I am writing this from the perspective of a Brit who grew up in the eighties, with Mario and Zelda, and do not profess to be an industry expert. What I am is a fan who has spent a lot of money and a lot of hours with a lot of games consoles, so hopefully I do represent their target market and can give an insight from the point of view of the sheep getting fleeced.
Everyone has heard of the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii. Those are the current generation of video game consoles fighting it out for supremacy of the video games market. They are the products of industry heavyweights Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo respectively. First of all, let's have a quick look at all the consoles.
The Nintendo Wii came out at about the same time as the PS3 (so in joint 2nd place after the Xbox 360). It's cheap to make, cheap to buy, and seems to be the highest earner of all 3 consoles. All the time we see signs in the shops saying the Wii is out of stock, even though it came out 2 years ago. The key Nintendo strategy is to focus on fun games that can attract the highest audience (so therefore appeal to female players as well), and steer clear of the graphics power battle. Its killer app is motion detection, giving it a sublimely innovative edge over everything else in the entertainment industry.
The Playstation 3 is Sony's latest console after the phenomenal success of its Playstation and PS2. It is the biggest, sleekest and (apparently) most powerful console out there. It's all about graphics power, blu-ray and high definition.
The Xbox 360 is Microsoft's second attempt at the video games market. From what I've read, the first Xbox was intended by Microsoft really to be the gateway into the market, so they were prepared to pour as much money as needed just to get a foothold. Their real weapon was always going to be the Xbox 360. Well, it certainly seems like they've ticked most of the conventional (and tediously obvious) goals: First to market, very powerful, most games.
So how can we define the winning parameters? If it's money, then surely the Wii is the most profitable. But that would be a very short-term view. The underlying intention of Sony and MS is to put a device in our living rooms that's a doorway to other future revenue streams. That's obviously going to be multimedia content, so downloadable movies, social networking, e-shopping, etc...
The PS3 can play Blu-Ray movies and is supposed to be the most powerful, but now it's been here for a while, and the games don't seem to look any better than they do on Xbox 360. It costs £300 compared to £130 for the cheapest Xbox 360, which is a massive difference. It doesn't have all that many games and I'm kinda fed up with the same controller as on the original Playstation. It's still cool though, and is probably the most prestigious of all 3.
The Xbox 360 was released at least a year before the others. That gave it a big advantage, however they cut corners and have had to pay however many billions to replace faulty hardware (the "3 rings of death"). It's not a beautiful machine and it can't do anything special.
But we're talking about games here. These are gaming machines and it's all about the games. Nintendo have once again teased us to no end and then delivered very little but a small trickle. The PS3 spaceship has landed and then tried to invade with a fleet of underwhelming 3rd party titles, then a second wave of games that also come out on its main rival. The Xbox 360 is likely to break down on you, it's ugly as sin and is made by the most staunchingly uncool company but damn it, it's cheap and there are so many good games on it. I am surprised that the graphics on PS3 games don't look noticeably better than on Xbox 360, and although that may change with time as developers learn to master the machine, by then Microsoft may have released a new console anyway.
They have poured a riverload of cash into it, marketed it every which way possible and poached as many top developers as they could. For that, they probably have the best value console out there with the best games. There may be no killer app, it may not be the best, but in my view the Xbox 360 has won this battle. Nintendo may decide to actually try to bring out enough games to fulfil the Wii's enormous potential, although from all past experience that will not happen (they seem too reliant on Shigeru Miyamoto, and there's only 1 of him). Sony seem to have gotten obsessed, or turned to the dark side along the way, or something. I'm not going to spend time thinking of a way for them to win this, but they'd better hurry up because in a couple of years it will be time for a new generation to emerge, whether they like it or not.
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