Not predictions, but what should be the goals of each console this holiday season? Wii :: I believe the Wii has the most "online hype" heading into the holiday season. The supply channels are still starved for the most part, and as Nintendo relaxes them heading into the holiday it could lead to amazing sales this holiday season. However if rumors are true and Nintendo still hasn't fixed its supply problems (although I think they have) it could lead to disaster. Nintendo should be aiming for a gangbuster holiday that will insure 3rd party developers in North America that they can generate substansial sales in 2008 and 2009. Currently at 4.3 Million, they should aim to pass 8 Million in North America by years end. Thats a number developers can't ignore. (Goal: 3.7 Million Sold) XBox 360 :: Microsoft has been carefully handling the RROD issue, and they'd better hope to high heaven that its been resolved. If it turns out that the HDMI enabled, improved heatsink consoles still have failure rates above the 5%~ range, the press will go bonkers. However at the current rate it "seems" that MS will have the new consoles totally in the supply channel when the Holiday season really heats up and they begin pushing consoles. As of now, Microsoft Arguably has the best supply channel in place (they had a year headstart) and they can move literally as many consoles as they can sell (exception perhaps being the Elite). Microsoft has had a tough year, but has the opportunity to mantain dominance in North America with a good showing. It can't afford to hemorage much of the "hardcore" gaming crowd to the Playstation 3, and it needs to mantain a solid lead on the PS3 to insure that most third party games stay multi-platform at the very least. Microsoft currently has 6.75 Million consoles in North America. They should aim to surpass 10 Million consoles this holiday season. (Goal: 3.25 Million Sold). PS3 :: Sony, irregardless of what people say, is still a juggernaut of a brand. Although I've soured big time with Sony (I dislike their PR machine). As an buyer of the PS2 at launch, and a happy Sony gamer for a while, I admit I still have interest in the PS3 after whats amounted to a lackluster year. And the public seems to think the same, since the PS3 is arguably still selling really well considering the pricing and slate of games. Sony is still a big player in this race, and long term the PS3 is perhaps best positionede to really make some moves (looking down a couple years). Its a great piece of hardware, and if Sony can overcome objections to the price, they'll push some serious units. For now though Sony just needs to stay in this race while supply costs come down, and this means insuring a large enough base to attract and keep 3rd party development on the PS3. The current base in North America is roughly 1.9 Million, this Holiday season Sony should look to at least double the size of it. (Goal: 2.1 Million Sold) Conservative goals for all the consoles, and just having some fun. My commentary is meh! But my goals are honestly the "lowest" any of the consoles should aim for. In reality I'm sure the powers that be are each hoping their console can push 4 Million units this holiday season, but the numbers I've posted would insure a "victory" nontheless for each.

my opinion:

wii: keep sold out, needs the retail hype to go for one more year. keep doin the same thing otherwise. nintendo is executing their plan.

360: get a casual audience. doesnt matter how many halo 3's it has, it needs at least one big casual hit that's exclusive.

ps3: get the hype from the games and tease a price cut. sony needs to get solid sales this holiday, but they need to capitalize as mgs4, kz2, and gta 4 come out.

thats alot to sell for each, but looks alright, wii will probably sell as many as they can pump

^what do you mean by casual? you mean games like wii sport, LBP etc?

casual is something that attracts those who arent looking for it. and if its a game u might play (like say u go to a friends house and see bioshock) doesnt count. its like going to play gh at a party and then buying it for urself.

 None of the consoles should ever tease a price cut unless they plan on doing it within the next few weeks.  If I'm thinking about buying a new console and there's news of a possible price cut, I'm not going to buy anything until that happens.  If it's just a tease, that could be months away.

not like "oh were gona have a price cut in february so u should wait," more like "price cuts will be announced when they happen, we strategically time price cuts for specific periods of games and when manufacturing costs come down."

Well yeah, what you're saying is common sense. Of course you never want to outright deny there will ever be another price cut, you just want to make people think there won't be one soon and even avoid talking about it at all costs and move onto the next question as quickly as possible (in about the way you said).

my thing is pretty much brushing it off while alerting people it should happen. its important to let the casuals know they might be able to get in soon.

i seriously wonder what would happen if the ps3 is lower than the 360 elite. since sony actually phases units out there is no for them to space out pricing so that the features are actually paid for while making sure that u dont lose money on the lowest model.

There is not a lot Sony can do this holiday season. They simply don't have the software support to manage anything. They have to weather this storm and try to respond next year when their major titles hit the best way they can.

Nintendo will dominate this fall. Mario Galaxy and Brawl will be huge, but if Nintendo cannot supply enough consoles that will hurt them. What they do produce, will be sold.

Microsoft, more of the same old sport/shooters with Mass Effect a shooting RPG mixed in. My care cup is empty...