The Console Wars Hit the Shelves

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People have been talking about this for years. Shortly after the last generation consoles came out Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo began working on the next generation of consoles, all promising to deliver the best gaming console ever made. We’ve been given bits and pieces and numerous rumors over time to whet our appetites.

At E3 we’ve seen game footage and sneak peaks of the consoles.  While it is exciting to see them at play, when it comes to who has the best console, nothing beats plump sales figures.  Now that all the contestants have put forth their consoles, it’s time to take a look at whose console is flying off the shelves and who is going on the clearance shelf soon.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360

Microsoft had a year’s head start against Sony and Nintendo.  Their Xbox 360 was introduced in the holiday season of 2005 while the rest made it onto the shelves in holiday 2006 season.  This offered a few advantages.  First there wasn’t any competition for it.  They were competing against the PS2 and the GameCube which were the previous generation. 

Microsoft had a year to perfect the design.  The initial few batches were quite buggy, with many people getting the “ring of death” on their console. Microsoft has fixed this problem for the most part.  It’s uncertain at this point if Sony or Nintendo will face similar problems in the near future. 

A factor that is almost as big as the console launch is the launch games.  Microsoft and developers have had over a year to get games to the market.  There are heaps of more games for the Xbox 360 than the PlayStation 3 or the Wii. 

The Xbox 360 has been a very popular selling console.  Finding any at this time last year wasn’t an easy job.  For the first few months you were luck if you could get your hands on the console.  Now a year after the launch, it isn’t too hard to go to a store and find one readily available.

Next: Sony’s PlayStation 3 >>
 

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