Has Nintendos Wii Won the Gaming War?

Nintendo can now point and laugh at those who dismissed the Wii as something other than a contender in the next generation video game system war. The previous generation of systems included Microsoft's successful Xbox, the more successful Playstation 2, and Nintendo's GameCube. The Playstation 2 proved to be the greater seller among the three, followed by the Xbox. The GameCube was lost in the competition.

It makes sense that many third party developers would throw their support behind the systems which seem most likely to take a majority of the market. The predicted winner of the next generation was likely to be either the Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360. There were not many in the industry who seemed to give Nintendo a chance. In an article written in 2006 for GameSpot, Tim Surrete makes the statement that "After the GameCube placed a distant third in the current-gen console race, many publishers had all but written Nintendo off. 'They weren't expecting anything,' Simba Group analyst James Lin said.

At E3, many of the high-profile games showcased for the Wii were being developed in-house at Nintendo, while major third-party publishers seemingly approached the console with a 'wait and see' attitude by offering up only a few games."

The fact that these third party developers were using a "wait and see" method with their approach to Nintendo's Wii caused many of these publishers to recognize a missed opportunity for financial gain. Many of these developers are only now beginning to see the potential of the Wii. With the Wii outselling the Xbox 360 by two to one, and outselling the Playstation 3 by four to one, the opportunity for financial success on the Will is one that many developers will be unable to pass up.

The question being asked now is how did the Wii defeat the superior Xbox 360 and Playstation 3? There are a number of factors that lead to the victory of Nintendo's Wii. The first factor is price. The Wii sells for $250, a small amount when compared to the $600 price tag of the Playstation 3. The 360 offers a selection, but the average price is about $400.