That's the thing, though: most of the gaming market doesn't care how good the graphics are. The immersion comes in the form of the gameplay, not the graphics. To a certain point, graphics do help. But they're not even remotely as important as if the game feels fun to somebody who's just looking for a quick entertainment fix. Average Joe wants to play his games, not stop and admire how pretty they look. A movie's a better bet for visual entertainment than a game, and where that sort of thing is expected. So to Average Joe gamer, what do they care if the game's in 1080i or 320x224? That's not why they're playing in the first place.

@ Sky Render

IMO graphics, audio and game complexity all matter to the average Joe, else shops should stick to selling the NES and c64 to consumers. I think cost considerations and current game library are important to the average Joe gamer especially for parents buying presents for their kids (cute games probably preferred).

Remember Doom, the average Joe PC gamer en masse upgraded to better audio and graphics setups. Many people are buying HDTVs (1080p sets are currently doing very well!), but what's a high definition TV set without high definition content?

Wii Fit, Mario Kart, SSBB and Mario Party 9, that ought to carry the Wii hardware well into september with still massive sales, then come the fall games which will propel Wii into its third impossibile to find holiday season. Wii and DS will dominate easily again, the only question is how much can they produce

AS RULER OF THIS PUNY WORLD OF HUMANS, I DECLARE 2008 TO BE THE YEAR OF THE WII ONCE MORE.

Graphics only sell to a point. Eventually, you hit the point where further graphics upgrades just make the game look shinier and more detailed, but not necessarily better. We hit that point last generation. The leap from NES to SNES (huge color and sprite scaling jump), from SNES to PS1 (3D character models became viable, 2D broke free of tile-based limitations), and PS1 to PS2 (3D character models improved dramatically, detailed 3D environments became viable) were all significant and easily traceable even with downsized images.

The difference between PS2 and PS3? Not so noticeable. It's mostly just a bigger and more detailed version of the same thing we saw on PS2. Sample it down to even 640x480 images, and the difference mostly is aesthetic (if it can even be detected). Until they find some way to use the higher resolution to real effect (instead of just improving on what we already have), high-res graphics won't be drawing in the majority of gamers.

JervisTetch said: I dont know that I would call that cheating. If they cant meet demand, then the potential sales from December will be divided between December and January. So, lets say that they would sell 1.5 million in December without supply issues. With supply issues, lets say that they sell 900,000 in December and 1 million in January ( the remaining 600,000 from December plus 400,000 from regular January sales). The system will sell the same. The only difference is if those sales are spread across one month or two. I dont think that this will make a difference to Nintendo, financially speaking. If anything, I would think that they would want to sell as much as possible during December so that they could say that they set December sales records. Please note, I am not saying that the Wii will sell 1 million in January. I was just using those numbers as a hypothetical mathematical comparison.

that's good, because wii will sell more than 1mil in January...more like 1.5-1.8mil, depending on how many they ship

 and they sold 1.5mil last week alone, so saying 1.5mil in december without supply issues is way wrong, as it sold 1.5mil in ONE WEEK even with supply issues

MikeB said: @ Shams But the single word, that can be used to describe 2007 accurately: Nintendomination. IMO you can't have "Nintendodomination" when 360 + PS2 + PS3 sales for the home console market are significantly larger in terms of total hardware sales and especially considering the huge gap in software sales.

You can set whatever definition you like. Looking at the weekly worldwide charts, these are the numbers that accurately represent the industry at the moment:

MS: 10-15% (360)

Sony: 25-30%  (PS3 + PSP + PS2)

Ninty: 60-65% (DS + Wii... ignoring GBA)

...

More than 50% of total market share, more than all competitors added together. And the biggest selling titles worldwide are also Nintendo titles.

You can call it what you want, I will call it Nintendomination. They have driven most of the industry growth for the last 2 years, and have continued to do it this year.

Next year will be more of the same. 

@ Sky Render

Just compare the graphics Ratchet & Clank on the PS2 to Tools of Destruction on the PS3, this not only relates to more details but also to more things going on at once, better physics, better lighting, etc.

Just play Uncharted or take a look at Killzone 2 demonstration videos, the improved lighting, attention to details amongst many other improvements surely add to the gaming experience.



Just watch footage of the above mentioned games. You will notice a huge upgrade even playing on a PAL or NTSC TV. I tested games like Super Stardust HD and Motorstorm on PAL TVs, they still look amazing and are much more impressive than similar PS2 games!

Sure God of War 1 and 2, Okami, Mario Galaxy and even Mario 64 all look good, IMO Super Mario World still looks good. But in for instance the God of War documentaries the developers explained that they had to cut cool game ideas due to techincal limitations which they should finally be able to implement on the PS3 with God of War 3.

@ shams 

Ninty had nearly 100% market share for handheld gaming before the PSP was released. Unless you think Nintendo DS to home console ports will be a major factor somehow, why you see much DS relevance towards home console gaming?

MikeB said: @ shams Ninty: 60-65% (DS + Wii... ignoring GBA) Ninty had nearly 100% market share for handheld gaming before the PSP was released. Unless you think Nintendo DS to home console ports will be a major factor somehow, why you see much DS relevance towards home console gaming?

Why don't you? Its very convenient to just IGNORE the handheld space because Ninty is dominating - but its the same games, the same dollars, the same retailers, the same consumers... etc. How can you justify separating handheld & console spaces?

Dragon Quest has gone from being a console title to a DS title. Assassins Creed is coming out on the DS. You can download DS demos via the Wii. There is more connectivity between the DS/Wii & PS3/PSP than before, and its only going to increase.

...

If you want to compare oranges to oranges - then fine - but leave the PS2 out of the equation. Its Wii vrs 360 vrs PS3. The PS2 for Sony is the DS for Ninty.

And last I looked, Wii > PS2 + 360 (hardware at least)