Over PS3 & XBox 360, Nintendo Wii Takes the No. 1 Spot

With the launch of the new Nintendo Wii game system, consumers may be ditching the PS3 and XBox 360 for the one hand controller.

With the launch of the new Nintendo Wii game system, consumers may be ditching the PS3 and XBox 360 for the one hand controller.

Even though the Wii (pronounced “we”) gaming system is not worthy of being called eye candy, what counts is the game play and the bargin price based on gamers. What beats the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 is the offline multiplayer game mode, it’s web browser, the Wii Weather Channel Live, backwards compatibility with all Nintendo GameCube games and the just announced Red Kaw application to stream and watch Flash video with the Wii Media Center X.

The Wii gaming system costs around $540, but don’t get to happy yet, Wii did get a replacement call earlier this month due to the game strap having to be replaced after complaints that the original straps broke during game play on the Wii controller.

The Sony Playstation 3 on the other hand garnered much of the press, but didn’t live up to the demands of consumers even though the sales where bigger than that of Microsoft’s XBox 360 the past few weeks. One must keep in mind that the Microsoft XBox 360 was released almost 13 months ago and it’s estimated shipped units are said to make around 10 million by Dec. 31 according to Microsoft.

Wii did enjoy the biggest sales last weekend in Japan since their launch in November along with PS3 mostly due to the Nintendo Wii 3 being able to accomodate consumers. Nintendo had heavy stocks of the system on hand which was provided by their manufacturers while Sony, on the other hand, had product shortages, high prices, consumers camping out for days and not so grand reviews. Due to the shortages on the Sony PS3, consumers either opted for either paying double the price on websites such as EBay, buying the Wii gaming system or Microsoft’s XBox 360 which greatly hurt the sales of Sony PS3.

According to Media Create, Sony has been losing a lot of money due to the production cost mostly out weighing the retailer’s cost. The estimated production cost is around $840.00 for the 60 GB model which is sold for around $820 at most retailers.

Overall, Wii was the best-selling gaming console for the week December 10-17, at 108,237 units; Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.’s PlayStation 3 with 70,942 units and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 in third with only 17,168 units.