Can Wii Win The Console War By Mistake?

Xbox 360 is tracking the same trends as the original Xbox for monthly sales, Sony hasn't figured out why gamers don't buy a PS3 and Nintendo hasn't figured out why gamers love the Wii. 1up has an excellent writeup on the trends of the three consoles now that they've all had at least six months to bake in the market.

The results their finding are a bit odd... Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales aren't as great as they should be at this point in order to crush a highly competitive Sony. The saving grace? Sony isn't highly competitive this generation.

Here is how they broke down the 360 numbers:

• January*: 294,000, or 58,800 per week
• February: 228,000, or 57,000 per week
• March*: 199,000, or 39,800 per week
• April: 174,000, or 43,500 per week
• May: 155,900, or 38,975 per week
• June*: 198,400, or 39,680 per week

Here is how they broke down the Xbox figures when it arrived:

• January 2003*: 166,328, or 33,265 per week
• February 2003: 197,000, or 49,250 per week
• March 2003*: 164,780, or 32,956 per week
• April 2003: 128,000, or 32,000 per week
• May 2003: 123,614, or 30, 903 per week
• June 2003*: 166,879, or 33,375 per week

"What's it all mean? Xbox 360 is more or less tracking at the same pace as Xbox 1, albeit with higher month-to-month sales. More importantly, the sales dips are roughly the same, suggesting Xbox 360's weakened week-to-week sales, despite falling almost every month, are more reflective of the industry's seasonal traditions, rather than a weakened acceptance of Xbox 360."

Now, before you get up in arms, the Xbox 360 is doing better than the Xbox classic, but the Xbox classic had a bit of a barrier. It was the first console by Microsoft with unproven technology and a game called Halo 2 which spurred sales later but was still not enough to make the Xbox dominate.

The PlayStation 3...well...we don't need to bash that, the sales figures speak for themselves.

Then there is this crazy Wii product that is catching up to the Xbox 360 in sales. They're probably not making nearly as much in licensing and overall but they're not doing bad by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, they're doing better than they even predicted.

So well, that now EA is doing the "oops" we didn't think it was going to be a hit. John Riccitiell, CEO of Electronic Arts said, “[the wii] got ahead of us a little more than our expectations.”

They had no idea it was going to do so well in the market and now they've got to shift some resources to make sure they balance the game releases.

"Right now, Sony's fumbles with PS3 means competition has been a non-issue for Microsoft. Of course, that doesn't explain away all the problems they've caused themselves -- hello, Red Ring of Death"

There is truth to this, it's hard to find positive news for the PlayStation 3. The release lineup from E3 should change PlayStation 3's future around this holiday season (we hope!) and Microsoft is bringing the big guns come September and beyond. Is it enough to hold out? In theory, if Sony starts getting on the right track they could catch up to the 360. Then what?

Could it be possible for the Wii to take this generation by sheer momentum and by third party developers tagging onto the console to make some crazy money with shorter release cycles (given the graphical technology is lighter)?

Xbox 360 has to shed away the customers fears about failing hardware and produce a powerful punch while Sony is still down. Can they do it?