Which videogame console had the best year?

[Bond]

[Angrist]

I have no idea. I only have a Wii and I love SSBB and World of Goo. Other than that, it had a pretty bad year.
I'm not voting.

[GameMaster]

12-23-2008 An estimated one million Wiis were sold last week in America - the most games machines sold in one week ever... PS3 and Xbox360 nowhere to be seen!

http://www.vgchartz.com/?w=1m

The numbers don't lie.

[Dyne]

Wii had an EXCELLENT first half. But when I vote PS3 I take into consideration its vastly increased Blu-ray library that I've been taking a chunk of, for myself. Based on use alone, I have to say the PS3 wins this year for me.

My 360 red-ringed. I'm bitter about that.

[Fyacin]

I didn't really see any great Wii games, other then SSBB and Mario Kart near the beggining of the year, but Xbox had tons. Left 4 dead, Rockband 2, fallout 3, tales of vesperia, etc. Don't really know anything about ps3.

[Jason1]

I'll admit wiu had a down year. World of goo is amazing though

[BreakABone]

No software? No problem.

Despite early predictions that 2008 would be the year Sony regained momentum in the bitter video game console wars, it turned out to be false hope. Industry leader Nintendo stayed ahead of the pack all year, thoroughly dominating both the home console and handheld hardware markets with their Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS systems, respectively.

According to NPD Group, Nintendo flat-out owned the all-important month of November by selling over 2 million Wiis, better than twice as much as the next closest competitor, Microsoft's Xbox 360 (836,000). And at over 1.5 million DS systems sold, Nintendo tripled the output of Sony's PSP (421,000). While those numbers weren't nearly that high through most of 2008, the general order -- Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony -- held strong throughout.


Wii Ascendant
But this was hardly a banner year for Nintendo in terms of software. The biggest games -- Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and of course Wii Fit -- came relatively early in the year, and their biggest holiday release, Wii Music, has been labeled something of a dud. Miffed that the company was focusing too heavily on catering to its relatively new mass-market audience, the usually loyal Nintendo fans complained about a lack of core games. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Sony enjoyed a wealth of blockbuster games all year long, including top-sellers Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3. So how did Nintendo compete, much less lead the way?

By finding a new niche, of course. While gamers lament the deluge of cheaply made games (dubbed "shovelware") aimed at capitalizing on the Wii's mainstream popularity, many of those titles speak to their broad audience and support the company's new directive. Nintendo knows on which side its bread is currently being buttered, and while Microsoft and Sony battle for the hearts and minds of the core gamers, Nintendo is content getting their moms to play, too. And their moms often have a lot more money.

Microsoft, on the other hand, found itself in second place by keeping its eyes on the prize: core gamers willing to shell out for great downloadable content. The recently released "New Xbox Experience" system update has nearly tripled sales over Xbox Live Arcade, while huge releases like Gears of War 2 and Fable II cemented their status as the go-to console for most gamers.


New Xbox Experience
As the newest kid on the block, Microsoft is less concerned with catching Nintendo than they are with kicking Sony's butt, which is pretty much exactly what they're doing. Take, for instance, the November NPD numbers for Activision's best-selling first-person shooter, Call of Duty: World at War. The 360 version of the game sold an impressive 1.4 million copies -- over twice that of the PS3 version (597,000). It's hard to play catch up when you're getting beaten that badly.

As for Sony, well, they just can't catch a break. The company scored a major coup when Blu-ray officially trounced HD-DVD in the hi-def format war, but few believe the technology will catch on with consumers. Strong sales of big-time exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 were promising, but the troubled launch of their 'Home' network coupled with relatively weak holiday sales (only Resistance 2 cracked the Top 10 list in November, all the way back at number 9) cramped their style. The once-promising PSP is getting whomped by both the DS and Apple's surging iPhone. Did a witch cast a spell on these guys or what?

Hopefully next year will bode better for the one-time king of the consoles, but for now, they'll have to get used to the view from the back of the pack.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/...on-08-/1276642

[Typhoid]

I think Playsation 3 had a really good year, towards the end with the sales of blu-ray and whatnot.

[Dyne]

Originally Posted by Fyacin

I didn't really see any great Wii games, other then SSBB and Mario Kart near the beggining of the year, but Xbox had tons. Left 4 dead, Rockband 2, fallout 3, tales of vesperia, etc. Don't really know anything about ps3.

All of the Xbox games you mentioned are on other consoles, except for Tales of Vesperia.

I've heard that Valkyria Chronicles on PS3 is a much better game than Tales of Vesperia. I think it's a great game.

[Fyacin]

True. I would definetly take a look at Valkyria Chronicles if I had a PS3
I was mostly comparing 360 and Wii though, seeing as the 360 and the PS3 are pretty much one beast, they have almost the same catalogue of titles, and seeing as I don't really use the online functions or hi-def/blu-ray I probably would barely notice if you switched out my ps3 for a 360.

[Nighthawk]

I would have said Xbox 360 a couple of months ago, but that stupid thing keeps overheating... I wasn't able to install the new update, the new experience or something, I don't now, it started overheating just the night before the update was released back a couple of months (couple of months? I lost my track of time). so anyway I downloaded it an hour ago, and just as it was finished it overheated again. guess I have to fix it unofficially. damn you Microsoft!

[GameMaster]

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=2724&a=2

[TheSlyMoogle]

I heard that Sarah Palin had, "THE BEST YEAR EVER"