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Gamers Favoring Wii over PS3

Xbox Lead Shaky as New Players Take the Field

December 10, 2006

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In the race for next-generation video game console dominance, Nintendo's Wii has taken an early but commanding lead over PlayStation 3, according to industry sales figures. Microsoft's problem-plagued Xbox 360 led both newcomers in November sales, but had twice as many sales days to do it.

Nintendo sold 476,140 Wii consoles to Sony's 196,580 PS3 consoles, according to NPD Group. Both systems debuted in mid-November. Microsoft, which rolled out the troubled Xbox 360 a year ago, posted 511,300 sales for the month.

The PS3 retails from between $499 and $599 while the Wii lists for $250. The Xbox 360 sell for about $299.

While production problems limited the number of PS3 systems available for sale, there may be more at work in Nintendo's lopsided lead in sales. The difference in the systems has created something of a buzz that tends to benefit the Wii.

Nintendo has set out to peel gamers off the couch, giving them a motion-sensitive controller that requires them to get up and move around. Sports games like bowling and tennis require participants to move as though they were actually playing those games.

PS3 has vastly enhanced its graphics capabilities so that dark, violent games are darker and more violent. The different appeals of the systems stand in stark contrast to one another, marketers say, and so far it appears the Nintendo position, built around group fun and a bit of 80s nostalgia, is winning out.

The Xbox 360, meanwhile, appears to have its own problems as the holiday shopping season enters the home stretch.

Since Day 1, the Xbox has had overheating issues. Then, in late November ConsumerAffairs.com began hearing from Xbox owners who said their system worked fine until they downloaded Microsoft's Fall Update, which was meant to enhance features.

"After downloading, I began experiencing 'freezes' during game play," Mike, of Brighton, Massachusetts, told us on December 5. "The system would lock up and I would have to restart the system and lose any unsaved information. This happened at least once every two hours of game play. Then on November 19, 2006, the unit succumbed to a hardware failure which was made evident by three flashing red lights on the face of the console."

It's hardly an isolated incident -- many consumers have contacted us to complain that their systems were working fine until they downloaded the update.

Angry gamers say Microsoft is ignoring the problem. Microsoft has outsourced its public relations to Edelman, a large public relations firm that, in political campaign fashion, simply repeats a series of pat responses that do not address the issue.

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