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

So I visited a Toys R Us today, followed by a Gamestop, looking to buy a Wii with Zelda (what's the difference between the Wii and Gamecube versions?). I stopped after this cause I wanted to get home, as the next closest game store was about a 20 minute drive away. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have any available, and didn't know when the next shipment would be arriving.

Interestingly enough however, they had PS3's available (only like 2 or 3 though). But the fact that they even had them made me wonder, "Did Sony correctly guess that people would shell out $600 for their next gen system?"

Which brings me to the point of this topic. Are there many next-gen systems available where you live? How many are there per store? Just call a local Gamestop or Toys R Us, Best Buy, Circuit City, or even Walmart, and ask them, or ask them next time you're in the store.

I'm just curious because I thought the PS3 would be out of stock (along with the Wii and even the Xbox 360), but I guess $600 is more than what many people are willing to fork over (at least until they have some really "must-have" games on their system, like a new Final Fantasy or something similar). I know the Xbox 360 wasn't available on a wider scale in my area until around summer of last year, so I'm wondering if a lot of PS3's will collect dust until a killer game comes out for it, or they cut the price on it (I'll admit, I was really tempted to buy one, but again, both the high price tag and lack of good games made me reconsider. If one of them was there, meaning a lower price, or a really good game, I probably would've bought one).

So is this a major setback for Sony? They're already a year behind Xbox 360, and not only that, it costs a lot more too, and although the Wii isn't as powerful as the other two systems, Nintendo is trying a different strategy this time (mainly that controller, but also the fact that you can legally own older games when you buy them online on the Wii), and so far from the looks of it, it's working well for them (if you try to have the mindset of a parent, $250 for family friendly games seems much more of a logical choice than $600 for a PS3 which doesn't seem to have any real family-friendly games).

And while we're on this topic, another "war" is also being waged; that is, the war between HD-DVD and Bluray. In this field, Sony has a slight advantage, because the PS3 is a Bluray player straight out of the box, while you have to pay another $200 for an HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360. Both options are currently cheaper than a standalone HD-DVD or Bluray player right now, but as the price of the players drop, it should be interesting to see what happens (I remember the PS2 did well early on partly because it was a "cheap" DVD player, which no doubt helped DVD's to thrive). The Wii is sitting out this "war", since it can't even play DVD movies (which would've been nice). Which format do you think will win out this generation, HD-DVD or Bluray, and why?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

My Best Buy got plenty of both versions of the PS3. They are still on the table at the entrance. But for unknown reason, every customer in line have a XBOX360 in their hands. I haven't seen a single Wii box anywhere yet.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Agreed. Man, sorry, but here comes Infernal abusing his extra options in the drop down menu and his hatred of console WAAAAAAAAR threads. It's seriously impossible for these things to stay headache free anywhere on the various internet machines, GFF is no exception. The PSP vs DS thread that produced a solid twenty million posts made of spew STILL haunts me. The Wii and PS3 are what, a month old? It's far, FAR too early to even begin caring about which company will win this extremely crucial battle (??) The video format wars have very little to do with video games, too. ;__;

Here's a distraction provided by peeack






I was speaking idiomatically.