KEY POINTS:
Nintendo's simple and fun games console the Wii has become the world's top selling console in an incredibly short time.
Latest figures from the US show 360,000 Wii units sold there in April alone, while Sony's more expensive powerhouse, the Blu-ray-powered PS3 sold in number 82,000.
Sony, king of the
console wars for the past decade with its much loved PSOne and PS2, is not used to being in bottom place with sales and the competition is heating up.
In the home country of Japan, the news isn't much brighter. 251,794 Wii machines sold there in May compared to less than 50,000 PS3s. That means Wii outsells Sony's machine by five to one. Xbox in Japan remained in third place among the next-gen consoles with 11,082 Xbox 360s leaving the retail shelves.
At Amazon, last I checked Wii had sold out and there are reports it's very hard to find in US stores.
Wii has also flown out the doors in NZ and Australia meaning would-be customers must wait for the next shipment to arrive - tried getting some nun-chuks lately?
Worldwide, more than six million Wiis have sold in just six months.
Game over? Hardly. It is easy to forget the Xbox 360 wasn't an instant success until the real next-gen games with awesome graphics came through, Xbox Live stepped up even further and killer titles started appearing. The price also dropped a lot. Xbox 360 is booming.
Right now it's early days for the PS3. There are few killer games, in fact too few games - some just ported from the Xbox live.
To really see the graphics potential you need a high quality next-gen HDTV. I'm busy saving for a Sony Bravia with 1080p support.
And the price is still way out of most people's range especially when the Wii is just so much cheaper.
Wii is also a party animal. Pull out the sports games package when friends and relatives are around and it's hard to find anyone - including those who claim they never play video games and never will - who don't start yelling and jumping about with the Wii controller as they try to beat you in the boxing ring or at tennis or ten pin bowling.
But there's no doubt, these are interesting days in the games industry.
In the last few days, overseas reports have said:
- Sony has cut 3% of its US games force
- Microsoft is thinking of taking a leaf out of the Wii book and broadening the appeal of games to involve the family
- Sony will launch a stand-alone Blu-ray player
- Sony says it's pleased to already report one million PS3 sales in Pal regions
- Sony says it has some big releases on the way including Heavenly Sword - check out the trailer.
It has yet to launch its new online social network for PS3 users. Called Home, the 3D interactive world is a rival for hugely popular online game Second Life.
Wii's winning attraction is the group interactivity - but it was Sony which originally led the way with its innovative Eyetoy camera and Singstar and Buzz games. There are new Buzz quizzes are out - Buzz! Junior: RoboJam, which features four cute robots competing in crazy challenges to become 'robot of the month' and Buzz! The Mega Quiz.
The karaoke Singstar experience comes to the PS3 in August and lets you personalise your playlists by downloading the songs of your choice.
Nintendo which used to rule lost the crown in the late 90s to Sony. A confident Nintendo spokesman told Wired magazine the company is now so confident, it predicts one out of every two next-generation game consoles sold could be a Wii.
Indeed an interesting year! In the end it's the gamer who will benefit as the battle intensifies and hopefully prices will drop. And before anyone cracks open the bubbly, it'll be a case of watch this space.