@gebx

Yes they seem to be correct =D

I wrote my Business Law exam and it sucked.

Now I am back and there are some strange thing happening here. Are thos numbers correct or not? If not, by how much? It is so confusing.

Barozi - Thats the way I look at it.

VGC does the best they can with data. However, it's not perfect. We've seen the Xbox 360 inch up and up in terms of Top-40 titles, so it's not like there isn't data supporting the correlation.

Is this unexpected? Absolutely. Is it impossible? No. Do you remember November 2008 NPD where VGC undertracked the Wii by ~1,000,000 units then overtracked by 1,000,000? Do you remember when the Wii looked like it was going to easily surpass 45 million by the end of 2008, and now, 6 months in, it's barely past 50,000,000?

Things like this happen. It's impartial. It happens to every system. I was on VGC when the Xbox 360 took almost 2 MONTHS to pass the 10,000,000 mark due to re-edits around the 9 million point. The Wii has usually done well with the edits in it's favor, which has probably helped it's clout on the site, but the reality is that every system can have it's ups and downs.

Lets consider the fact(s): The Wii hasn't had a price drop. The Xbox 360 is anywhere from 50-75 pounds cheaper than the Wii. The Xbox 360 has had more Top-40 games than the Wii has recently. This all sets the stage for what we've seen. Yes, it's unprecedented, but so is the gaming market. The UK is in the middle of a recession, and people may be cutting back more than expected. Look at the Japanese market, it's the same way: The Xbox 360 has sold like crap it's entire life, but has sold incredibly well, relative to where it's been, this year with no real reason other than pricing.

Again: This happens to every system sooner or later. Before you know it, Nintendo will officially drop the price, and the Wii will be back to selling >100,000 units a month in the UK before we know it. The most important thing is to be civilized and not whine about a legitimate tracking company giving shoddy numbers. Yes, there's a margin of error, but this is GFK we are talking about. We never doubted them when the Wii was curb stomping the X360/PS3, so why a sudden change when it's the other way around?

@mrstickball

totally agree

but its just SO SHOCKING

something like this has NEVER EVER happened in a generation, never!

its like this gen "wants" to against all common trends

Looks like the X360 fanboy dream come true, and the worst nightmare for the Nintendo fanboy.

It's suspiciously impossible, but if these numbers are true, I would haste myself and say Wii was indeed a fad. I'm sorry but such a lost in interest has never been seen anywhere but Japan and with the Wii. Wii sucumbing in sales to the 360 and selling just half of it is an indication that Wii is pretty much done there. There's no way it's possible outside it being a fad.

I dont believe the numbers until I saw it official from Chart-Track, not from some company quoting the numbers.

Sorry but I don't know why to believe ioi.

NPD is wrong...Chart Track is wrong.... Serious.

Now now, lets not jump to calling the Wii a fad.

The fact is that the Wii is supceptible to market trends, despite it's casual appeal, as every other console.

Lets look at it this way:

The Wii caught on with families and casual audiences, and has done very well by them. However, just because a console catches on with a new user group, does not mean that it catches on with every single person in that group, but just caters to more than the prior generations.

We must look at the facts of the Wii:

• It's expensive (compared to the 360)
• It's been the same price with the same features since November 2006 (no real price cut)
• Game selection isn't quite the best available (compared to the slower-selling competitors)

Now, given these negatives, I would say that the Wii is just undergoing a period of time that market factors will dig into the system. It's been on the market for 30 months without a price cut. Do you remember what the Xbox 360 was selling before it got it's first meager pricecut? It was nearly DOA, then began to do better, and better with each extensive pricecut.

With families looking to cut back on their spending on luxury items, the Wii is probably more supceptible than other systems, due to the pricetag, and the people it's going after.

Don't worry about the Wii. It's not a fad. To call it that would be foolish. However, to call it a god-send uber-console that will sell 200,000,000 units this generation is to ignore market realities, too. It's still a game console that's done well, but is still expensive for what it brings to the table. If/When Nintendo drops the price, it'll jump back up, and we'll all be claiming that the Wii is going to head to ~55-60% marketshare. We must also remember that the Wii has dropped ~50-60% in the US and Japan in the same timeframe, pointing to the Wii's drop as not being entirely unique.. The difference is that the Xbox 360 has always been a solid competitor in the UK, whereas it's nonexistent in Japan, and been more supceptible to sales drops in the US just like the Wii.

You can't honestly believe that trends do reverse like this from one day to another. The sudden loss of interest is alarming, to the point that the Wii is being outsold 2:1 by a console that was previously outsold by the Wii 3:1. Wii could be called a fad without any trouble at all. There's no way price is the only factor here. It may have reached it's potential userbase and now sales are just going to go down.

Honestly the Wii isn't a very attractive item right now, and the only ones to blame are Nintendo and 3rd parties. Nintendo for allowing a large period without new games where not even them released new appealing software and third parties for flooding the market with terrible shovelware and garbage.

Anyways I'm not calling it a fad yet until the article is confirmed to be 100% accurate. I find it impossible for the Wii to have fallen so low to the point that it's selling on par with the PS3 considering price differences, that the only reasonable explanation is that Wii craze just came to an abrupt end, meaning it was a fad. Never in the history of gaming such thing happened.

@mrstickball

how to you explain PS3 selling on par with Wii in the UK then?

Whats happening is FAR from normal.....

A first place console has NEVEr had this happen to it