Well back in 2005 when Nintendo said that their Nintendo Wii would not be competing with 360/PS3 you couldn't help but roll on the floor laughing your butt off. Even us loyalist Nintendo fans laughed our heads off "Are you kidding Nintendo not competing".

It was the beginning of what would be an intresting two years. When the Wii was unvieled at E3 2006 I was like what the heck. I loved the idea and starred in awe at what would possibly be the greatest innovation in gaming since the NES. But I still thought the Wii would be competing directly with the 360/PS3.  The Wii appeared to have some killer games on the way and while the visuals were down abit it really didn't seem to matter.

 But now half a year after launch, I have come to realize. Nintendo's first party games have been great but for the most part third parties have failed sure theirs the odd hit coming and the odd decent game already released but its just not good enough. I found myself loving my Wii sooo much but missing the classic controller and the visuals of the 360.

 So this month I bought an X-Box 360 Elite, its not competing with my Wii. I have a few games I plan to buy this year (BattalionWars , Mario:Galaxy , Smashbros:Brawl , Halo3). So is it just me or was Nintendo right? Is Nintendo actually not competing, look at the charts the Wii is tearing up the charts but honestly is it competing with the 360. Nintendo isn't even targetting the same user base targetting casual gamers over Microsoft hardcore. Nintendo and the competition seem to have very little incommon this generation.

So was Nintendo right, after half a year of watching the industry is Nintendo really competing on a consumer scale. Sure its competing a little bit financially but is it truley competing for our time or are people realizing that the industry is no longer black and white. Do we now need at least two consoles every generation? 

Its always tricky language when approaching such philosophies. Obviously there are elements where they are directly competing (3rd party support) but there are certain aspects where they are clearly on two seperate plateaus. I think this will be made more clear in hindsight but at the moment its really anyone's guess. Is this just big talk from a naive Nintendo or a unique way of circumventing the disruption markets of the 360 and PS3? Only time will tell.

Nintendo is competing with Microsoft and Sony, but Microsoft and Sony aren't competing with Nintendo. There are two ways of reading the previous sentence, and both of them are accurate.

Buy your Nintendo games, and buy your 360 games...the only competition is for how much money you're going to spend on each one.

The PS3 and 360 are in more direct competition with each other, but don't let fanboys spin that and try to say that the Wii is not in the game as well.

Thats jut an excuse wii haters often use cause its doing great. Same with its not next gen. I don't remember Nintendo saying that but maybe they did. But it's a videogame console like the 360 and PS3 and is competing with them.

XboxSoldier12 said it best:

"I think this will be made more clear in hindsight but at the moment its really anyone's guess. Is this just big talk from a naive Nintendo or a unique way of circumventing the disruption markets of the 360 and PS3? Only time will tell."

I agree.

Personally, I see them competing on every single level, except graphics. IF you want graphics, you probably won't be getting a Wii.

I have to agree with Joel somewhat. In previous generations most, not all, gamers bought just one console. But in this generation I think we will get alot of Wii-360 and Wii-PS3 gamers. More then any other generation before it. In that way the Wii is the is not directly competing with Sony and Microsoft.

 I'm not a Wii hater I spent two nights in line for my Wii. I have owned every Nintendo console since NES with only one exception (VirtualBoy), I have up untill now never bought a single competitors console and the only reason I bought a 360 Elite is because Nintendo themselves said they were not competing with Microsoft.

 Honestly how can you consider the Wii really competition. It doesn't have almost a single game that is availible on another console.  I mean any ports are from last generation consoles or built from ground up for the Wii,the Wii targets a totally different demographic and also sports tons of new genres.

 In all reality PS3/360 are like apples and Nintendo Wii is like an orange. They are totally different products. Both fruit (Gamesystems) but thats about where the comparison ends. Now sure they are competing for third party support every time a game is developed for Wii thats one less team developing a title for PS3/360. 

If they are competing Nintendo is winning by a long shot, the third party support is sky rocketing and hardware sales are going great but on a product level it really has very little in common with the competition! 

Nintendo made a very shrewd move. They saw Sony and Mircosoft were both targeting the hardcore gamer and looking to expand out. So they targeted the casual and looked to expand in, providing a system that's different enough that we'll (and I mean people hanging on this site) will probably all end up buying both a Wii and either a 360 or PS3. More casual gamers will be happy with just the Wii. So in a way, they were true in that they were not looking to compete --- head-on.
But by nabbing up the mass market, they've left the competition in a desperate fight for the small (and expense to produce for!!) hardcore crowd. No matter where the Wii ends up this generation, 1st, 2nd or 3rd, they'll still make MEGA-bucks more than either Sony or... well M$ will never reach profitability really, their too far in the hole.

But apples and oranges -are- in competition. I only need one piece of fruit with lunch.

The Wii isn't competing with the PS3 and 360 by trying to offer a similar product for less, but by accomplishing the same ends in different ways. Ford competes with Toyota by offering similar products. However, it's obvious that the advent of personal teleporters would cut into the demand for both. It doesn't have wheels or an engine, but a teleporter accomplishes the same goal (getting you to work) more efficiently, so you'd buy one instead of a new car.

Sure, we might see more two-console homes this generation than last generation, but they're going to make up a tiny fraction of the market. It doesn't particularly matter that the Wii doesn't have exactly the same games as the other two consoles - different titles remain highly substitutable.