Nintendo Wii Led the Pack in February
According to the most recent data, Nintendo sold as many Wii game consoles in February as both of its rivals put together. The NPD Group’s latest report found that Nintendo sold 355,000 units during the month, with Microsoft selling 228,000 of its Xbox 360 units, and Sony coming in third place with just 127,000 of its PlayStation 3 consoles.
But Nintendo is not the overall winner for next-generation consoles at this point. The report stated that Microsoft has sold 5.1 million of its consoles, while both Nintendo and Sony have not yet reached the two-million mark for either of their gaming machines.
It is likely that the trio will continue to duke it out for market dominance in the coming years, adding more games and services to capture larger pieces of the $13 billion U.S. video game market.
The Cost Advantage
Part of Nintendo’s February success stems from a strong start in the early days of the recent console race, said Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson.
The company sold a significant number of consoles thanks to the strength of its games, and development houses have been quick to work on new titles for Nintendo since it is less expensive to create games for that platform than for Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Jackson noted.
“One of Nintendo’s advantages is that it’s slightly less expensive for development houses because the hardware is less powerful and a bit older,” he said. “Nintendo is not in the arms race for the most advanced, most innovative hardware that is going on between the Xbox and the PS3.”
Another reason that Nintendo has garnered attention, and subsequent consumer dollars, is the company’s unique controller, called the Wiimote, which gets players off the couch and moving to emulate game characters in titles like bowling, tennis, and boxing.
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