March is a critical month for the PS3, but not so much for the Wii/360 - April is their time. March will show if Motorstorm + the multi-plat games will actually help the system and move some games, or if it'll be sub-500k and just be....Meh... No one thought GRAW would be a huge title, but it ended up selling 500k its first month on 360, and Oblivion followed it at 350k - so March CAN move some major next-gen software. Question is if the PS3 will sell simlarly, or end up losing out to the 360's first year. April, we have SPM for Wii and GH2 for 360. Both titles will be either big boosts, or just do mediocre sales, which will be critical for the summer setup for both systems.

Again I don't think a lot of you understand the low importance of these months... No games mentioned as coming or being released in the coming months are games that are going to make people that don't own the system to go out and buy one. The Xbox360 currently has Gears of War... even though you've all played it, for the shooting fan and the hardcore / game playing gamers this is a good game to push towards, it also caters to a very large portion of the Xbox 360 market. Unfortunately for Microsoft the majority of their games are like this... similar shooters and shoot em up games, while not all the same, they only appeal to SO many people. Not many of these have very main stream appeal... I beg the question of people - how many hardcore and big gamers are there really out there on the market? The PS2 was successful because of games that had mass market appeal, Grand Turismo, Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto really started the ball rolling for ongoing week on week sales for that console. NONE of the HD consoles have a title like that yet... the title that makes NEW people want to go out and buy games. It's irrelevant that GRAW2 sold 500k in it's first month... quite honestly I think that isn't great at all. Think about it, those 500k sales came but there was no REAL boost in hardware sales... they just follow the yearly trends at the time - hence it was already current 360 owners buying that game... and that is 10% of Xbox 360 owners in the US owning that game which isn't a GREAT figure, but is still quite good. It isn't selling systems though. All of these titles that people say are the big titles for these months just don't mean anything to the overall scheme of things. Motorstorm IS NOT a system seller. VF5 is NOT a system seller. Super Paper Mario is NOT a system seller. Some will say Crackdown is a system seller, but I don't agree, it caters to the current 360 owners not for people that don't already own the system. I think the Halo Beta test inclusion is a pretty high point for that game for selling to current owners, but I don't think people waiting for Halo will buy the console just for the Beta test... The system sellers for GAMERS who haven't yet upgraded this year are (if they make it this year). Xbox 360 - Halo 3, GTAIV PS3 - GTAIV, MGS4 Wii - Mario Galaxy (lesser extent than most think), Smash Bros. Brawl (biggest). - NO i'm not mentioning Metroid its' The problem is that most of the people who read this site are hardcore or big time gamers so they have a VERY closed mind as to what they think will push or move consoles... they think a GOOD game will move consoles... if that's so then GameCube should have been better, because SO many games on that console were rated very high... the problem is, a lot of AWESOME AAA+ games are too niche for the mass market. You need to think of Singstar, Guitar Hero's, Eyetoy all MASSIVE sellers in the US and what it is that they appeal to. Look at the success of Nintendogs and Brain Training and other touch generations games... these types of games have so much appeal. The games for this year that will broaden owners, sell systems to casual gamers (which are a much larger portion of the population these days and have been introduced to games through the PS2) is what will really make the biggest difference. I don't think people REALLY understand why the Wii is selling like it is... because all that gamers see is the oppinion of other gamers on the web... casual gamers don't care about games so much, they don't post on web forums or blogs religiously at every shred of news that appears... they just play what they have fun playing and what is enjoyable to them. Xbox360 - Guitar Hero 2 (this isn't enough - it's already on PS2 that PS2 owners already have), GTAIV PS3 - Home (MAYBE, but $600 for home?? I'm iffy on this one), GTAIV Wii - Wii Sports (yes it will drive the console all year), Tiger Woods Golf, Mario Party 8, MySims, Smosh Bros, Animal Crossing, Wii Health (this is the hugest game of the year... HUGE HUGE HUGE i can't emphasise that enough) I think the Xbox 360 is EASILY the best gamers console... it has AWESOME gamers games, and is definately for the hardcore player... it's got better graphics for this year than 360, it's cheaper than Ps3 and is really a VERY good overall package... definately why there are so many 360 fans out there. I have been considering recently to buy the 360 because there are so many awesome games to play... but I need a HD TV first (got a 720p projector but i would rather an LCD). I think the PS3 has the most potential... but not until 2008 for gamers and non gamers... I will probably buy the PS3 as well. I think the Wii is going to KILL this generation... no generations in the past have come out aiming at casual or 'non' gamers and they have always moved that way after being on the market for 2 / 3 years. Wii has HUGE potential, Sports will continue to move hardware and suit the casual gamer... but it's not so much for gamers... it suits NINTENDO core gamers which we know are abundant. I own one for Zelda but I haven't played it since I finished that... little disapointed on the gamers front so far. Hope that wasn't too long a read... I hope some people can see my points and understand them because THAT is the way of the market.

Good post, OG. BUT... PS3 launches in Europe in March. It is an important month. And, like you said, Wii has a potential major system seller in March with Tiger Woods, which is highly unusual for this time of the year (or this point in a console cycle). So this is March is rather big, as Marches go.

Yeah I'm not doubting that they can be quite big but I don't think they are IMPORTANT as such. I agree'd with you about Tiger Woods, I think that's the biggest 'system' seller title for perhaps the first half of the year. I just disagree that the typical 'gamers games' are seen as the big killer apps that are going to sell consoles... when infact I just don't think they will. Oh bugger I didn't necessarily think about Europe in my post I was more thinking towards the US re-games moving consoles. Of course the launch in March is HUGE for worldwide numbers for PS3 and the race really does begin in March as all consoles will be finally available everywhere. My post applies more to continuing sales and trends rather than the launch period. PS3 doesn't have super duper killer app buy the console for this game at launch... I think Wii Sports was the biggest game for selling a console thus far. Europe is important but because we don't get direct sales numbers every month or week it is difficult to track trends for Europe and thus I think most people consider that Europe follows the US trends fairly closely if not slightly more dispositioned towards more casual games (story games always such when they are translated for the n'th time in slovakian).

I just wanna say if that is the biggest system seller for more than a month... Are you guys serious?

If you see the Wii's biggest appeal as casual games right now, then shouldn't Wii Play be seen as a system seller? We already know it is in Japan, and it is consistently high on Euro online game stores best sellers lists. I think it will sell alot of Wiis to the casual audience. As for Tiger Woods, I do know many who want a Wii for the game after learning about it/seeing the commercial.

Completely serious. Look at the advertising... every golfing dad and his dog are going to want that game when they get to try it out. It's MUCH cheaper to buy a Wii for $250 than it is to buy a golfing simulator / in home driving range simulator... It's also much easier for a middle aged man who can pretty much afford anything he wants... who will buy a Wii for JUST ONE GAME (Wii sports the double edged sword 'ar mi hearties') but then the challenge for Nintendo is selling him more games in the future... that's the danger with expanding the market. Do you really think all those people who purchased Brain Training on DS have bought more games than JUST that?? I think millions of DS units are sitting there with JUST ONE GAME - that's what I think Picross and Sudoku and maybe Brain Training 2 is aiming towards. Kwaad I respect you're oppinion strongly as a very hardcore games gamer... u may not be 'hardcore' but you like 'good games' which is a good thing not a bad thing, but the market is not fuelled by 'Good Games' (see Dreamcast Failure - personally I think the Dreamcast has one of the best good:bad games ratios in history, but that didn't do so well). Judging the success of a console by the rating / reviews and the number of reviewed 'good games' is not a good method. It's good for selling to hardcore, but no more than that... I think maybe 5 - 10% (11 - 22 million people) of the US population is HARDCORE hardcore game players in the US and that is being HUGELY HUUGGGGGEEELY generous. 8million of them already have consoles (between all three - some have more than one so that number comes down) so maybe 5 - 7million are currently at the next gen? I don't consider myself to be a fan of any particular brand or console, personally I like to play ALL good games... RPG's and PC FPS are my fortey but i'd love to see anybody reading this' oppinion on if I sound biased in my posts or just generally making good points - i just signed up recently because I think I can have some valid points when I get the time to posts, so I DO NOT want to come across like a 'fanboy' of any particular console.

I don't think Wii play is necessarily a system seller, I think it might frustrate SOME casual gamers... however it's a no brainer purchase for most people who have bought the console for Wii Sports... it's basically a complimentary pack for that. Or the way to sell more copies to the people who bought the console because Wii Sports is so cool (which is a FUCKET LOAD