People see facts and figures constantly and brush them off as, well, facts and figures. But, when people see charts and graphs they “oooh” and “aaaah” over them because the visualization is easy to understand. Now, thanks to the NPD Group and Deutsche Bank, people are seeing some pretty graphs about the console battle. These show just how well the race is going on all fronts of the war.
Although the data is fairly small the colors show it all, the Wii crossed over the Xbox 360 numbers in unit sales and hasn’t stopped since the launch. Here we are, on the third holiday season since the Wii launch, and people still cannot find them in stores. Shortage? Doubtful. Considering the massive sales numbers and the fact that they did take the 360 in numbers it seems the supply just can’t meet the over-the-top demands, but why is the demand so high for the little Nintendo bundle of joy? People just can’t get enough Wii.
The Xbox 360 has much to brag about as well, they’re not first in the race but their nearest next-generation graphic console, the PlayStation 3, isn’t even close. The chart shows them both rising in much the same way, with the same “pops” along the sales chart but in a completely different scale. Since Microsoft doesn’t want to consider Wii a competitor, they’re clearly winning the war in their eyes.
Oddly enough, one of the big pops in Xbox 360 sales where around the PS3 launch. Perhaps these consumers were waiting for both consoles to launch before making a decision? More than likely, it was holiday related and had little to do with the PS3 launch but it is fun to ponder anyway.
What about software sales? We’ve heard the Wii has little to offer in terms of games while the 360 wipes the floor with the competition.
To our surprise, the Wii is rocking the sales figures in terms of software but still doesn’t compare to the Xbox 360. Microsoft pulls out 93-million units while Nintendo takes home a modest 73-million units in software… yet again Sony doesn’t show up to the fight. Looking at November 2007, you can see the Wii jumps significantly in unit sales, no doubt related to the Super Mario Galaxy launch — once they hit that figure they never looked back and continued to climb.
Although a few of us expected Sony’s PlayStation 3 to make huge progress this year, each month they have marginal growth is causing their competitors to excel beyond anyones imagination. We’re starting to wonder how well Sony’s “10 year plan” is going to work out with their competitors taking advantage of the market now when, in 10-years, they will be sitting on their pile of cash to re-invest in the 8th generation of consoles.
(Thanks, GameDaily)
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
or
The Godfather
Mass effect 2
I’m just going to answer the QOTW seeing that I’m going to write a lot.
QOTW: Why did you have to choose this question? I have such a big problem with picking favorites, everything has its good and bad, and sometimes they are so different that I just can’t compare them.
At least I don’t have such a huge list, seeing that I only really got into gaming in 2009, but I still went back to play plenty of old games.
Looking through lists and lists of best games of that decade, I have narrowed it down to Super Smash Bros Brawl, LoZ: Twlight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy and Batman: Arkham Asylum. 4 completely different games, don’t even know where to start.
*Back after watching a couple of videos, refreshing my memory on each of the games*
While watching Super Mario Galaxy, I couldn’t help but think how much better the sequel was, which also removed a lot of the already little cons it had Seeing that, I’m going to have to rule it out.
Comparing the most similar games, Twilight Princess and Batman, I’m going to have to go with Batman by a few marks, I’ll list the reasons if it wins out in the end.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is great and all, but I’m going to have to go with Batman simply because fighting is not one of my favorite genres and Action/Adventure is actually at the top to me.
Batman: Arkham Asylum. It is an all-out great game. It never outstays its welcome, the pacing is almost perfect. Awesome and intuitive combat, stealth missions that make you plan a whole attack, very original boss battles, good storyline, tons of interesting secrets to collect, lots of cool gadgets at your disposal, upgrades that actually matter, and overall making you feel like a badass. I have a hard time remembering if I ever played a game twice, but I’m glad to say I did with this one.
I’m sorry that I wrote so much on this topic, but it needed to be done. You may skip reading out all the rambling parts during the podcast.
@QOTW
Morrowind. I don’t even know where to begin expressing my love for this game. I will attempt to keep it short.
When I was 15, I had no job. My mother was convinced that wasting £40 on a game was bad. So I bought games that would provide me with enough content to keep me busy for a while. Morrowind was a gold mine.
I bought it for Xbox. It had everything I ever wanted. A large explorable world full of NPCs. Hundreds of quests. Dozens of guilds. And freedom. Freedom to do anything you ever wanted. Be whatever you wanted. That’s what I loved the most.
Too keep things short I will bullet point the most notable features that I remember:
-Every item had a shape and form. I remember stacking my looted gems on a shelf because they looked fantastic.
-The rich Elder Scrolls lore. The races. The continents. Everything was well thought through, well described and well implemented. The world of Morrowind was truly alive. And interesting.
-You assumed the role of Nerevarine, the incarnation of an ancient war chief. Your coming was predicted by a prophecy. However, unlike in other games where you just fit the prophecy from the start, in Morrowind you had to twist and bend the whole political world to be accepted as an incarnate. Made you feel important.
-The world of Morrowind was dark. Depressing. Alien. Nothing that it’s sequels can ever match. Everything was going to hell fast and you were at the front of it all. And the dungeons with the Sixth House Cult could be as scary as a survival horror.
-A few years later I purchased the game for the PC. Bethesda bundled it’s Game of the Year with the TES construction set. The number of fan made mods available was amazing. It was like playing a whole new game.
-Real world issues. Racism. Bullying. Homosexuality. Stuff you don’t find in your average Zelda game.
I still have lots to say, but that would take to long. As an after word, Morrowind was my favourite game not just of this decade, but ever. Although I enjoyed Oblivion and Skyrim, they can never match the delight I experience from playing Morrowind.
@QOTW Kingdom Hearts. it just has a charm that was never matched by its sequels along with solid gameplay and story and a certain wow factor compared to other action rpgs at the time. ive clocked over a hundred hours with mulitiple playthroughs and its enjoyable every time.
Battlefield 2 is still my all time favourite game of this decade
There’s been a lot of great releases over the 2000’s decade. Thinking back, there were soooo many possibilities over several different consoles so it’s difficult to really chose. So, here’s a breakdown
PC: Counter Strike (Original Addon Version)
Xbox 360: Modern Warefare (the first)
Playstation 2: Katamari Damachi (Soo addicting)
Sega: Streets Of Rage or Kid Chameleon
SNES: Street Fighter
NES: Blaster Master / Metroid (I was in love with those 2)