I have a friend who used to smoke butter. Watch for butter sales increasing in the next few months.

Ok i will look at butter sales any know were i can find a site that tracks butter sales.

/sarcasm

Ok my point is the exclusives on the PS3 like MGS4 are what people want but some of the same people are waiting for a price cut so not all the wanters of the PS3 have paid up yet but most of the X360 wanters have paid up and thats were getting 1year ahead of the game is a bad thing it will make it seem that Halo3 wasnt has well recieved has the last 2 because not has many consoles were sold with the game.

@Halo3 issue,

The 360 has already tapped a large portion of the Halo 3 fan base with the Halo 3 beta.  I don't see its impact being any more significant than any other large release which is to say that on the release week sales will be up, and they will taper off quickly over the following weeks.

@JohnLucas,

I will commend you for sticking to your guns, but I really don't think anything is going to stop MGS4 from being released on the PS3 short of a complete PS3 pullout. And I don't think that is going to happen...

As for your other prediction of the Wii passing the 360 this month, when exactly did you make that prediction? If you made it as far back as I think you did, I don't think I would consider it a failure regardless of if its off by a week or two.  Given that everyone thought you were crazy when you made it (going by context here, let me know if I am off) I would say your prediction was very accurate even if its not completely accurate.

@Mrstickball,

How does your prediction fit in with the new Nintendo forecasts? I mean you are basically saying you expect them to miss their mark by several million units... Once again if you are sticking with an older prediction I understand and all but this is another one I am very very skeptical of...almost as much as JohnLucas' MGS4 prediction...

@LeroyHide and Mitsuhide,

For simplicity I will dub this the APE (Advanced Purchase Effect)....catchy eh?

I actually find myself agreeing with Mitsuhide here (crazy? I know ..right?). I do think the impact of "APE" is a bit overstated perhaps, but the part I specifically agree with is that it will have less impact on the PS3 than the 360 since it does have a smaller install base at the moment. I think if you think about it for a minute it actually makes a lot of sense.

With that said I haven't the slightest clue how to go about quantifying the "APE" so it's almost a moot point. As usual we just have to wait and see =)

Its true that halo 3 won't bring in many of the FPS crowd. They are mainly their. But it will bring in a heck of a lot of casuals who have probably played halo 2 and maybe thought of buying a xbox. When the price drop comes into effect we will see huge sales of 360's. Maybe enough that it will vault it past the wii for a while. But who knows maybe the wii is a fad? or maybe the 360 is?

 Those casuals that WOULD have bought an X360 for Halo3 wont now because Nintendo has made sure that many of them have bought a Wii.

 This is somewhat interesting, I think this may be one of the wildcards this year for the Halo 3 release.  If casuals are happy with their Wii it could actually dig into Halo3/360 sales. I honestly hadn't considered that before.

How do you no this.

But how do we know that the casuals are going towards Nintendo? So far the majority of wii buyers are and have been Nintendo Fans. Maybe the majority of the 14-32 year old males (so far still the largest portion) who aren't that interested in the wii will buy the Xbox so they can play Halo and Madden?

 "The wii just doesn't appeal that well to the majority of men"

 That phrase it what the entire gaming war will be fought over.

I am yet to hear "the wii just doesn't appeal that well to the majority of men" or anything close to it.

Have you ever actually heard that?