.  sell well for sure but i don't think its going to save the wii. i'll leave the vitality sensor as a ? since nintendo has yet to say anything about it.

it's awesome that you expected the wii to fall in sales like it did this year but to everyone else this is unexpected and worrisome hence the reactions.

I'm really wondering why people think DK is going to be a hardware mover.

Donkey Kong as far as I remember mostly catered to existing Nintendo fans/Mario fans. And NSMB Wii must have got loads of Mario fans on Wii.

DKCR will surely move some systems, but I don't think its gonna be a massive system seller like NSMB Wii.