PS3, Xbox 360 pass water on Wii
Nintendo market share slumped in 2010
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The Sony PlayStation 3 was the world's most popular HD-capable games console in 2010, out-shipping Microsoft's Xbox 360 by 2.2m units.
But figures released by market watcher Strategy Analytics still put both of those machines behind Nintendo's Wii in the race to lead the fight to be the top selling current-generation console.
Some 43.7m current-gen consoles shipped in 2010, SA said. Just over 17m of them were Wiis. Unlike the Xbox and PS3, the Wii is only capable of standard-definition output. Sony shipped 14.42m PS3s. Microsoft shipped 12.24m Xbox 360s.
That put the three machines on current-generation console market shares of 39 per cent, 33 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively.
Compare that to 2009, when the Wii took 50 per cent of the market, the PS3 27 per cent and the Xbox 360 23 per cent. But shipments were three per cent higher back then: 45.01m consoles in all, itself down from 2008's peak shipments of 46.50m units.
During those years, the PS3 nibbled into the Wii's market share, but only last year did the Sony console and Microsoft's really begin to grab ground from Nintendo.
"Microsoft’s Kinect was clearly one of the winners in 2010," said Jia Wu, SA Senior Analyst. "In the second half of 2010, the Xbox 360’s market share for the first time exceeded the 30 per cent mark among the current generation fixed consoles, which was clearly driven by the Kinect launch."
When it comes to units shipments, both the PS3 and the 360 grew at double-digit rates between 2009 and 2010 - the Wii fell 24 per cent, SA said. ®
COMMENTS
verbose
"the race to lead the fight to be the top selling current-generation console"... wow, someone's winning the race to lead the fight to win the day to rule the roost of redundant redundancy.
Wii was designed
for the whole family. It was a piece of genius from Nintendo, developing something that slipped into it's own niche of something that was simple to use, graphically interesting and fun. Everyone in the family was welcome to play. It made you participate, instead of staring a screen pressing buttons, you leapt about, swung your arms and that's inherently funny to watch.
PS3 & Xbox 360 both went after the same, core, gamer audience. They boast better technology for playing games etc. They do, however, lack the universal appeal of the Wii. Nintendo has had years to become the leading family entertainment platform, and both Move & Kinect have had months to have any impact on that lead. It's more to do with saturation than any other reason I feel.
I'm a PS3 owner, without a Wii or 360, and I'm happy. I just think you can't honestly compare PS3 & 360 to the Wii, different horses for different courses. Wii doesn't have the core gamer appeal that the other two have, and the other two don't have the family appeal that the Wii has. I suspect most homes will go for the Wii over the other two, but if there's a gamer in the house, then he or she will have a 360 or PS3 (most likely as well as the Wii)
That's my tupennies worth anyway
Odd article
This article is worded and structured very oddly. It seems at pains to emphasise the gains made by Sony and Microsoft, while almost disguising the fact that Wii was still the best-selling console in 2010. "Nintendo market share slumped in 2010", indeed? From first place by a mile, to first place comfortably, more like.
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