I want to know what people think market domination is?

 The PS2 'dominated' the market, and the X-Box, and GameCube, both had non-existant sales. The PS2 was the only viable conosle to buy, unless you were interested in the few Microsoft and nintendo Exclusives for those consoles.

Now in todays market, the Wii, is as a percent of hardware sales, the same distance ahead of the other consoles, however their sales are going up over time, not down. When the PS2 dominated, the GC, and XB, sales, kept shrinking and shrinking, and shrinking. That is not the case in this generation. Why is the Wii's "dominant" sales, not huring the PS3 and the 360's sales? Every console war in the past, the "dominant" console, has SMASHED the others. This time, it does not seem like the case, as the PS3/360 sales, are REALLY low compared to the Wii, but compared to the PS2, when it had 100% of the market, their really not that low. Now that brings me to my questions.

1. What is market domination?
2. What makes a conosle "dominant"
3. How do you distinguish diffrences. Like can you compare the DS, to the PS3?
4. How does the 'diffrences' effect "domination".

I want serious responces, with full debates. Keep away from the flameing, and trolling. I actually want a constructive post for once. I want to know what people consider domination, and where do you draw the lines from one 'market' to another 'market'.

Thanks for being constructive. -Kwaad 

I would say that any console which outsells the combined total of its competition, and outsells the other consoles by a ratio of 2:1 would be considered dominating.

market domination = being powerful too control actions of other players on the market

the thing is that most core gamers will have a wii along with the Ps3/X360 this gen. making the domination thing kind different from previous gens. sales of the wii dont hurt the other 2 systems due to the fact that they made the market bigger.

 Gonna say this really quick, but that's how I feel. I think the Wii is like... the DS, or PSP.

You dont buy a DS, and never get a home console. You get it as well as the home console. The PS3/360 are actually keeping up with the 'core' gamers purchace rates of the past.

I want to say, that by this definition, most of you are giving for 'market domination' The N64 dominated the PS1 most of it's life. 

Dominant to me means:

1) at least double sales of competiton - i.e. if PS3 sells 10 M and Wii sells 20 M its starting to dominate

2) direct impact on other consoles - this is an interesting one this gen as you could argue that gamers who want HD graphics etc. only have PS3 and 360 to chose from as Wii clearly isn't HD. On the other hand if you just want low cost console for family fun do you really consider Wii, 360 and PS3 then chose or do you go straight for Wii? I'm of the opinion that the difference between demographic/spec of Wii vs 360/PS3 that they may only be in competition in the most tangent fashion

3) majority support from other developers, etc. Again, this is where this gen is interesting for me as the literally vast difference between Wii and 360/PS3 means that many developers are split in support with games

4) they must be competing for the same basic function - i.e. you can't compare DS and PS3 as no-one (surely!) goes and looks at PS3 price/specs then DS and then choses one or the other.

So right now I think that we have the following:

a) Wii is dominating with certain demographic but does not dominate PS3/360 as I believe the majority of 360/PS3 owners never made a competative choice and the Wii sale does not mean a lost sale for either 360/PS3 (majority of the time).

b) neither PS3 nor 360 is dominating HD gaming as really 360 only has a time lead over PS3 but does not outsell it massively every week/month. This is most clearly seen by comparing both consoles first 12 months on the market - very little seperates their sales

c) we are however seeing regional dominance - so 360 is still main choice for HD gaming in US, PS3 is HD choice in Japan and its roughly even if you lump everything else together (although I think PS3 may just be moving a whisker ahead)

d) DS dominates handheld gaming although compared to previous gen PSP has made a noticable dent in Nintendo's virtual monopoly on gaming on the go.

There, was that serious and non-trollish enough?

its interesting that the ps3 is selling at the same rate as the ps2 yet it is cosidered a failure up til now. who knows what will happen in the future but as the wii is selling at a rate above the 360 and ps3 conbined it must be said it is dominating at the moment.

@Kwaad's last post:

Uhm so because lots of people will buy the Wii it shouldn't count or something?

Sorry that logic sounds a lot more like a way to cope than sound reasoning.

The Wii is a console, it is selling significantly better than its fellow consoles. At some point you will simply have to face that fact head on rather than discounting it because of this or that as you've just done.

@Topic,

As for what the definition of domination is? I can think of no better definition than 50% market share. By that definition you couldn't say that the Wii is dominating the LTD sales but you could definitely say that since its launch it has dominated weekly sales and from that you can make a realistic prediction that it will eventually meet the criteria to be considered dominating LTD sales as well.

I like this definition because a console could be considered to be Dominating the WW market while not dominating a specific region. This sort of differentiation seems to me to fit the reality of the situation the best and allows room for both recognition of a consoles sales achievements without unduly giving credit in other areas. A great example would be the NA sales of this generation. It is likely that once the Wii qualifies for WW dominance it still would not be considered dominating in NA and given the strong performance of the 360 and the moderate performance of the PS3 I think that credit would be undeserved until it actually crosses 50% market share in NA.

-My 0.02 VG$....

Ahh Kwaad - good to see you back. Far too much Wii love around at the moment ;)

The point about the Wii, is that is it *still* gaining market share. 44% and rising.

This while it is supply constrained - yet the PS3/360 are not.

...

Ultimately, the story for this generation will be that the 360/PS3 split the HD sales down the middle - leaving an easy victory for the Wii. And before the PS3 has any chance of domination through longevity - the Wii II (Wii HD) will be out.

From Nintendo's point of view - if you keep *easily* selling everything you make from a hardware perspective (and make stuff as fast as you can) - you are definitely successful.

Then it all comes down to software sales - and Ninty is easily the #1 publisher at the moment.

1/2. It is like said it having at least 50% of consoles of it's generation (and why not next ones too) out there

3/4 Dunno about those

"Now in todays market, the Wii, is as a percent of hardware sales, the same distance ahead of the other consoles, however their sales are going up over time, not down. When the PS2 dominated, the GC, and XB, sales, kept shrinking and shrinking, and shrinking. That is not the case in this generation. Why is the Wii's "dominant" sales, not huring the PS3 and the 360's sales?"

It could have something to do with these dates:

March 4 2000 (Ps2) against September 2001 (GC) + November 15 2001 (X0)

Had Wii had same kind of launch against other consoles (no rival for 1½ years) and it would have, what, atleast 25 million consoles sold so...

That's just my 2 cent...