Good news everyone, the gamecube was never dead - it merely hibernated.

Kyros said: You realize that it's sales in Europe are significantly higher than this time last year right? Weeks after a price cut? Surprise! And even that doesn't change the fact that they are spanked by the PS3 in Europe.

 

360 was up 20% over last year in Europe before the price cut.  Whether it's being spanked by PS3 is immaterial.  To say the 360 is "essentially dead" in Europe is obviously false.  Its Europe sales are still accelerating!  Start your criticizing when its sales actually go down.

 

It's a good position for the consumers that PS3 and 360 are in. Healthy competition between the two right now. It means that both companies can't slack off to bring a better product than their competitor.

If Apple decided to enter the non-HD race, then it would change things around here.

Faxanadu said: The Wii already killed the PS3 in Japan....

And video killed the radio star, but VHS is dead while radio is still going strong...

So the HD console happens to be over with a tie when the PS3 has momentum and many AAA titles yet to be released...how convenient for Microsoft.

Anyways, It's far too early to announce the PS3 dead in Japan. There will be many HD multiplatform games that will drive sales (since no one will get those games on 360) and well as exclusives yet to be released. We all know the Sony brand is strong in Japan so lets just give it some time.
And putting the PS3 with the 360 in the same category for Japan is pretty stupid in my opinion. The question is if the 360 can get a grip on the American market.

I thought it was because of the fact Wii is basically a upgraded GameCube so developers already familiar with it's hardware. HD in itself doesn't make games more expensive since there are HD games like Super StarDust HD for $10.

I've been playing Wiliam's Pinball Hall of Fame on the Wii lately which bring back memories in my arcade days. It's a real shame this game is in SD and not HD since these pinball are suppose to be photo realistic.
Upscaling SD game on a HDTV really looks bad compared to a HD image. Even if the game has average graphics higher resolution helps a lot  especially when it comes to jagged edges.

As far as if it a tied between the HD consoles I still think it's too early to tell.

HD media can't be disentangled from HD gaming. They're two sides of the same coin: these games require a next-gen DVD media format and next-gen-capacity storage space. That trickle of downloads, add-on packs, and expansions is going to rapidly swell into a flood.

Sony is a hardware company, and understood all this perfectly. Microsoft didn't, which is why its 30% market share in 2005 crashed to 18% market share this year.

Smidlee said: "2- Game development costs are said to be much lower on the Wii, mainly due to lower cost of developing ED graphical assets vs HD ones." I thought it was because of the fact Wii is basically a upgraded GameCube so developers already familiar with it's hardware. HD in itself doesn't make games more expensive since there are HD games like Super StarDust HD for $10.

 Who you quoted is correct.  High resolution textures cost more to draw and render than SD and are a bulk of the increased production cost this generation.   Art has alsways been the biggest chunk of production costs.

 

SSD HD is a downloadable title and therefore you don't have manufacturing, packaging, wharehousing, shipping, distribution, retail margins, etc...

SlorgNet said: Sony is a hardware company, and understood all this perfectly. Microsoft didn't, which is why its 30% market share in 2005 crashed to 18% market share this year.

MS's marketshare crashed because of the Wii, not the ps3

Viper1 said: Smidlee said: "2- Game development costs are said to be much lower on the Wii, mainly due to lower cost of developing ED graphical assets vs HD ones." I thought it was because of the fact Wii is basically a upgraded GameCube so developers already familiar with it's hardware. HD in itself doesn't make games more expensive since there are HD games like Super StarDust HD for $10. Who you quoted is correct. High resolution textures cost more to draw and render than SD and are a bulk of the increased production cost this generation. Art has alsways been the biggest chunk of production costs.   SSD HD is a downloadable title and therefore you don't have manufacturing, packaging, wharehousing, shipping, distribution, retail margins, etc...

High detail 3D models cost no matter the resolution. Higher resolution can show greater details of a 3D models especially when adding distance. (so you can get by with ugly low resolution 3D models more on SD than on a PC or HD console. Yet there are some PC games that have them) All modern day PC games are in much higher resolution than SD.

Yes games are cheaper to develop for the Wii and it often shows.