Game Industry Analysis by complete non-expert (me)

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**RussWakelin**

Howdy Folks,

Found this AWESOME site last week if you are into watching the video game industry:

http://vgchartz.com/

These guys track console software and hardware sales on a weekly bases. Fun to watch.

There is also some very good news in the numbers for 360 fans, here's a few things I've noticed:

In America: The 360 finally substantially beat the PS2 (yep, the old one) in system sales this week, the 360 is now only surpassed by the Wii and DS as the best selling hardware (at least for now). The PS3 is at the bottom of the pack... the only thing selling worse than PS3's are Game Cubes and Original Xbox's. (Dude, the PS3 is loosing to the Game Boy Advanced!!)
In America: This week two big games premiered: Mario Party on the Wii and Forenza II on the 360. Forenza was the top selling game of all games this week.
In America: 4 of the top 10 selling software titles this week are 360 titles, the Wii tied this figure... the PS3's best title this past week is 16th.
In America: For the past couple weeks more 360 titles have sold than any other system. 2nd was the Wii. The PS3 is again at the bottom of the list, only above Game Cube and original X-box.
In Japan!! The 360 is beating the PS3 is software sales!! This is crazy as in Japan the PS3 has 3 times the hardware sales than the 360. I can only believe that this is because many PS3's were bought in Japan to be e-bayed internationally in the early days of release. The PS3 install base in Japan must be pretty bad.

My quick analysis: I can't think of any way to spin the PS3's numbers and call it any kind of success. While it still may be too early to call it dead, Sony really needs to do something if they don't want to end up like Sega and out of the console business. There are now rumors of a price drop... and that might help, but if you are a software developer you are going to write software for the systems that move software. Right now those are the Wii and 360. <script type="text/javascript"></script>

In any case, it is good news for 360 guys, as it appears the 360 is becoming the defacto 'next-gen' console to develop for thanks to exceptional software sales. You can see the industry already responding to this.. many titles that were originally PS3 exclusives have been announced for the 360 (Virtual Fighter 5, Assasin's Creed, and even rumors of ... gasp... Final Fantasy XIII & MGS4)

Thoughts?

**Hellfury**

I know it may seem obvious, but it is worth restating in my opinion.

If your a rabbit that lets the turtle get the lead in the race, youre gonna lose.

Shame too. Like Sega, they had a solid lead in the industry, then hubris takes hold.

This might be for the better though. Not that I like the idea of Microsoft getting anymore money than they already do.

**malfred**

I'm so glad I got a PS2 instead