On the issue of Wii sales I would guess in addition to fishyjoes point that it could simply be many shipments coming in the last couple days of last week and many coming in the first days of next week. As for the 360 I wouldn't have guessed sales were lower than this week last year (I'm too lazy to verify that though) but whatever, it's doing alright which is more than can be said about the PS3.

As for the economics side discussion everyone probably should shutup because everyone thus far has been wrong. However, I won't say so since I'm not going to waste the time explaining why everyone is wrong so keep at it and have fun (although avinash is close to a reasonable argument just not so in the manner argued, hint GDP is the wrong statistic to use).  If you're relying on media reports and such I'll just point out there's a reason Rush Limbaugh makes fun of the fact that just about every economics news story starts out with "the experts were surprised..." or "economists were caught offguard...".

 I don't think it is surprising at all.   The Wii is competing, in my opinion, for a different set of customers.  The PS3 and 360 are competing head to head for the same gamer's dollars.  PS3+360 sales are way higher than 360 sales alone.  I wondered out loud in a thread a couple of months ago if the 360 could sell as well as it did last year with the PS3 now taking away some customers.  At the time, the $399 price point wasn't in effect but now that it is, I suspect it has put a dent in the 360's potential customer base.

I am suprised any Wii consoles were sold ... because there were none to be found. 8*>.

Seriously though, Wii sales are probably down because of supply. Xbox 360 sales were basically flat.

Long-term, it does not mean much because of the small magnitude. But it does show which console is ganing (and which is not) from the Wii shortages.

Mike from Morgantown

Couple things:

1) Black Friday occured at a different time of year than last year Erikers.  When it falls really early, sales drop off a bit, when it is late, and only five weeks are between it and Christmas, there is a greater concentration.

2) Somewhere, I did see that Microsoft was facing some supply issues in the west, because certain skus sell out, but they overship the ones that no one buys.

3) The economy is a small factor.

4) Weather this year is much worse than last year at this time.

2) How big of an impact are we talking for 360 sales?  Negligable or actual?  360 sales seem relatively good so It would appear fairly minor if there is a measurable impact. 

4) Yup it has been extremely cold, wet, icey, etc... in my area and in general it is the kind of weather I don't think anyone wants to be venturing out without a damn good reason.  Hopefully global warming will be here by next year (south park reference).

I know the Arcades are really selling out. Folks will go to a store for a Wii - can't get one because they are sold out and asks or sees a 360 Arcade at $279, which is just $30 above the Wii. So, what happens? They buy the Arcade.

Sounds better than your words of, well it should be doing better this year becuase it's 1 year later.  Please take your bullshit out if you no nothing about the market.

It's sold better in those last few months to do to pricedrops and Halo.  You and I both know this so don't give me your dumb innocent shit.

Another thing to understand is what's going to increase more in holidays.  Holiday sales increase don't come from hardcore gamers, they come from basically people buying on brand, which would be the casuals or regular everyday people.  So obviously the people who appeal to that the most will get the largest increases.  Why do you think DS and PS2 alwasy increase so much come holiday season.  360 on the other hand probably doesn't do that as extensively as others and won't get as large as holiday rises, and that may be showing even more this year, as it loses some of that brandname that casuals follow to the Wii.  Meaning November and December sales of the 360 could be closer than we would normally think.

Not to mention the first week of December is not going to have as huge of sales as the next 2 after.  It increases a lot in the next 2 weeks.  The first week of December has sales like the weeks in November, the next one increases more, and then the week after that increases even more, and then finally the last week we drop off to right about pre holiday sales. 

Geez why does everyone here seem to think sales work on lines.  I mean if everything was linear we wouldn't need this site.  Thinking to damn linearly.   

Probably not synonymous of the rest oft he US, but I have been able to walk into stores and buy a Wii if I wanted for more than 8 months where I live.

 Well don't tell anyone where ya live haha, or you could have about 1,000 people you odn't know in your town looking for one.

 You have no idea what you're talking about. You sound like you just repeated what some talking head told you on TV. I love when people quote the "low unemployment" as a sign that the economy is doing well. Most misleading statistic ever. Fact of the matter is, yes, "new jobs" are being added every month; but if you pay close attention to what these jobs are, you'll see they're very basic "service" jobs for the most part. These jobs are not very stable and don't exactly pay well, which many of the jobs these jobs are replacing did pay well (ever wonder why things go overseas? Because it's actually cheaper, despite all the energy costs for shipping, to make products overseas. Why? well, we don't have pay them anything near what the American workers were getting paid before they moved the jobs overseas). My point is this: yes new jobs are being added very regularly. But the jobs suck ass and don't pay anything like the jobs they replaced did. It's a misleading statistic because what is really happening is the middle class is disappearing and people are living above their means majorly (next topic). 

The "sub-prime situation" is really not the issue here. It's really more of a side-effect of the real problem: Severe over-spending. It has been a big problem for a long time in this country, and the country still has a problem with it. When you're spending more money then you're making/brining in, of course there are going to be problems.  Finally, though, after years of this behavior it's starting to catch up to people. A good deal of these people that have been living way above their means realize they can't keep that pace up for too long. Or these people are being forced to stop their behavior (foreclosures, for example). There are still tons of people over-spending though and living above what they make; and these people far outweigh the people that realize they can't keep living at that spending pace. I'm sorry if you don't see this happening, but it is a problem. 

Can you really blame the people doing this though? It's just part of our culture to consume and spend. We have all been raised that way, and have been fed commercials telling us why we need to buy things our entire lives. It's hard to convince someone to not get something when "everyone else" is getting that stuff (thing is, everyone else can't afford it either...vicious cycle). Now that the middle class is disappearing, though, we're finally seeing the effects. People can't afford that lifestyle anymore, and this is why things like sub-prime fiasco have occurred. I hope things improve soon though because I don't like it one bit.