Nintendo wiining the console war

Three years ago, you could be forgiven for thinking that Nintendo was sunk. GameCube was far from a rip roaring success and Sony and Microsoft were getting ready to unleash new hardware with immense graphics capabilities onto the market. Nintendo, on the other hand, had nothing.

Sony sales struggling

Now, the tables have turned. The Wii is doing so incredibly well that its sales dwarf that of both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined. To the point it's almost embarrassing.

Last month, Sony only managed to shift 378,000 PS3s - which may sound impressive but it's nearly 20 down on the year before when it sold 466,000 units of its games console/Blu-ray Trojan horse.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is still in the game, supplying 836,000 Xbox 360s - up a respectable 59,000 units on the previous November's 777,000.

This all counts for nothing when you look at Nintendo's numbers, though: 2.04 MILLION units, up from a non-too shabby 981,000 machines the year before. And that was when it was having huge supply problems and you couldn't buy a Wii for love nor money (yes, we tried both).

Nintendo For The Wiin!

The Wii doesn't have anywhere near the graphical prowess of either competitor - it's not even high def - and it can't play back movies, BLu-ray or even DVDs. But there's one thing Nintendo has got right - game play. It may not look as pretty, but its motion sensitive games are out stripping everyone else in the market. Nintendo, it's good to have you back.

Nintendo (via Silicon Alley Insider, image by Ian Muttoo)