Console Wars VI

[Asher]

If you buy them on your gamertag, it should be fine. Worst case is you will need to transfer from the old Xbox (your sisters) to the new one. You can do that once a year. You can do it on the Xbox website I think.

[KaiserIsak]

Asher doesn't know much about the 360. After all, he once erroneously predicted that the PS3 would not have a hard drive. He also stole an Internet forum election from me Iran-style. In conclusion it's hard to believe anything he says. I suggest you buy a used PS2 and game on that instead.

Thanks, i already have a PS2 and I still have a few games to play on it

If you buy them on your gamertag, it should be fine. Worst case is you will need to transfer from the old Xbox (your sisters) to the new one. You can do that once a year. You can do it on the Xbox website I think.

Great Downloading Shadow Complex and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD edition right now. Any other games i should check out?

[DrSpike]

Depends what you like and what you already have.

I have both of those arcade games and they are both excellent. If you like fighters you can pick up Street Fighter 4 cheap now, and it's even better than ST HD.

[KaiserIsak]

Depends what you like and what you already have.

I have both of those arcade games and they are both excellent. If you like fighters you can pick up Street Fighter 4 cheap now, and it's even better than ST HD.

I was meant to, but think i will wait 'till the Super edition hits

By the way, I have seen some criticism towards the dpad on the xbox-controller regarding fighting games, did you have any issues with it at all?

[DrSpike]

Yeah it's absolutely dreadful - unuseable in practice.

This has been a big issue on the 360, because MS make it so hard for 3rd party controllers (it's the same with wheels etc). Up until recently options were either expensive custom stick, crappy stick, or one of the hori pads. But with the release of SF4 there are more options.

The best pad now is the dedicated madcatz SF4 pad, at around £25. The best stick is the Madcatz SF4 TE, but this is about £100. There is a cheaper version of the stick at around £60. All are good options for fighters, depending on your budget.

[KaiserIsak]

Yeah it's absolutely dreadful - unuseable in practice.

This has been a big issue on the 360, because MS make it so hard for 3rd party controllers (it's the same with wheels etc). Up until recently options were either expensive custom stick, crappy stick, or one of the hori pads. But with the release of SF4 there are more options.

The best pad now is the dedicated madcatz SF4 pad, at around £25. The best stick is the Madcatz SF4 TE, but this is about £100. There is a cheaper version of the stick at around £60. All are good options for fighters, depending on your budget.

I have been playing SSF2THD for a while now with the regular 360-controller, and wow, its really unplayable. I mean, its almost impossible to do comboes, and even just navigating around the screen is tiresome. Its so bad that i am actually using the left stick rather than the d-pad which begs the question of how that useless d-pad came trough the testers at M$. Well, the game is great anyways. But now i know that i HAVE to get an arcade stick if i want SSF4. Which probably means, no local MP for me

[DrSpike]

Online MP is really good for both ST and SF4 though. But yeah, you need a stick or a specialist pad.

[Asher]

NPD December 2009

PlayStation 3 1.36M
Xbox 360 1.31M
Wii 3.81M




NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 2.82M
WII FIT PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 2.41M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 1.79M
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 1.63M
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 1.12M
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Feb-07 1.01M
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 936.1K
ASSASSIN'S CREED II 360 UBISOFT Nov-09 783.1K
LEFT 4 DEAD 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Nov-09 728.5K
MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER'S INSIDE STORY NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Sep-09 656.7K

The Wii is a cancer. It actually sold less consoles in 2009 vs 2008. THey got like half of them in December.

[DrSpike]

Only Asher could turn outselling the PS3 and 360 combined (with a million to spare) into a disaster.

NSMBW sales look very good also.

[KaiserIsak]

And people are still claiming the wii is dying? It did better this year than the PS2's best year. No reason to release a Wii+/Wii2/Wii HD yet, even if I personally hope they will so we can finally experience Zelda in current gen visuals.

And Reggie certainly nailed that bet as NSMBW have already outsold the PS3-version of MW2.

One interesting thing to note, however, is that there is only one PS3 game in the top ten. Where is Uncharted for example?

[KaiserIsak]

Only Asher could turn outselling the PS3 and 360 combined (with a million to spare) into a disaster.

NSMBW sales look very good also.

The Wii actually outsold both the PS3, the 360, the PSP and the PS2 combinded. It crushed the competition. I am really surprised, I mean, who does not own a Wii by now? And how can it sell so well with close to two years of crappy games (expect a few like NSMBW and some others of course)? It's gotta be interesting to see if it can still sell when Nintendo releases all their big three in one year.

[Asher]

The low sales in non-holiday months combined with the insane sales in the holiday month show just how casual the userbase is. I suspect it'll be fairly low in January compared to the 360/PS3 again.

And Reggie certainly nailed that bet as NSMBW have already outsolt the PS3-version of MW2.

I'm confused by this. How many more Wiis are there?

A Wii-exclusive game selling on a much larger install base system outsells a multiplatform game on the least popular system?

[DrSpike]

The low sales in non-holiday months combined with the insane sales in the holiday month show just how casual the userbase is. I suspect it'll be fairly low in January compared to the 360/PS3 again.

But everyone accepts that the Wii is aimed at casual gamers, so that's not exactly a surprise.

Regardless of how you want to spin it the bottom line is the Wii massively outsold the competitors, despite already having a larger userbase. Once again your predictions of Wii doom are premature.

[KaiserIsak]

The low sales in non-holiday months combined with the insane sales in the holiday month show just how casual the userbase is. I suspect it'll be fairly low in January compared to the 360/PS3 again.

And Reggie certainly nailed that bet as NSMBW have already outsolt the PS3-version of MW2.

I'm confused by this. How many more Wiis are there?

A Wii-exclusive game selling on a much larger install base system outsells a multiplatform game on the least popular system?

We all agree the userbase is first and foremost casual (but with also a small minority of gamers like myself who owns the console for the exclusives), and that the sales rates you describe is pretty much correct, but point is, no matter who is buying that thing, it IS still selling. Will it gain momentum in 2010? Definitely not. Will Nintendo be forced to release a new console? Probably not. The wii is doing fine as it is, even though it lacks a lot compared to the HD-Twins.

However, it is only a question of time before the "doom of the Wii" as have been predicted widely over the internet for a few years. However, what that doom will be remains to be seen. My prediction is that Wii-sales will be down quite significantly, but still beat both the 360 and the PS3 again this year (but by a small margin).

And about the bet Reggie made, your comments are of course correct. Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3 never really had a chance against NSMBW on the Wii, but that was still what the bet was about. And considering all the flaming he got for it on various boards, that is really what matters

[Asher]

But everyone accepts that the Wii is aimed at casual gamers, so that's not exactly a surprise.

Regardless of how you want to spin it the bottom line is the Wii massively outsold the competitors, despite already having a larger userbase. Once again your predictions of Wii doom are premature.

I've never predicted doom of the Wii. I did say the wheels are coming off, etc.

And they have. Despite the price cut, the Wii sold less this year than last. The other consoles all sold more. The lower sales in the latter half of the year meant they had a glut of supply for the November/December holiday season and, probably for the first time, had excess supply in the face of strong demand for the Wii.

Yes, the sales are still impressive, but yes, the Wii bandwagon is getting smaller and sales are falling despite price cuts. My comments remain accurate.