Is the success of Wii good for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3?

The Wii has been a big hit
with gamers and non-gamers.

If this were a three-way battle for the home console market, it would be easy to declare the Nintendo Wii the winner. With 34.5 million consoles sold compared to 25 million Xbox 360s and just 16.8 million PlayStation 3 consoles, the Nintendo Wii has become the home console bestseller despite being released over a full year after the Xbox 360.

But is it really a three-way battle?

The Nintendo Wii does not compare in processing power, graphical capability or storage capacity. It isn't able to play Blu-Ray videos like the PS3, and its online capability lags so far behind Xbox Live that it's like comparing the Internet to the text-based bulletin boards systems the Internet replaced.

And yet the Nintendo Wii sells. And sells. And sells some more.

Is it just the price? Absolutely not. The very fact that Blu-ray became the standard over the (much lower priced) HD-DvD shows that consumers are willing to pay more for what they consider a better system.

The Wii owes its sales to its innovative controls that offer a completely different style of gameplay and its focus on the casual gamer. This one-two punch has allowed the Wii to become the king of home console sales based on (1) its attraction to kid and family-oriented gaming, (2) the fact that it can be a great 'companion' console and (3) its ability to attract those who have never before owned a console.

It's no secret that the Wii is a great family console with so many kid-friendly titles. But the Nintendo Wii did not get to where it is by converting a bunch of Xbox and PlayStation gamers to switch consoles. It got to where it was by convincing many of these people that its a great console to have in addition to their Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and by expanding the market through innovative controls and casual-friendly games that appealed to non-gamers.

World of Warcraft has grown the MMO
market exponentially.

In many ways, this can be seen as similar to the effect that World of Warcraft had on MMOs. Before Blizzard's monster hit the scene, the MMO world was ruled by Everquest, which had garnered a little under half a million subscriptions in the five years since its release. World of Warcraft brought a legion of hardcore Blizzard fans over to the MMO scene. And WoW's solid gameplay and focus on a more casual-friendly experience allowed the game to surpass the 10 million mark in subscriptions, which is over 20 times greater than the mark Everquest achieved.

And this success has helped translate to greater sales for other MMOs. Both Age of Conan and Warhammer Online topped the one million sales mark soon after their release, which is a truly staggering amount compared to MMO sales pre-World of Warcraft. Of course, selling a box to the MMO market and keeping subscribers happy over a period of time are two different things, something both of those games are quickly fining out, but they do owe some of their initial success to World of Warcraft's ability to grow the market.

Certainly, Microsoft sees a great opportunity to sell to the growing market. Along with adding the ability to watch Netflix movies and install games to the hard drive, the Xbox Live "New Experience" allows players to make their own avatars, similar to the Wii's ability to allow players to create their own Miis. They've also lowered the price of the low-end Xbox 360 to inch closer to the Wii's low price.

And the end result might be growing sales for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 based on the people the Nintendo Wii is bringing to the gaming market.