hum I haven't read everything but I agree with the happy surriel / mrstickball combo

now I have an example and I'm dead sure it's a big player.... the reason Sony PS got so powerful in europe... is due to one game in particular that game is winning eleven.... that license would have been on any other console that strong the PS wouldn't have sell that well..... in france i have a shit load of people who have a PS2 and just winning eleven or at least are just still playing that game.... all the frenchies and other EU people I know (and that's about 250 in my town only) what's the first thing they do when they land almost every time.... it's buying a used PS2 and a copy of winning eleven..... same with the 150 south american I know....

So yes a single game can be a system seller.... but it's reallly really rare.... and it's usually when it really to the culture of the people more than just being a AAAAAAAAAAAAA game

I find it interesting that if you check the sales charts the PS3 is not doing all that bad relative to the AMOUNT OF TIME the 360 has been out. according to the chart the XBOX has been out almost a full year longer. This couples with PS3's restricted (stupid) launch had bolstered the coffers of 360 because buyers who settled last christmas...
If the sony guys get thier heads realigned (proctology appointment or no) and get some games out there it will help out alot. I know I bought a PS3 anticipating GTHD and DMC 4.
I would be more interested to compare the consoles sales at thier 80+ week marks to see how they do.

 now remember the ps2 came out when buying a dvd player was "the" purchase to get and with the current dvd players at the time roughly 200-300 dollars paying 299 for a ps2 you get the "logical" buy which is why it sold over 140million units it wasnt the games or to play the games at all the game playing was a bonus feature for teh majority of the buyers. the people wanted a dvd player. its the same concept as people buying wiiplay. i think people that are buying wii's are passing the word around about hte "extra" features ont he console besides the controls for example when i told my wife's best friend and showed her what the wii could do besides play the games she was like wow and for 250 that is cheap. so with the few extra features that the wii has that is why it is selling more so like the ps2 did with its "dvd player" option.

to me a system seller can be any game or any "extra" device included in the console. if the console doesnt have the "IT" factor its not going to sell very well  that is what is happening with the ps3, and the xbox360. only sony fanboys and xbox fanboys care about HD gaming. but then again the xbox360 as the best of both worlds righ tnow but with the problems they are having with the RROD it has hurt sales. to me there are no games right now that is gonna come out that is a system seller for the ps3 it doesnt raise enough interest to support buying a 500-600 dollar gaming system then ahve to turn arond and pay an extra 60-70 dollars for the game. it just not worth it. yes blueray might be the future but that future right now is at least 4-5 years down the road at least. but then again HD could go by the wayside like "laserdiscs" did somethin will probably in the next 4-5 years come out that will better the whole blueray and hd-dvd that is already out there.

I think what sells systems is a combination of great price and great games. Most consoles get sold when they go under the $200 mark... So even though PS3 might have great games, it is still at the wrong price point to have any "system sellers" in a major way...

Wii sports has so many flaws, i can't even begin to count them. The single player could use tweaking, the tennis could be faster and more responsive, the golf game could be better, bowling could have a competition mode, etc.
But yet, somehow, with all its flaws, i often still have an urge to flip wii sports into my Wii and battle it out with friends. So Wii sports not an AAA title? Thats a tough one, because wii sports has brought me more fun and pleasure than many titles i do consider to be AAA titles. So even though god, it good have been so much more, it definitiely gets the AAA status from me.

Again, Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit are not AAA titles. That's like claiming Home to be a AAA title (which is isn't).

That's not to say they won't all sell well, or even sell amazingly. But it's not a AAA title.

i guess you also don't believe in Halo.

if thats was not a system seller the term "system seller" should not exist.

There are games that sell systems. The important thing for any system is to have a wide variety of system sellers in different genres. For instance a great platformer will sell a bunch of systems to one group, then a great golf game will sell to another group, a great party game will sell to another, a great football game to another and a super FPS to another group.

To go further, lets say a system has a great FPS game come out and then another great FPS and then another great FPS. All three of the games will probably sell well but after the first game very few additional systems will be sold. The group that buys systems to play FPS games will mostly have already bought the system after the first game and the probability increases after the second. So the second and third FPS games won't be system sellers although they would have been if they had been released first.

Great games that are the first released in their genre have a good chance to sell systems. Great games released in already represented genre's and by extension great sequels on the same platform sell games but sell fewer systems than the first release.

Wii sports was a system seller. It came with the Wii and showed what the Wii's motion controls can do. If Wii was launched without Wii sports and nothing but the other launch games, things might be different.

Edit: I do agree with the original poster's premise that a 'system seller' can't completely turn momentum around for a poorly selling system.