There you go again with "hardcore gamers". There are really only two types of gamers. People that play video games and people that try to play games. Grandma's, soccer moms, etc, play Wii games because they are easy, and are fun. But people who play games play fun games with some strategy and some required skill. Even if that skill is button mashing.

Here comes the "Nuh-uhs". "They can never drop the price that much until the generation is almost over" Lets remember Sony dropped the price $200 in less than one year.  Actually, they only dropped it $100 and are still losing money. Don't think they won't do it again, especially with the line up of games they have coming in 2008 and 2009. A $199 PS3 with the games it has coming will do EXTREMELY well. So would a $199 Wii, or a $199 360 Premium for that matter.  Doesn't make it any less of a fantasy.  Also, don't give me the "Sony is bleeding money", because its not true anymore (its debatable as to whether they ever bled money). Losing more money in one year than they ever made on the PS2 is not bleeding money?  They made money last quarter on strong software sales and PS2 sales alone, the PS3 hardware is still losing money as they've said in their financial reports (it will be until later this year at the earliest).  Try reading instead of just making up fantasy land information.  Also, where is all this Nintendo love coming from? A wacky controller does not make up for the fact that the same system, released as the GameCube didn't do too well.  It's already passed the GC and has sold more systems in less time than any other console that ever existed, it's relation to the GC is almost nil.

Like I said in another thread and was largely ignored (or called, how was it, "delusional"). The so called casuals don't buy Smash Bros, SMG, Metroid Prime 3, or even Monster Hunter 3.  Yet SSBB and SMG are still among the best-selling games, and selling better/faster than their GC iterations.  So are the casuals buying it, or are there more hardcore Wii owners than there were GC ones?  They buy, Cooking Mama, Nintendogs, Wario Ware, Carnival Games, etc. Usually they might buy Wii Play, but many buy the system for Wii Sports and never buy a single game. Yet its attach rates are better than the PS3, and better than the 360 at this point in its life, so I guess most people aren't buying a single game for those systems either.  If you subtract the people buying Wiis for the non-games listed above from the people buying the "real" games (Smash Bros, SMG, etc) you are left with a number of consoles sold at or below that of the GameCube.  Who all apparently loved the Cube so much they upgraded instantly in the first year and bought two copies of each game so that they'd sell more than the GC versions did.  Wii passed the GC in less than a year and a half, while the GC sold for 5 years, so the fact that you subtract some mythical number and say it's less than GC is completely meaningless.   And guess what, blue oceans will dry out.  That's a stupid staetment with no meaning. The casual gamer is the quickest to get bored.  Ask the 10 million people who've been spending money every month to play WoW for years now how bored they are.

So in conclusion, the PS2 won on tried and true standards in gaming and broad library.  While it was a great system, it won more because the other systems had glaring flaws leaving the PS2 with no real competition.  The Wii, because of its novel controller, is currently feeding on a fickle "casual" crowd and a the remaining former GameCube owners.  Who are buying more systems and more games than any other one.  If this was not true we would be seeing "Petition to bring Capcom's Resident Evil 5 to the PS3", or "Why is third party support so bad for the Xbox 360?"  These games were never on the Wii and had their fates decided long before the Wii launched, but it's a straw-man argument anyway.  But in reality the third parties decide it all, and they have decided (in most instances, Monster Hunter 3 as an example exception) to pass on the Wii and are slowly leaking support back onto the PS3 from the 360.  Actually most decided to pass on the Wii before it launched, and nearly every one has put out an "Oh shit we screwed up" press release saying they missed the boat on the Wii and are going to start making more Wii games. Michael Pachter has said this and gets paid ALOT of money to make such claims. Do you get paid for saying "50 million Wii's by the end of 2009"? I think not. Its economics.  The analysts have been proven wrong over half the time.  Or has the Wii really sold less than 11 million units worldwide, as was predicted back in 2005?  The major consensus was that it would never pass the GameCube in its lifetime.

You do understand you are comparing consoles percentage wise.... when one of those consoles was 200% more at their release.

Basically you cant say "its only 57% reduction." because it is way easier to get a higher percent with larger numbers