I would've thought someone would've done something like this by now, but obviously nobody has yet. So here it is!
Ok, before I start my (probably) long post. I'll just like to say I own both a Wii and 360 (not a PS3 - I'm not that rich). I enjoy both equally (I would enjoy the Wii more if I had a certain game...).
For the industry, this year is a very important year. VERY IMPORTANT. It can ultimately decide who wins this generation and who has to seriously go back to the drawing board. Now onto my analysis of the three consoles at present:
First, the PS3: I don't own one, but I've played on one of my friends. It's big. Real big, especially if you compare it side by side with the Wii. Something went really wrong with the PS3, especially since Sony was always the odds-on favourite after the success the PS2 garnered. And I'm willing to bet £100 of my own money that the price was one of the major reasons for it's current state. The games currently out for it aren't terribly impressive. It's kind of depressing when the top 4 games (currently) on Metacritic for the PS3 are actually multi-platform. It gets worse when you compare the scores with the 360 versions. Generally, the 360 scores higher... oh noes. But wait, the PS3 still has it's exclusives? Right...? Well, kinda. Slowly, but steadily the PS3 has been losing it's exclusives. Let's have a look at the list of exclusives the PS3 lost (off the top of my head):
>GTA IV
>Assassin's Creed
>Devil May Cry IV
>Virtua Fighter 5
>Beautiful Katamari
>Fatal Inertia
This doesn't bode well for Sony. The two big exclusives that are still exclusive now are: MGS4 and FFXIII. And there's much reason to believe that MGS4 will also go multiplatform eventually, unless Sony has given Konami much reason to keep it a PS3 exclusive. If you know what I mean. That leaves FFXII. I have a real feeling that it'll go multi-platform too, but FFXII is a long way off. Anything can happen.
That's not to say the PS3 doesn't have any good games. Motorstorm was a good game, as was Resistance. But it certainly wasn't any Halo-killer. The PS3 is still lacking a system-seller. And it should have one by now.
Another thing about the PS3 is the blu-ray player. Which may be the reason behind the high price-tag. Sure, blu-ray has "won" the format war. But you've got to remember that the champion of portable mediums is still, and I guess: will still be for some time, the DVD. Since the blu-ray has essentially won against HD-DVD, it doesn't bode well for the consumer for the next few years. Blu-ray players will raise their price tags since there is no other competition for it. Until the China-made cheap ones come along anyway. At first, things looked bad for Sony's blu-ray playing console, especially since HD-DVD already had all the features that Blu-Ray should have and players were much cheaper on the HD-DVD side. But Microsoft went wrong when the HD-DVD player was only added on as an add-on. In the short-run this kept prices down but in the long-run it meant that HD-DVD ultimately lost. Since the PS3 itself was a Blu-ray player, which meant there were much more blu-ray players sold (despite not all of them used for watching movies). So, it seems like including blu-ray was a stroke of genius on Sony's part. For now.
Next, the Xbox 360: Since the 360 has been released a year earlier than both the other consoles it has gained quite a head start. Now that devs understand it more, framerates are better on multiplatform games and in general it's doing very well. Coupled with the price-drop it recently had over here (Europe) it's now cheaper than the Wii! The library of games is BIG, larger than the other two consoles - and with confirmation from MS that it will hit 1000 games this Summer. That's quite a feat. All in all, not too many gripes. XBL is amazing (except for stupid n00bs) and the controller is good (except for the stupid d-pad). The biggest thing MS has got to fix is the hardware failures. They've been trying to keep this on the down-low ever since reports popped up on the internet about this, and at first even failed to acknowledge stuff like this was happening. But now they see that it's a problem, and a damn big one at that. I've heard rumours that the percentage for failures is as high as 30%, but MS is adamant that the number is much closer to 5% and lower. I got really comment on this since I don't know the exact number. But in my opinion, anything over 3% is too high. But I guess MS hasn't really got the best track-record with stuff like this...
Now we take a look at the games for the 360, and the outlook is good. Really good.
Halo 3, Bioshock, Gears of War are just a few of the amazing games that are out for it. And the promise of GoW2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Fable 2 and more coming. Things area still looking up.
Out of the PS3 and 360, the 360 is in a much stronger position currently. But this year is the real test, I predict the PS3 catching up fast this year. And unless MS does some major reworking and fixing some issues, the PS3 may even surpass it before the year's end.
And last but by no means least, the Wii: Nintendo have been the real innovators this generation. The motion-sensing, while definitely not new was marketed extremely well and has carved the Wii itself a large chunk of the market. Following the success of the hit portable: Nintendo DS, which continues to sell well, Nintendo are concentrating on gameplay rather than graphics. But there's a problem in this equation Nintendo have intricately put together: Third party devs. The first year of Wii games from 3rd parties have been disappointing at best. There were some good ones (RE4 - yes, it was a port) in there, but from the most part. Rubbish, is probably the best world to discuss it. And ports... ugh... don't get me starting on that. But we're finally getting out of this rut, Zack & Wiki, Pro Evo 2008 and NMH are carving a way through this monstrosity of crappy games and hopefully many other games will follow.
Ok, a more in-depth look at the games on the Wii. One word: Nintendo. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl (which we're still waiting for), Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Warioware. The list just goes on. Hell, Super Mario Galaxy is currently vying for 1st position for BEST GAME OF ALL TIME with Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Even after the failure of Super Mario Sunshine (if you could call it that), Nintendo has managed to pull something so spectacular out of the bag it's uncanny. And there seems to be no shortage of where that comes from, Mario Kart Wii is out tomorrow in the UK and Animal Crossing is already practically unofficially confirmed.
Things Nintendo have to work on: Online. Come on Nintendo! Get your act together with online! VoIP isn't necessary but at least make sure it doesn't lag! From what I've heard of online games for SSBB, it hasn't been good. Although my online experiences with games on the Wii have generally been good (Heroes 2 had virtually zero lag, and Mario Strikers was good most of the time) it can still be better. The lack of features doesn't bug me too much, especially after hearing what many reviewers have to say about Mario Kart Wii online.
Another thing Nintendo did right: Virtual Console. Now this was a real stroke of genius! Selling games we've already owned before back to us! Clever. And releasing some more every week works extremely well. With classics like Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, SMB3 already released the only problem now is that they will eventually run out of good retro games to release.
Basically, Nintendo have a really strong position in this generation and things are also looking very very good. Unless Nintendo did something drastically wrong, the Wii and DS will continue to sell well. And to think a generation ago, Nintendo were dead-last with the GameCube. How things can change so quickly...
Woah... long post... I'd like to see who actually reads this.


Keep it clean!!!