In every console generation, there's always one market leader that steals away from the rest and makes them go out of business. In this generation, it is the Wii.. but there's a difference. There is an actual competition this time and they aren't too far away, and they aren't giving up any time soon.

-1: Atari had it's reign of dominance in the old days which pretty much dwarfed all the countless clone machines that spawned. It sold 30 million, and the closest rival clocked in at 3 million

-2: The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) pretty much handed the Sega Master System it's ass on a silver platter. Nintendo outsold Sega by 60 million to 13 million.

-3: The SNES (Super NES) also dominated the competition, although Sega put up more of a fight in this generation (which made it a pretty exciting gen too, but not so much). SNES outsold the Mega Drive by 49 million to 29 million (close race, but Sega's countless addons to the MD were all failures and they had to launch really early which led to the demise of the Saturn, all the while the SNES sold millions of software)

-4: The Playstation (1) totally destroyed everyone in the race, which included the N64 and the Saturn. PS1 sold 102 million compared to 32 million by the N64 and 17 million by the Saturn.

-5: The Playstation 2 was (is) the largest success of any console thus far, making both Microsoft and Nintendo rethink their strategy for the next generation. So far, PS2 has sold in the region of 140-160 million, compared to Xbox's 24 million and Gamecube's 21 million.

Which brings us into this generation, where there is an actual competition involved and though we can already tell who is the winner, there is going to be stiff infighting that will continue to burn until the end, compared to the previous generations wherein the leader was so bloody far ahead of its competition, which caused the other companies to give up and discontinue their systems.

This gen has two competitors that have the money and resources to stand and fight against the Wii's dominance and stay in the mix even possibly longer than the market leader. To me, this is the most exciting sales battle of all because of this uncertainty. Competition is always good, as it brings out the best in every industry. It's a great time to be a gamer!

i agree- it is great to be a gamer.

I think we can already tell who the winner is — no one is going to catch the Wii. You're right, though, PS3 and 360 are putting up a great fight and we're all reaping the benefits.

Nothing really to do with the topic, but I was in 1st grade at the the height of the Genesis/SNES war and I remember how conflicted I felt because I was a solid Super Nintendo person, but Sonic looked brilliant. Strange, how that goes.

The 16-bit wars was the first time Nintendo had any real competition, and for a while the Genesis was hanging in quite well. But then they had all those wonky addons, while the Super Nintendo was getting games to keep it competitive in sales until 1996.

yea i know the wii is the winner. i'm just saying that even if there's a clear winner, this generation is unique coz the the 2nd and 3rd place might end up even lasting longer that the market leader. its basically the amount of competition this gen being much larger than it has ever been in the history of consoles :)

We're in the 7th generation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_(seventh_generation)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games

Competition is good, but it doesn't exist when you're Nintendo.

Not possible.

The market leader lasts for an extra generation at the bare minimum, sometimes 2 or 3 or 4.

The NES was sold in Japan for 20 years.  The SNES, PS1, and PS2 all sold for just about 2 generations.

The reason for this is that... the losers try to cut their losses and stop spending money on a losing system, and they quickly switch their priorities into trying to regain credibility in the new generation.  The winner keeps supporting their tried-and-true winner and competes in the new generation.  The second the 7th generation started the GC and XBox were obsolete, and the clear market leader, the PS2, got to fight against the new competition.  The winner of each battle gets to fight the new guys, while the losers are eliminated.  It's a tradition.

^I agree, but the amount of investment that Sony and Microsoft are putting in this generation's consoles make it seem like they're in it for the long haul. The Wii seems like it's going to get a revamp much sooner than the rest, with Shigeru already talking about Wii HD (hinting about it).

So basically, yea you're right. the winner does go on to fight with the next generation, but in this case it's different. The Wii is a totally different kind of console from the others, and it's not exactly future proof. I think that the PS3/360 have the potential to actually stay in the market longer than the Wii.

you damn right. i haven't seen such a storm of quality titles in a short span ever.

If anything, any Wii HD should be considered a new model of the Wii, just how the DS lite is to the DS. So technically Wii HD is not an entirely new system.

Anyways, MS and Sony have so much money that they just can't be driven off the market without intervention of their shareholders.