last year was very sucessfull for microsoft, a one two punch of fable II and Gears of War II alongside a pricecut, huge marketing campaign and casual friendly software/online updates was enough to place them firmly back in 2nd place for the year and regain momentum.

However, this was all gained at sony's expense who, after being ahead all year, dropped back to third place depite a healthy console lineup of LBP, resistance 2 and motorstorm. a new PSP hardware revision failed to boost sales. Both PSP and PS3 have now been selling below thier 2008 levels

The holiday was also a dissappoint ment to nintendo. not only is wii down YoY a substantial amount in japan but its starting to look like it could go that way in the west too. wii music and animal corssing failed to perform as well as expected and didnt drive hardwrae thta much. Going into its 5th year, it seemed the DS was about to go into decline too.

this year both nitnendo and sony have stratergies to regain momentum, but will they be successfull?

For sony it seems that its placing its trust in hardware revisions. the PSP is getting its fourth revision (a first for the industry i believe) in the form of PSP Go. a PSP slim also seems pretty much confirmed. thanks to leaks we also now that sony is backing up these revisions with great games, the key to gaining momentum. the PS3 is getting classic frnachises such as GT, GoW and Uncharted  but also new IPs like Heavy Rain, Demon's Soul, WKC and MAG. how many of those games will hit this year is uncertain. the PSP will also be recieveing its fair share of franachises with motorstorm, GT and LBP.  itll also recieve its fair share of third party exclusives with a new MGS game hitting this year and new bundles with rock band unplugged and monster hunter 2G. what ever yet to discover is which first party games will be bundled with the systems (if not all of them) and, most importantly, the price of each hardware revision. add in an extensive marketing campaign and sony is literally using every method possbile to regain momentum

nintendo on the other hand is more conservative. it seems to want avoid price drop or bundles/different SKUs with the wii at all costs. yet like sony it has implemented hardwrae revisions for both tis products. following the pattern nintendo launched its third handheld verion, the DSi. wii's hardware revision is not a change to the console itself but an improvement to the controller in the form of MotionPlus. whislt DSi can already be said to have been a great sucess, what is the key to nintendo's stratergy is compelling software. DS is set to be driven by M&L3, spirit tracks, the pokemon remakes and professor layton. the wii looks like itll be getting wifit plus, art academy, pikmin 3 and pilotwings.  but perhaps more importantly there will be new software that amkes use of the opportunities offered by the hardware revisions, eg. WSR. perhaps some of the games ive already mentioned will do that. in japan both wii and DS are set to ahve third party games that will push hardware but there doesnt seem to be any games in the west that can do that.

of course this is all pre-E3 and nintendo's confernce seems relatively unleaked (with the exception of wii fit plus) so ill do an update thread once tuesday is done. what do u guys think so far?

About Nintendo's E3:

Most of what they'll do will feature the DSI. They're pushing it hard, so i would get favor over the wii. You could see a whole bunch of games for it. For the wii i expect as a minimum: Pikmin 3, wii water resort, wii fit plus. Anything more than that for the wii will be a pleasant surprise. People expect to much of E3. There was even word of a Nintendo event in Japan later on. So don't expect to much for now.

Another thought came up: Does Nintendo even need momentum?

Nintendo lost the last two E3's and still won the consolewar hands down. Maybe Nintendo's momentum is already so strong they barely even need E3. Now that's scary.
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nintendo has lot momentum, wii music and animal crossing underperformed. also theyll be pushing motionplus just as much as DSi