Console Wars !

In this week's issue of The Economist, there is a short article on the on-going console wars and I have talked about something like this in the past (Playstation 3 Economics).

I think the current console wars is by far the most interesting compared to the past, as all three competitor : Microsoft's Xbox360, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's Playstation 3 have their own distinct features. Xbox360 is currently leading the pack with 10 million units sold, while the Wii has about 6 million and Playstation 3 about 2 million units.

First, we have to remember that Xbox360 did have a headstart as it was released at the end of 2005 while the Wii and Playstation3 have just been released. Nintendo's Wii is generating the most hype currently by focusing on the playability and fun factor of its console and forgoing high-definition graphics which the rest have. Because of that, it costs must less to produce a Wii compared to the other next-gen consoles. However, I think a lot of people will be getting the Playstation 3 because of its popular franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. But currently, the price tag is too high that it puts off most gamers including myself to wait for the price to fall.

I think the console wars, it a good case-study of how there big firms behave in such an industry. All three firms have different strategies to win this war in terms of price, output, and features etc. I will provided more detailed analysis of this as the console wars continues.