Nintendo Wii Leads US January Game Console Sales

Nintendo Wii game console was the most successful game machine in the U.S. in January, 2007, whereas sales of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 collapsed dramatically from December.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 could not sustain the lead in the U.S. market in January as sales of the console dropped nearly four times from December. Meanwhile consumers were still very enthusiastic about Nintendo’s Wii, which was the best-selling new-generation console in the first month of the year. Sales of Sony’s PlayStation 3 dropped two times, making the PS3 the worst-selling new-generation game console in the U.S. in January.

X-bit labs - Microsoft Xbox 360 Still Outsells PlayStation 3

The console market is a virtuous circle with three main points, a virtual virtuous triangle. If you don’t do well on all three points, you end up out of the market, and Sony is on the verge of just that.. ..The company with the lower number of units gets the shaft. They become less and less desirable to write for, and less and less desirable to buy, and less able to lower costs. Higher costs means fewer sales means worse games. Negative feedback, and it hurts.

One note here is that there does not have to be a winner and a loser, there can be multiple winners or losers. If all of the consoles reach a critical mass, they will all win. If none sell enough, they will all lose, so don’t assume that one winner means another loser.

the Inquirer - Sony risks falling out of console battle