@ultraslick: 

Agreed, it would be a very different system probably marketed differently and have very different results.  The entire market would change then. 

Here I disagree.  Price is not the large part of its appeal.  Price may be a small factor but it isn't that important.  Would you spend money on a product you weren't going to enjoy if it was cheap?  Obviously not.  People like the Wii because it is fun.  Sooner or later people are going to have to accept that.  Price is a factor but an extremely low one.  In NA the cheapest 360 is just $30 more than a Wii and it gets trounced by the Wii. 

I don't understand.  You say that first sentence and then bring up Europe where the 360 is below the Wii and gets outsold.  I really want to know, once the PS3 and  Wii are at equal prices how many weeks of Wii outselling the PS3 would it take before people admit price wasn't the only reason Wii won this war.

You're totally missing the point.   The point is that if America were in a boom economy, the industry numbers would be even bigger.  Guitar Hero is NOT a middle-of-the-pack title.  The post SAID that the top endwell known stuff will sell no  matter what.  It's the Blacksite:Area 51 and the Frontlines and that stuff that's average full price stuff that's getting passed on, as well as people being less inclined to spring for the most expensive consoles at the numbers that might have been.

 Once you take some economics and understand the big picture beyond what mom gives you for allowance, you'll understand what I am saying.

And 75% of America games because they count my 64-year old mother playing bridge on pogo.com as being a gamer.