The XBox 360 was a system which was designed to appeal to the 'core' gamer at the exclusion of the general gaming public; Halo 3 doesn't change that and thus is unable to really do anything to improve the XBox 360's fate.

Who cares about going against the Wii?!?! I don't

I really care more about the battle between Microsoft and Sony. I want to know who will when the war against Sony and Microsoft. Of course someone posts a thread about this seeing how Halo 3 is being released, and I knew someone would say something like? Will Halo 3 push the 360 past the Wii? Its predictable on this site.

No Japan, no victory/win for M$.

Legend11, didn't M$ already tried with Lair.... :D

Following the consensus,

No. 360 may beat Wii in NA sales this month but that is best case.

The article points out that Halo is trapped within a certain small demographic -- mostly white males 15-34 want to play it.  The Wii has a much larger demographic.  Males/females ages 4-96 or so. 

Pretend Japan doesn't exist.  The Wii will still dominate, and that's what this article is about.  Mario Galaxy will likely be a bigger single game than Halo 3 in terms of raw sales, possibly even without Japan, and yet people are all but ignoring ignoring it relative to Halo 3.

Won't happen ... unless M$ creates a series of games that draws in casual gamers. For nongamers, you never have to take the WiiSports disk out of the Wii. You fire it up and you're there. Halo 3 will sell and move systems, but doggone, it's just one game - and folks are predicting the end of the PS3. As much as I agree Sony has made missteps, Halo 3 is not even the final nail in the coffin for the PS3 or Wii. I think the 360 will definitely slow the PS3 to a crawl, but the Wii? It will slow it down some, but the Wii has the big mo ... and to lure nongamers, and Japan (essential to beat the Wii), they'll need some games that are simple, easy to learn and doesn't make nongamers look or feel dumb.

I think the question should be can it stay ahead of the ps3, the wii it wil never beat (next 2 weeks in WW sales ok, but you get the point).

In a year or two, I dont think the Wii is going to be the main console to beat. Its going to be the growing PS3 threat that the 360 will be defending against.

My thinking is this...
-eventually the Wii popularity will wane, as the uniqueness of the controller wears off, and people no longer overlook the weaker graphics. The graphical HD eye candy offered by the PS360 duo will just get better, and the technology gap will be more apparent. I believe people will eventually want more of this and the war will eventually shift focus to the more powerful consoles.

-the PS3 will "wake up" and its userbase will grow like crazy (World Wide). This will be triggered by the release of heavy hitting titles AND lower prices. It might take a while but this is inevitable.

-The 360 will have a formidable foundation to fend off this offensive (more than the Xbox1 could have ever dreamed of), but it will be interesting to see how well it does against the Sony onslaught. Of course it will probably match Sonys moves with its own big releases and price cuts.

Just my opinion. No need for flamethrowers Nintendo peeps :) Save this post for a possible crow eating I guess!

You do realize that the super-majority (2/3rds) of Xbox 360 owners aren't aware that it's an HD console according to a recent Neilson survey, right? So people will gladly put up with the graphics two, there or five years down the line. For many people the shinyness doesn't matter that much -- the xbox 360 owners are much more likely to know its featureset and how it compares to other consoles than general public.

The idea that the Wii will somehow become less impressive graphically relative to the other consoles as time goes on and this will kill its popularity is silly. If anything, the Wii's title list will expand faster the the other consoles, more quirky/interesting independent and risky games will be released (due to the significantly lower cost), and it will become more popular.

By your reasoning, the PSP would have become more popular relative to the DS instead of the opposite happening. And the original Xbox would've become more popular compared to the PS2 instead of the opposite happening. There's no evidence of this.

There's no reason not to suspect that the Wii will be #1 in the US "in a year or two".

X360 will not outsell the Wii anywhere and it will not retake 1st place ever. I dont think Halo3 will boost sales by that much but i do think that Halo3 will sell millions because alot of Halo fans probably already have a X360 because of the games on it and its been out a year and a half.