[:plant:] Begun the next-gen wars have...

It's impossible to judge at this point really. There are lots of factors involved that many don't realize. The first is now that Sony has seemed to have solved their production problems, their capacity to get units into the hands of retailers is far better than that of Nintendo. Sony has also taken a JIT inventory streaming approach meaning stores are getting smaller shipments of PS3s in but at a rate of every 2 to 3 days.

Nintendo on the other hand is using traditional shipping methods. They hold large amounts of stock at the manufacturing warehouses and make shipments in bulk. This means Wiis are flowing to retailers in much larger shipments but only coming every week or two. It's much harder to manage stock using this method but gives the nice bonus of making it seem like the Wii is always sold out were PS3s are sitting on shelves. The reality of this is that those PS3s sitting on shelves are most likely restocked units since they are getting a new shipment of PS3s in so often when compared to Wii shipments.

Again, things have just started. The Wii obviously is enjoying a huge initial surge of sales because it is something new and interesting and is also cheap compared to the others. But that's not to say it will last. The Gamecube saw a similar initial interest, however lack of interesting software resulted in a sharp drop in sales.

The PS3 isn't doing nearly as well as its predictors, and the Internet seems also being doing a good job at making things seem worse than they are. First off, the PS3 has still sold more than the Xbox 360 did in its first two months. Secondly, considering the high price it, the system is still selling pretty well when there really isn't much in the way of quality software. That's not saying it is a runaway success though. Microsoft is doing a good job in securing must have software for its platform this generation. Sony is really going to have to get their act together quickly. They are in the position to dominate the market again especially considering the strong developer support they still have for the PS3. Hopefully the stronger competition this time around will make them realize their many mistakes.

The end of 2007 is going to be a better indicator of what this generation is going to look like. The PS3 will have a lot of its most wanted games out along with the XBox 360 and the outlook of 3rd party Wii support will be better understood by then.

Jam it back in, in the dark.