By Stevie Smith Nov 21, 2007, 14:19 GMT
As the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii move past their first year of release in the hotly contested videogame market, the tech boffins at MTV have taken the opportunity to run a comparison against both machines to see which console has faired better across the last 12 months.
Sony and Nintendo celebrate a full year in the next-gen arena with the PlayStation 3 and Wii, but who came out on top? Credit: About-Electronics.eu.
MTV notes, perhaps somewhat ironically, that Sony Corp. graced its offices with a PlayStation 3 birthday cake last Friday in order to help celebrate the first year of retail availability of the powerhouse next-generation console. By comparison, MTV notes that Nintendo of America offered up no cake, pastries goods, or sugar coated confectionery of any kind as the Wii passed its first year at retail on Monday.
"But who should really be celebrating?" asks the music television giant.
Initially focusing on the more obvious comparisons, the Nintendo Wii has outperformed the PlayStation 3 throughout the year, having sold an estimated 14 million units worldwide beside the PS3’s modest 6 million units (source: VGChartz.com). Most recently, NPD Group has revealed that the Wii posted some 519,000 unit sales throughout the month of October in the U.S. market alone, while the PS3 amassed a mere 121,000 unit sales in the region.
Since its launch, the Nintendo Wii has maintained a single unit design at a profit-turning retail price of $249 USD, while Sony has dropped its loss-making PlayStation 3 from an initial price of $599 USD down to $399 USD, issuing various specification alterations along the way – which has seen the initial 60GB model replaced with a simplified 40GB model.
The Nintendo Wii has a selection of AAA software titles in its portfolio, including the likes of Wii Sports, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, and Metroid Prime: Corruption. The PlayStation 3’s line-up, while solid, is still yet to land a genuine software title that can ably assist in the sales of hardware, with the likes of Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction existing as its current gaming lures.
Other, not so obvious points, offered up by MTV include Nintendo’s move to quash criticisms held over from previous hardware generations regarding its "stinginess" in the software stakes. Specifically, the report offers, "who would have bet that Sony would publish 14 full-size PS3 games in its new system’s first year and that Nintendo would top them with 16?"
Sony emerges as the clear winner in the hardware upgrade category, having released various iterations throughout 2007, which have led to PlayStation Portable owners on-the-move being able to interact with their at-home PlayStation 3, accesing and using all the movie and audio files stored within its expansive memory. Other update features include graphics upscaling for DVD discs, DualShock3 controller compatibility, and access to the Folding@Home project. Nintendo has added far fewer system updates and offered far less in terms of additional features.
A personal-taste stalemate perhaps separates the two heavyweights regarding downloadable software, with Sony offering original titles such as flOw, Everyday Shooter, and Pixel Junk Racers, along with a modest selection of original PSOne classics. Nintendo, while offering nothing in terms of new and original downloads, has published a massive selection of classic titles from the SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx 16 and Neo Geo via its Virtual Console channel.
Read more of MTV’s comparison report by clicking HERE.
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TechPosterNov 27th, 2007 - 17:46:58
You actually have the audacity to lump a hack site like vgchartz in the same story with a company like NPD or Chart Track?
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