For myself, it was never a question of "Do I get a Wii, Xbox 360, or a PS3?".  

   For me, there was no doubt, the Wii was a must have, and then the decision was should I get a PS3 or Xbox 360 for my second console.  I decided to get a Xbox 360.  I am very happy with my systems.  The Wii is a different type of gaming experience which the 360 and PS3 cannot provide, and then the 360 is excellent for my "hard core" (as others would explain it) gaming needs.

   My feeling is the Wii has succeeded in being a different type of gaming system.  It really doesn't directly compete with the other systems but really is in a different category.  The Wii supplements the other systems, rather than competes.

   I am curious if this is how it is for the majority of people.  Or is it really a decision of which ONE will I get of the three.  Or, I am really curious, if there is anyone out there actually decides to get a 360 and PS3 and has no plans on getting a Wii.

I love Nintenodo's in house games so I buy a Wii, I loved the idea of playing and competing online with others so I bought an XBOX 360. I then discovered listening to foul mouthed Americans and competing against some who obviously take it way to seriously when they lose is no fun and I discover I actually prefer to work through games and complete them myself, so I sold my XBOX 360. I don't like endless repeats/sequals of PS2 games and it seems a lot of the games I will be able to play on the Wii anyway, so i will never buy a PS3 unless it comes down near PS2 prices.

It is as they say for there… Wii60 … :D

I guess the Xbox 360 and the PS3 really compete with the Wii as a "social" gaming system infront of the TV. I believe some people will stick to using the PC as the Hardcore system and ignore the Ps3 and Xbox 360.

I think the large casual gamer market that bought the Ps2 last round (I got it for Fifa  ect to play with friends) will buy the Wii instead due to it's more social image and low price point. So the Ps3 actually ignored the needs of a large chunck of it's Ps2 user base and instead focused on the early adopter. I believe the Xbox 360 and Ps3 compete with the PC for hardcore single player and online games. The Wii is going for a whole range of people but it has the "Social" games to it's self.  I got the Wii to get away from the PC for a while and play games with all my family, and it worked.

As both the Ps3 and xbox 360 are meant to be in the living room as an entertainment center I guess they were also meant to be social gaming systems like the Ps2, in this they have so far mainly failed due to game offerings and price.

The PC is my Single player system, Wii is my social system, but I loved playing LOZ:TP so this isn't always true.

In conclusion: Basically I agree.

If you look at last generation numbers more than 60% (probably close to 80%) of console owners only owned 1 home console. We may see a greater level of multi-console ownership this generation but I doubt it will represent the majority of households. This means that even though they are very different systems targeting very different users they're still in direct competition for sales and third party development.

The people who only buy one console, a lot of them are buying Wii's because for most one-console people, price is an issue and Wii is real cheap, plus it's offering something new that doesn't require an expensive TV to fully enjoy. The people who buy two consoles, will probably usually buy either Wii + 360 or Wii + PS3, not so many 360 + PS3 combos as they are both expensive and share a lot of titles, while Wii is a cheap trial and has the novelty factor. So for these people Wii will nearly equal 360 and PS3 combined. Then we have the few people who buy all 3 consoles but not much to be said about that. ;)

   Thanks HappySqurriel.  I didn't even know there were numbers for the percentage of console owners that had one system versus multiple systems.  I wonder if the Wii will increase the percentage of multiple system owners.  Otherwise, it it doesn't then I guess however unique it may be, it'd still be a direct competition.

The Maturity level of some of the people that play Xbox Live is another issue entirely.  I do know a couple people personally that won't use the service anymore either because of the foul mouthed bad attitudes you come across.  I'm not fond of it myself, or fond of my year and a half son over hearing any of it.  I still play, and get my behind kicked hard and repeatedly (I can't believe how good they are online), but I do it without the headset and don't listen to all the junk.

I don't know if there are any "official" numbers, I was just looking at the number of systems sold:

PS2: 110 Million
XBox: 25 Million
Gamecube: 20 Million

Even if every Gamecube and XBox owner had a PS2 (and didn't own the other system) you're looking at (roughly) 60% of people only owned a PS2. Certainly some PS2's were replacements but I suspect that when you combine replacement XBox and Gamecube systems, 3 system owners and people who only owned an XBox or Gamecube the ratio of multi console owners is not going to get higher.

I tend to disagree, simply due to the fact that those figures are for brand new systems.