You see this bit of apologist argument for why the DS and Wii are dominating almost daily: the claim that Nintendo is not competing with Sony and Microsoft.  And it's true, but not in the sense that those arguing it are implying it is.  No company goes into an industry to compete with each other.  The goal is never to fight the others in the industry, but to claim a share of that industry.  And the process to do that does not involve battling those already in the market; it involves coming up with a business strategy which works well enough to nab a portion of the market.  Attempts to "steal" the market from the competition with outright attacks rarely meet with anything resembling success.  Indeed, they are often crippling failures that backfire horribly, and the wisest companies do not openly insult or belittle their competition for that very reason.  In that context, Sony and Microsoft are not, strictly speaking, competing with each other, either (or at least Sony isn't; MS seems to be on an insult binge lately, which is more than a bit alarming given the backfiring nature of that tactic).

 So what are they battling?  Who is the great enemy in the so-called "console war" if nobody in their right mind attacks their fellow combatants?  Simply put, the enemy is disinterest.  No company can afford to battle anything else when attempting to sell a non-critical commodity.  If your product cannot combat disinterest, then it does not matter how much you insult your competition; your product has failed.  Your insults will only draw attention to the competitor and ultimately generate more interest for their product.  And if your product is not generating interest on its own, doing this will ultimately only benefit those competitors at your own expense.  This is why those of us familiar with the history of the home console are so troubled by Microsoft's recent intensity of focus on insulting Nintendo and Sony, of course.

 None of the consoles has particularly failed this generation, it should be noted.  Each has managed to generate a reasonable level of interest in them.  The difference is largely that the Wii and DS have generated interest from a much larger base of users than the 360, PSP, or PS3.  And that is the ultimate goal of any company, of course: to generate the most interest from the largest possible user base.

Well PS3 has failed thus far as it has failed to generat profit. Imagine how much money PS3 is losing if sony is losing money despite profitable ps2 and psp...

As a gaming console that generates interest though, you are right in saying that none of them have failed. But then neither has the Dreamcast...

Also, you are mentioning that microsoft has been on an insult binge lately...what has microsoft said lately that was insulting towards Sony and Nintendo. I remember a comment about sony not delivering on their promisses few days ago but that was actually true... I can't think any other ones.

They are competing because if money is spent on one console, there is less money that will be spent on the other consoles.

Sky boom bada boom!

Your just regergitating what Malstrom predicts, regardless though he's looking at one side and he's totallylocaly correct.

The issue is that regardless they are competeing, a la the push for exclusives and MS spending big bucks to get DLC for GTA.

I mean they spent 50 mil that means R* basically spent $0 for producing GTA, and every sale they made on both version was pretty much profit.

But you did note that... all 3 systems are competeing at the moment for people's disposable income.

The so called gamers, the difference is Nintendo is shooting for non-gamers also.
they let the Wii do it's thing, Nintendo has the best business plan - like watching someone play chess perfectly, they make tuns of moves and even let their opponent think they are catching up but in the end it's check mate.

No the real reason why PS360 sell so relatively poorly to the Wii is because their competeing with too many things, otherwise they would see Wii like sales for both system.

I mean 10 million people buying a system that was supposed to have been buried a year and a half ago is insane.

Too see true sales potential met you need:

1. Supply has to Equal demand
2. No direct competition
3. Aggresive marketing

That's it. What is today Malstrom day?

... I blame Wiifit.


Ps. their all competing for people who consider gaming their hobby, and Wii is gunning for people who don't consider gaming their hobby also.

Why oh why does this subject/thread keep cropping up?

sheesh.

Move on people.

DMeisterJ -

"Exclusive AAA (90%+) games (metacritic): Wii - 4 XBOX 360 - 2 PS3 - 0 "

That's as of now? Isn't Folk Lore AAA or Drakes Fortune?

You say that they are competing against disinterest and I agree. But if each company wants people to be interested in it, aren't they fighting for our attention? In which way that would mean that they are competing with each other, over our interest rather than our money?

For how prevalent links to Maelstrom's site are here at VG Chartz, there seems to be little awareness of it at large. Which is why the subject comes up constantly. And it's true that Maelstrom has expressed the same view several times now, I realize.

i coudnt agree more with you sky render

they are competing,just accept that ps3 lost this war