The Wii is killing the PS3 and 360 in sales every month despite big hitters such as GTA 4 released for HD consoles. If you were a Microsoft or Sony exec what would you do gain Wii-like marketshare?

If the rumors of a Wii like controller for the 360 is  true then that is something in Microsoft's arsenal (I think it will fail personally), but what else are they going to do? It seems like Microsoft tried their hardest to do every thing right but still failed to be a mass market console. What about Sony, are they going to drop the price more soon and start creating more casual games? Are they going to drop the price of the PS3 soon to appeal to the mass market?

 I think Sony and Microsoft have to do something soon. If Sony and Microsoft continues to do what they are doing (whatever that is) then it seems like they would be fighting over scraps for years to come.

Microsoft is going to say: "We sold the most digitally distributed games so we win."

Sony is going to say: "We sold the most consoles that included a Blu Ray drive, so we win"

Nintendo is going to say: "..."

Microsoft has done everything they can do while maintaining profitability(arguably).

They bought exclusives, ran the ad campaign, announced big game, invested in Wii-mote, and did price drops.

The only thing left is to drop the price again. If they do that, it'll cost them in the long run, at no benefit.


They can release the Wii-mote or drop the price.

I suggest they instead focus on competing with Sony. It's more their league.

Short answer: neither of the two are doing anything drastic in 2008.

Basically the only way they can: ignore the 800lb gorilla and coast away the generation reaping some profits.

Small, sometimes independent games on PSN and XBL are one tactic.  Sony will pimp Home eventually.  Price drops will help.

I don't know about "fighting over scraps" though.  All 3 will be profitable (Wii > PS3 > 360 when all is said and done).  And a lot of people will have bought both a Wii and an HD console by end of gen. 

The mindset of "if you aren't in first place, you're a failure" is bullshit, and invented and used by adherents of whatever is currently in first place.  These are businesses, and the industry is booming, and Wii is succeeding with really really shitty 3rd party games, and it's pretty amazing. 

Actually Microsoft has an advantage over Sony in that they can leverage their PC dominance to carve out several market segments with a motion type controller.

Strategy - Point and click adventures - MMORPG - PC puzzle/casual type games - Maybe even more shooters.

Bold1: If they drop the price it will be because they see a benifit that fits into their strategy. Since we don't know what their goals are, we can't say what will happen. The decent install base should help push even greater sales in the U.S with a price cut, its a network effect thing.

Bold2: I wouldn't say its an AND/OR thing, they have 3 SKUs to position in the market. A wiimote on one of them would definately be doable and I would say quite feasable. To really pull it off properly I would say they would have to fit a HDD to the Arcade if they include a motion controller so that people can download the types of flash games etc that would go well with it.

I think they should keep focusing on there games, that is what makes a console and then when they can do a price drop or come out with something crazy new and something that someone hasn't seen before.

Fixed - The PS3 is more in the red than the Xbox360 and the Xbox360 is currently producing quarterly profits for Microsoft whilst the PS3 isn't doing likewise for Sony yet.

Bolded: The Wii is doing fantastically well because of their awesome first party games, they have started to recieve some quality third party games as well. They can only accelerate from here as the third parties race to plug the gaps in the game library. Also I didn't hear anyone calling the HD consoles failures so why mention it?

They're going to continue to downplay it as "not next-gen" while they battle for distant second, taking huge losses and loss of exclusives.