The title was "xbox wins console wars"?
How do you win from last place?
Assuming they're just taking the study at face value and I'm criticizing the study for being idiotic, how in the hell do they figure the 360 can possibly come out on top?
The Wii has a seriously unbeatable lead.
The PS3 has now finally made up the year-late start and sold more units than the 360, because the PS3 has a higher rate of sales.
But, even with the Wii sales dropping off to almost nothing, and the PS3 having the highest rate of sales....the PS3 will never catch the Wii.
You know why? The PS3, 360 and Wii are all doomed to fall into obscurity waaaaay faster than the PS2 did.
The PS2's longevity isn't going to be standard procedure.
The PS2 was the bridging agent between the era of primitive 3D and HD 3D graphics. It was the first of the multimedia consoles. It was a DVD player. It was backwards compatible with the PS1 and the PS3 was just backwards compatible enough with it to remind people, when it wasn't, that they needed a PS2.
It had an unnaturally vast scope, it was super reliable, and it was super user friendly and has one of the best game libraries ever.
The PS3 won the format war with BluRay, it was temporarily backwards compatible with the PS2, it's the more reliable of the two HD consoles, and it has the better game library.
The 360 launched first, is cheaper and has the better online/multiplayer features.
The PS3's strengths apply to its domination NOW, but physical media as a whole is rapidly becoming an irrelevant point, so the fact that it plays BluRays and PS1/PS2 games is going to be utterly nullified by the fact that the PS4 will be able to easily play all the same media in the form of digital content. Unlike the PS3 reminding people they need a PS2 for backwards compatibility, the PS4 will just have the same games available digitally. No one will be going "I need a PS2 to play ____".
Not many people really cared about backwards compatibility on the 360. XBOX games weren't really things you missed once you had their 360 sequels, but you have the option *shrug*. That's why the XBOX didn't have a chance of competing with the PS2. No one had any reason to own one if they had a 360.
And the 360 will suffer the same fate. The 720 will simply make XBOX and 360 games available digitally and no one will have any reason to get a 360 that doesn't already have one.
Digital content is going to nuke the sales rates of the PS3 and 360 loooooong before either one has a chance of catching the Wii.
And, as is, the PS3 is outselling the 360 AND the 720 will probably be coming out first. That means the 720 is going to cut short the sales rate of the 360 BEFORE the PS3's sales rate gets cut.
There's just no logical way the 360 is going to beat the PS3...much less the Wii.
Hilariously, and ironically, the Wii's sales rates are probably going to be the LEAST effected by the release of its successor. A massive portion of consumers aren't even aware that the Wii U is a new console. They don't realize that if they buy a Wii it's an old system...
Nintendo, in that sense, is a genius if they're trying to keep selling Wii's, but real dumb if they're trying to sell Wii U's, because all those people aren't excited for something new.
